Sylvester Stallone on Wednesday shared the grueling, body-punishing work it took to make the fight scenes in “Rocky” look like the real thing.
“Before Rocky ever stepped into the ring on screen, there were hours like this,” the 79-year-old wrote on his Instagram while sharing a video that showed Stallone and Apollo Creed actor Carl Weathers working out their boxing choreography.
“Repetition. Footwork. Timing,” he added. “Getting hit and getting back up. I wrote the script in 3½ days, but the physical work took months. Nothing about it was accidental. If you want it to feel real, you have to live it.”
In the throwback video, Stallone and Weathers are figuring out each punch and fall, with Stallone saying to his costar of the titular character, “So, I’m a little hurt. You’ve got me stung with the jabs.”
He then throws himself against the ropes after Weathers gives him a fake punch, telling his costar he needs to be closer to the edge of the ring because he wants to “fly into the ropes” and grab his hand around them when he falls.
“These ropes are like guitar wires,” he joked.
“Left, right,” he told Weathers where to throw his punches before launching himself 180 degrees against the ropes again.
“Now, I’m going to hang,” Sylvester continued, explaining the camera should be positioned low to see Rocky from the perspective of the ground. “When he gets up, the bell rings. Carl raises his hand.”
“Repetition. Footwork. Timing. Getting hit and getting back up. I wrote the script in 3½ days, but the physical work took months. Nothing about it was accidental. If you want it to feel real, you have to live it.”— Sylvester Stallone
He then explained that Rocky should get picked up by his team and have water thrown on his face and be told, “‘Why didn’t you take bookkeeping in high school?’”
Weathers then pulls more punches at him, with Stallone advising the late “Happy Gilmore” actor, “You’ve got me hurt” and to “throw left, then right” before Stallone hurls himself to the ground.
Stallone then continued to direct Weathers on what jabs to take, joking, “Beat me! Beat me! I love it!” before he finally gets a couple of his own punches in, and the two fall down laughing.”
Stallone received a flood of praise from fans in the comments on the commitment to his first role, including comedian David Spade who wrote, “V cool.”
Last month, Stallone shared a post of himself at the gym admitting he hadn’t been in one “in a long time.”
“Its kind of like, in a way, a sanctuary, a church. We pray to get better, to feel better physically, so, you have the strength to arrive at your goals really confident and ready to face any challenge,” he said.
He added in the caption, “Every year it gets harder and harder, but that’s why you gotta push harder and harder. blood sweat and tears.”
“Rocky” won three Oscars in 1977 for best picture, best director and best film editing, and Stallone was nominated for best actor and best original screenplay.
While filming “Rocky IV,” which came out in 1985, Stallone broke ribs during his legendary fight scene with costar Dolph Lundgren.
“I didn’t know it happened. We were both getting hit in that fight,” Lundgren told “Fox & Friends” last year. “We shot for two weeks in Vancouver, and I got back to L.A. … The producer called and said, ‘Hey, Dolph, you got two weeks off.’ I said, ‘That’s great, what’s going on?’ ‘Sly’s in the hospital.’ I found out that way.”
Lundgren, who played Russian powerhouse Ivan Drago, admitted the news took him by surprise.
“I did feel a little guilty. You know, he hit me too. He was the boss. I did what he told me, which was good. Go really hard with the body, you know those Russian uppercuts. I don’t know if it was my body or exhaustion or my punches. I don’t know, but he did get hurt. I’m sorry about that,” he said.
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