Hollywood legend Sylvester Stallone abused steroids and struggled with bulimia while preparing for one of his famous Rocky Balboa films, the actor revealed in a stunning New York Times profile published Saturday.
Stallone admitted he cycled steroids and endured the eating disorder at the height of his fame in the 1980s, revealing he struggled in his relationship with his body at the time.
“Then it became an obsession,” he said, referencing how he curated his body to fit the “Rambo” and “Rocky” franchises.
“Really bad. It got to the point where I became bulimic. You heard it here first. I got down to 2.6 percent body fat when I was doing ‘Rocky III,’ and I couldn’t hold anything down. Or I didn’t want to keep it down because I became so obsessed with staying at that point of fitness, literally an obsessive body-worship kind of thing,” he told the NYT.
Stallone said any actor pressured to stay in top physical shape at that time had to do drugs.
“It isn’t as though you’re a junkie, but if you’re going to work out and try to stay in shape for six months straight, and you’re eating yogurt and pudding, it’s not happening,” he said.
Stallone earned several Academy Award nominations and a Golden Globe win for his work in the Rocky franchise.
The movie star said he would do a six-week steroid cycle that he viewed as mandatory to portray boxer Rocky Balboa. He did not specify which type of performance-enhancing drugs he used.
“Oh, my god, you have to. But you do it in a sensitive way — six weeks on, six weeks off,” he said in a response to a question asking him if he took steroids. “People go, ‘Oh, you don’t get that way naturally.’ No, you don’t. But that also took a terrible toll.”
Stallone said the 1997 movie “Cop Land,” which saw him portray partially deaf New Jersey Sheriff Freddy Heflin, allowed him to loosen his body standards. He said the work left him “somewhat liberated,” though he says things went “sideways” and he “fell out of grace with Hollywood.”
The 80-year-old has been quiet on the major blockbuster front since starring in Expendables 4 in 2023.
He released his biography documentary, “Sly,” the same year. Stallone had roles in the 2024 action thriller “Armor” and the 2025 crime thriller “Alarum.” Most of his recent success has come from starring as a mafia boss in Paramount+’s “Tulsa King.”
President Donald Trump named Stallone one of his special Hollywood ambassadors earlier this year alongside actors Jon Voight and Mel Gibson.
The action hero recently said he had no idea the president would name him to the position.
“Well, it just happened,” he said. “I was watching TV one night and they go, ‘So Stallone and Mel Gibson and Jon Voight will be …’ And I went, ‘What?’ I said, ‘Excuse me? Really?’ Because if they had asked me in the beginning, I would have said, ‘This is not possible.’”
He expressed concern about the position, saying, “Hollywood, I guess it’s like feudal states. They have their little kingdoms. You don’t go in and tell six studios how to do things. And Mel Gibson and Jon Voight, we’re kind of do-our-own-thing people. No, it won’t work.”
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