-1200x800.jpg)
Sylvester Stallone in his own words, as told to William Mullally
At my age, I look at every film like maybe it’s my last bullet. I try to aim it in the right direction and work hard on it. It wasn’t always like that.
In the ’80s I felt like I was going to live forever. Because of that, I didn’t pay too much attention. I’d have films lined up for the next two years. They’d call them ‘slots’. The most important thing at the time was just to make sure the slots were filled.
I really didn’t focus on my craft at that age as much as I thought I did. I’ve learned that about myself with time.
When you get older, you get better. You get some wisdom. You may slow down physically, here and there a little bit, but you add gravitas. Your memory doesn’t, forget that! But with time, your emotions get weightier.
Look at my face. There’s a well-lived life in there. That comes out in your performances. The lines in your face breathe a little bit more into every word. You’ve lived it.
I like watching Clint Eastwood’s performances the older he gets. At that age he’s got more authority. You never would have said he had that back when he was playing a cowboy on a wagon train, but then he became this very authoritative father figure. And you listen to what he says.
I’m better now than I ever was, if you’re looking closely. I’m more relaxed, and I understand how it works. I don’t squander my opportunities.
To be an actor today, you almost have to be insane. You’re almost guaranteed 98 percent unemployment. Guaranteed. Think about that. So to go for it, you have to have a little bit of a screw loose and an unbelievable dream to seek.
I’m at a point in my life where I just say what I think. If want to hire me, fire me, whatever.
There’s a piece of paper on my wall that says something like “Dear Mr. Stallone, I want to congratulate you on your Academy Award nominations for Rocky. Signed, Charlie Chaplin.” It was from 1977, and at the time only two other people had been nominated for both Best Screenplay and Best Actor—Orson Welles for Citizen Kane, and Charlie Chaplin for the Great Dictator.
I never met Charlie Chaplin. I was really stupid at the time. I was young, thinking, ‘there’s going to be time for that later’. But six months later, he was dead. It’s one of my biggest regrets in life, not grabbing that moment.
I remember when I was working with Rod Steiger, or another time with John Huston, I would always think that those guy had done it all, so I’m going to be really respectful of that. They were towards the end of their careers at that time.
When you’re between 30 and 40 years old you think you know it all. You don’t know anything. You walk onto a set and there’s a guy 50 years into his career, and that makes you realize how little you really know about what you’re doing.
I remember the first time I met Paul Newman, I was really wowed. I immediately listened a bit more closely to everything he said, because this guy had the most amazing body of work. If I’d met him when he was 20, I would have thought he’s just another guy that’s competing with me. It’s not the talent, it’s the years.
On set now, I’ve become something of a father figure to these younger actors. And I enjoy that a great deal. I mean… I don’t really. I just said that because I thought it sounded good.
In The Suicide Squad, I play King Shark. It’s quite different from anything I’ve ever done. I certainly have never played a 2,000 pound flesh-eating creature. That was fun.
If Paul Newman was still alive and going after the role of King Shark, I’d probably beat him out, I think. He had smaller teeth, they’d be wasting their time. He’d need veneers, I’m telling you.
Voice acting takes some getting used to. You walk into the sound booth, and the first thing you ask yourself is, what is the vibe here? What is the feeling? What is the ultimate goal? Then after you sit there for a bit you start to feel comfortable.
It takes about four or five instructions, going a little faster or a little slower, before you really pick up on what a director wants. After that you can really let loose.
Once you get into it, you start to become uninhibited. You start backing away from the microphone, and your body starts to act, too. You start to move with it. You’re not stationary.
Voice actors don’t just act with their voice. I don’t really know how it works for everyone, but from what I’ve seen, they go through the movements. The character is fighting, you’re fighting. The character is running, you’re running.
If you watched me in the booth with the sound off, you’d say, jeez, this guy is having a nervous breakdown. This guy has absolutely lost his mind! Cover him with a butterfly net, take him off into a parking lot and beat him with a baseball bat because he’s a danger to society! But when you turn the sound on, it all makes sense.
It’s impossible to answer some questions you get asked about the movies you’re in, but I always think: ‘hell, you could be in a spelling bee right now. Then you’d really look foolish.’
The Suicide Squad is out in cinemas August 3
