Macleans, a national Canadian magazine that covers current affairs, recently conducted an interview with Sylvester Stallone that is a veritable gold mine for any fan of the Italian Stallion. Roles he turned down, his tiff with Richard Gere, his acting influence(s), the difference between the action heroes of yesterday and today – it’s all revealed. The interview (which is really great) can be found in full here, while some of the cooler bits have been excerpted below.
His beef with Schwarzenegger: “That went on for a long time. We couldn’t stand to be in the same room. But I like a good adversary. It makes you lose sleep and want to get up in the morning and go to the gym. We started in the business almost the same day. We were at the Golden Globes and he had won for best newcomer; I lost for best actor but we had won best picture, and I took this bouquet of flowers and threw it on him like, ‘It’s on, pal!’ From that day on it was a very competitive thing. Then you move on, have families, and you realize that this fellow’s very similar to you. Now we get along great.” Stallone then explained that this changed when Schwarzenegger was elected Governor of California, as that’s when “[he] started inviting me to events… and next thing I know is I’m on the campaign trail, then we just hit it off.”
What’s next for Rambo (in theory) : “I’m dying to do another Rambo. He’s in Arizona on the border. It will involve him going into Mexico. I don’t think Rambo likes Mexicans” And when asked if a fifth film would see the character of Rambo killed off, Stallone just said “Yes.”
What Tarantino said: “In the book, Rambo gets killed. I thought it was not the proper message. There had been close to 200,000 suicides by returning Vietnam vets. I said, ‘Why don’t we take him right to the edge without annihilating him?’ Quentin Tarantino said, ‘You’re a coward, you should have killed him!’ I said, ‘Quentin, you’re a lunatic. I want to do some sequels, brother.'”
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