Photo credit: Jonathan Brady/PA
There are few pieces of music more iconic, more guaranteed to provoke a reaction than Eye of the Tiger. How many of you have trained, jogged or self-improved in some way with it blaring from your earphones, or accompanying the imaginary progress-montage playing in your head? I confess I have not heard this song in years, so it was somewhat surreal to hear it again, as Sylvester Stallone strode out onto the stage of The London Palladium. Greeting him was the inescapable Jonathan Ross, and this began one of the most bizarre and surprising hours of my life.
Time and action sequences may have weathered the man’s complexion to a point somewhere between handbag and tree bark, but he remains a man with one of the most impressive Hollywood careers to date. Rocky earned him the honour of becoming one of only three men to be nominated for Best Actor and Best Screenplay for the same film, alongside Orson Welles and Charlie Chaplin. Try finding another sentence which applies to all three of them. Writer, director, producer, it became clear that Sly is much more than we might assume from his physique.
The interview rolled happily from topic to topic, guided by Ross’s now expert hand. It touched on Stallone’s childhood in New York’s infamous Hell’s Kitchen neighbourhood, where his mother danced at clubs, ran a gym (named barbella’s) and promoted female wrestling. Covered also was Stallone’s time working in cinemas as an usher, where his obsession with writing, and the structure of films developed.
Rivalry with Arnie, comparing himself to De Niro, and Kirk Douglas’s rewrite suggestions for First Blood were all topics of discussion. The final segment of the evening saw questions from the audience, which saw me put well and truly in my place. The question regarded whether Stallone might at some point have a crack at some Shakespeare, and if so then which. No sooner had I finished expressing my doubts over how much of The Bard’s work Sly might know to my intrepid photographer than the mahogany man strode across the stage and delivered a perfect stream of Richard III. Consider this my humble apology, Mr Stallone.
“There’s not that much more I can do in action, except explode”. While this is true, there is so many more strings to Stallone’s bow. He is in a new film, Grudge Match, starring opposite De Niro. If you need a new fix of Sly, then by all means go. Judging by the trailer, however, I shall be dusting off the Rambo and Rocky box sets.
Written by a Thoroughly Modern Man, James Bomford.
