Sylvester Stallone has spoken openly about bulimia, steroid use, and a shift in his views on war in a new interview. The actor describes a period of obsessive focus on his physique that led to serious health consequences.
“It became an obsession,” Stallone says in the interview. “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.”
Stallone also detailed his steroid use, saying that nobody reaches extreme physical standards without help. “Nobody does it without additives and drugs, period,” he said. “But you do it in a sensitive way—six weeks on, six weeks off. People go, ‘Oh, you don’t get that way naturally.’ No, you don’t. But that also took a terrible toll.”
He counted out the double-digit number of surgeries he’s had on his back and neck, calling the whole process “masochistic.” He noted that it was only while starring in 1997’s Cop Land, “when I had to play the weakest guy in the room,” that he began to feel a release from the pressure.
The Body-Worship Years
Stallone described the period as one of obsessive focus on his physique. He pushed his body fat to 2.6 percent for Rocky III, a level he says he could not sustain normally. The pressure to maintain that condition led to bulimia, he said, and he admitted it openly in the interview.
His steroid regimen followed a strict cycle. He used the substances for six weeks, then stepped away for six weeks. That pattern, he said, was standard across the industry. “Nobody does it without additives and drugs, period,” he said.
War, Bravado, And A Change Of Heart
Elsewhere in the interview, Stallone owned up to his previous “jingoistic” stances on war, which showed up in the tone of the several post-First Blood Rambo movies. “It’s just bravado, bravado, bravado. That’s all me. You realize, flexing your muscles is a lot easier than showing your soul. And it was terrible. It was like a cartoon.”
Noting that he’s actually not the conservative he’s sometimes painted as, Stallone added that his views on war, especially, have changed. “All war is futile,” he said, framing it as a mechanism driven by profit. “It’s a mechanism to make tons of money for the war department and manufacturers, and these kids are just going out there into a gristmill, being chopped up, and then when they come back with no arms it’s, ‘Oh, sorry, you’re on your own.'”
He expressed bitter opposition to war now, but acknowledged a different stance earlier in his career. “I don’t know if I was just trying to go against the current. In Hollywood, there’s a certain dynamic, as you know,” he said.
“It became an obsession.”
The interview also touches on Stallone’s childhood. What remains is the sense that a man who spent decades building himself into an action icon is finally willing to talk about the cost of that image.
Key Facts Box
– Body fat during Rocky III: 2.6 percent
– Steroid regimen: six weeks on, six weeks off
– Surgeries on back and neck: double-digit count
– Movie: Cop Land (1997)
– Quote: “It became an obsession.”
See the video the story is built around at The A.V. Club.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.