Sylvester Stallone has revealed he once tried to buy back the rights to the first Rambo film with the intention of destroying it, because he thought it was “so horrible”.
The 80-year-old actor made the confession during an appearance on Friday's The Graham Norton Show, looking back at the 1982 action classic that introduced audiences to troubled Vietnam veteran John Rambo, who is hunted by a small-town sheriff and his police force after being brutally mistreated in custody.
Agent's reaction to the first cut
Despite the movie becoming the beginning of a hugely successful franchise, Stallone admitted he was horrified when he first saw the finished version.
He told Graham: “When we first saw it in the edit my agent threw up. That’s how horrible it was.
“I think I was the eleventh actor to be offered the part – no one wanted to play it because it wasn’t very politically correct. It was so bad I tried to buy it back so I could torch it.”
Stars who turned down the role
The movie was adapted from David Morrell's 1972 novel and had already struggled to attract major stars before Stallone eventually took on the role. Dustin Hoffman reportedly rejected the part because of the script's violence, while James Garner was said to have objected to the way the Vietnam veteran was portrayed. Robert De Niro, Paul Newman and Michael Douglas were also reportedly among those who passed on the role.
Editing and Rocky battle
Stallone went on to play Rambo across five films, with the most recent being 2019's Rambo: Last Blood, which received lacklustre reviews from critics. He also revealed how dramatically the original movie changed during editing: “In the end I cut it from over three hours to 89 minutes. What I cut out was mostly me!”
The Hollywood legend also discussed another defining role during his chat with Graham, revealing the battle he faced to play Rocky Balboa. “I wrote the screenplay and I only had one condition – that I play the lead. Everyone wanted it, but they didn’t want me – they said, ‘Over our dead bodies,’ which I understood because I wasn’t a leading man. The money kept going up for the screenplay without me. I held out because I knew I would never find something like it again and without it, I would never make it in Hollywood.”
Rivalry with Schwarzenegger
Stallone also opened up about his famous rivalry with Arnold Schwarzenegger, admitting the pair's competitive relationship helped push them both. “We are good friends now but the competition between us started as soon as I saw him. It was a different era. We were both in the same genre and I needed a rival. We pushed each other like two prize fighters – everything had to be bigger and better than what the other one had.”
