Sylvester Stallone is still as famous as he was back in the ‘80s. With a lengthy roster of movies under his belt, many of which were successful franchises, he particularly did not like Rambo: First Blood (1982).
Interestingly, the movie was a huge commercial and critical hit, which was a huge deal because it was his first non-Rocky movie that made it big at the box office.
Sylvester Stallone Believed First Blood Would End His Acting Career
Speaking on The Howard Stern Show, action legend Sylvester Stallone confessed he hated First Blood and thought it was a bad movie. He even expected it would ruin his already-established career, all thanks to Rocky.
“I looked at this, I’m going, ‘This is a career killer.’ This film, when we did it, it was so bad—at least I thought, and even my manager—we both went out, I think we both retched together in the alley. We tried to buy it back and burn the negative. First Blood, on my children, we tried to buy it back and burn the negative.”
The actor shared some scenes which he specifically found revolting, though nothing was more cringe-worthy than the character’s dialogues.
“Originally, it was three hours long. I stayed an hour and a half in the woods chasing guys. And plus, I was pontificating throughout the thing. For example, I shoot an owl, and then the owl drops, I go, ‘Take that, you mouse-munching mother [pauses].’ I said, ‘I can’t say this.’ And then there’d be lines like—the cop pulls me over, and he goes, ‘Where do you think you’re going?’ I go, ‘Did you ever see Easy Rider? Yeah? Well, I’m Easy Walker.”
Despite feeling loathsome about the film, Stallone knew they could still remedy it by removing his lines. In fact, many action stars are men of few words.
“I said, here’s a good idea: cut out all my dialogue. Every line. And have other people talk about you—which by the way is not a bad way to live in general. Other people fill in the blanks. Like the Greek chorus, you know, and I think that works really well.”
Stallone’s suggestion helped save the movie and himself from embarrassment. The first cut was three hours long and filled with cheesy lines, but having removed all the unnecessary ones, it was trimmed to a 90-minute film.
Sylvester Stallone Was Not The Top Choice For John Rambo
First Blood grossed over $125 million against a meager production budget of $15 million. Initially, the studio did not want Stallone for the lead role. He said in the same interview with Howard Stern:
“I think they were going to lab animals before they got to me. They went through every actor in the system and they eventually said, ‘Ok, De Niro, Nick Nolte, Zippy the monkey, let’s go to Sly.”
In the end, it was the famed action hero who brought the Rambo franchise to the spotlight and made it one of the most iconic action films of all time.
Rambo: First Blood is available to stream via Netflix.
