The ‘Rocky’ actor opened up his early life and career in his new memoir, ‘The Steps’

NEED TO KNOW

• Stallone reflected on his career while promoting his new book, The Steps, at 92NY
• Rocky earned Stallone Oscar nominations for Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay at just 30
• Still, the actor said his desire to “prove” himself made him “vindictive”

Sylvester Stallone no longer feels like he has anything to prove.

When promoting his new book, The Steps, Stallone, 80, joined Tracy Smith for CBS Sunday Morning at 92NY, marking the debut of the series of conversations featuring the biggest newsmakers in the arts, politics and more before a live audience. During their chat, the Rocky actor reflected on his career trajectory over the last 50 years.

Stallone noted that, at this point in his career, he doesn’t feel the need to demonstrate his worth or show others what he is made of. However, he admitted that wasn’t always the case.

“I went through the ‘proving’ era when I was about 30, 35 and I became very volatile, angry, ‘I told you so,’ vindictive,” he shared. “I wasn’t enjoying my success. It was just terrible.”

“And when I reflect on that, instead of being grateful that ‘you made it to the mountain’ … I didn’t know how to turn it off,” Stallone admitted.

Stallone was thrust into the spotlight at 30 when Rocky, which he wrote and starred in, came out. The actor played the film’s titular character, Rocky Balboa, an underdog boxer. Rocky went on to win Best Picture and Stallone was nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor.

Despite the accolades, Stallone, then an unknown actor, still felt like he had to prove that he belonged there, which made it harder to enjoy his success and the years that followed.

Decades later, however, he’s at a point in his life where “it’s not about proving.”

“There are different facets of every aspect of humanity. Some people like to exercise, some people are thinkers. So my thing is I just keep moving,” he said, joking that he is “not as fast” as he used to be.

Now, audiences get a chance to see what went on behind the scenes of the iconic boxing movie’s development and production in the new film, I Play Rocky.

The movie follows Anthony Ippolito as a young Stallone eager to prove himself in Hollywood with his handwritten script — despite being shut down repeatedly.

I Play Rocky is in theaters in November.

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