One thing three-time Oscar nominee and blockbuster star Sylvester Stallone never has to say is Terry Malloy’s line from On the Waterfront, “I coulda been a contender.”
In Thom Zimny’s (Springsteen on Broadway) new Netflix documentary Sly, about the actor, Stallone is straight up and inspirational on his rise from his Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood to Hollywood icon with such franchises as Rocky, Rambo, and The Expendables. As you can see from the trailer, Stallone has plenty of positive advice, the type that gets one out of bed in the morning and take on the world.
“What’s healthier? To live under the illusion that you could have been great or actually have an opportunity to be great and then you blow it and you realize you’re a failure?” says Stallone here in the latest trailer. (You can almost here Rocky’s trainer Mickey, played by Burgess Meredith, yelling that).
“If you’re ever on a train –wham, wham– and that’s when your life is –whoom- whipping by. It’s gone,” says the 76 year-old filmmaker and actor on his carpe diem.
“Nothing inspires than taking your history and balling it up (and shwoop),” says the Tulsa King star making a basketball toss gesture.
Sly takes an intimate look at Stallone and how the characters he’s played on screen parallel his underdog story; the actor known for standing firm to star as the lead character in the script he wrote, Rocky, or else he wouldn’t sell it. That early determination spurred Stallone’s on-screen legacy for decades. Sean Stuart produced Sly. EPs are Bill Zanker, Sam Delcanto, Braden Aftergood, Jon Beyer, Tom Forman, Jenny Daly and Stallone. Co-producers are Maren Domzalski and Adrienne Gerard.
