Sylvester Stallone has revealed he battled bulimia while filming Rocky III more than four decades ago.
The 80-year-old actor, who created and starred in the blockbuster boxing franchise, said that achieving his famously lean physique for the 1982 film became an all-consuming obsession. Stallone, who got his body fat down to just 2.6 percent for the role, said he had never before spoken publicly about the eating disorder.
“It got to the point where I became bulimic,” the father of five shared in the interview. “You heard it here first.”
Stallone continued: “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. And nobody does it without additives and drugs, period. I don’t care what they say.”
The actor also admitted to using steroids during the making of the Rocky films, describing a cycling approach to the drugs. “You have to,” he said of steroid use. “But you do it in a sensitive way – six weeks on, six weeks off.”
Stallone added: “People go, ‘Oh, you don’t get that way naturally.’ No, you don’t. But that also took a terrible toll.”
The physical demands of maintaining his action-hero image extended far beyond the Rocky series. Stallone said he has “abused [his] body” across his career, resulting in nine back operations, two shoulder operations, and three neck fusions. “Everything is held together with baling wire, but I still want to stay in good shape,” he said.
He takes numerous medications to remain active at 80. “I take a lot of pills to keep going,” Stallone said of keeping “sort of fit.” “It’s come at a terrible price.”
The actor expressed deep regret about performing his own stunts throughout his career. “If I could do it over again, I would say, ‘Let someone else carry the banner and don’t do your own stunts,'” he said. “I don’t know what it was about hurting myself all the time.”
A turning point came with the 1997 film Cop Land, in which Stallone played a partially deaf, overweight sheriff. “It wasn’t until I did Cop Land when I had to play the weakest guy in the room — partially deaf, overweight — that I felt somewhat liberated,” he said.
Stallone’s comments mark the first time he has publicly discussed his bulimia, adding his voice to growing conversations about eating disorders among men in Hollywood. The condition, characterized by cycles of binge eating and purging, remains underreported in male populations despite affecting millions.
The original Rocky, released in 1976, made Stallone a global star and won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Rocky III, which featured his character facing off against Clubber Lang played by Mr. T, came six years later and represented the peak of the actor’s physical transformation for the role.
Stallone remains active in the franchise, with reports indicating continued involvement in Rocky-related projects.