Sylvester Stallone is pushing back on decades of assumptions about his politics, saying the perception of him as a conservative in a liberal Hollywood took root because of Rocky and Rambo, not because of his own beliefs at the time.
Speaking with The New York Times ahead of the release of his new memoir, the 80 year old actor addressed the political identity that has followed him since the 1970s. When asked whether being seen as a conservative put him at odds with a famously liberal industry, Stallone said the label was inaccurate.
“It is wrong because I totally understand why the perception is indelible,” he said. “When Rocky came out, I was so naive. I’d never even voted. I was like pushing 30 years old. I had zero. I didn’t even know the difference between a Democrat and Republican.”
Stallone said the imagery surrounding Rocky, combined with the tone of the films competing against it at the time, set the narrative before he had any political awareness of his own.
“When Rocky wrapped himself in a flag and that sort of thing, and every movie we were up against at that time in competition was very heavy, very political. I mean just the erudite and intellectual, and Rocky was not that. It was emotional, and I think that right away put me over here.”
He pointed to First Blood as the moment the divide deepened.
“I again had no idea that there was such a chasm between the left and the right… It was again naivety on my part. But yes it caused a major rift, and I wish it wasn’t like that.”
Stallone said he believes the assumption misjudges many of his peers as well.
“I really think a lot of these actors have great empathy, great heart, and they’re really more for the working man kind of thing. They’re just down in the trenches, and that’s where I live. But I’m not considered that. And sometimes you say things that you don’t realize the long range effects.”
The actor also reflected on how his views of war shifted dramatically from his own past comments. In 1985, Stallone said that if the United States is “going to talk tall and carry a big stick, eventually you’ve got to use it or they’ll think you’re bluffing.”
Looking back, he described that mindset as naive.
“Now I realize all war is futile. It’s stupid. I’m bitterly opposed to it. But at one time I was truly gung-ho. I don’t know if I was just trying to go against the current in Hollywood.”
