Sylvester Stallone still cannot make peace with losing the rights to Rocky, and he feels betrayed by it. The man who wrote the original script in a matter of days and fought to play the lead owns none of the franchise built from it. Hollywood is full of lopsided deals, yet few sting quite like this one. Decades after the cameras first rolled, the bruise has not faded yet.

While audiences cheer for Rocky Balboa, his creator is still fighting a different battle, and it comes down to ownership.

Sylvester Stallone told SiriusXM in 2022 that he cannot make peace with losing the Rocky rights. Producer Irwin Winkler has held control since the 1970s, despite Stallone writing and starring in the original.

"No, you know, it can’t make peace,” Stallone said.

He then added, “How he got that, I don’t know, which means I have to beg him. ‘Can I do this? Can I do that?’”

Four years on, nothing has changed.

During the same SiriusXM interview, Stallone said money was never the issue, since he wanted something to leave his children. In his view, Winkler acted in a nefarious way, and the two are not on speaking terms. He also said he would not watch Creed III, which arrived without him. Winkler has noted that he and Robert Chartoff put their own houses up as collateral to make the original film.

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While Stallone remains blunt about Rocky, he is just as frank about another Hollywood illusion, the supposedly natural superhero body.

Sylvester Stallone believes the muscle on modern superhero stars is far from natural. He shared the view with journalist Tracy Smith at New York’s 92nd Street Y while promoting his memoir, Steps. The book lands as Rocky turns 50. According to Stallone, playing a figure above and beyond a normal guy calls for a look that works almost like a costume. Actors build it for about six to eight weeks, then shed it.

The 50-minute conversation also covered Stallone’s own history with s*******. He told Smith that he once justified the d**** as a creative need to evolve Rocky Balboa. He also told the New York Times about bulimia during Rocky III and the toll of the d****. His wife, Jennifer Flavin Stallone, urged him to see a doctor, and he credits that exam with saving his life. Yet the rights to Rocky remain out of his hands, and the betrayal still stings.

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What are your thoughts on Sylvester Stallone’s claims about Rocky and superhero muscles? Let us know in the comments.