![\"\"](\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/APP-20201-040921-RUSH-Interview-2000s-STALLONE.jpg\")
STALLONE: Thank you.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
BRETT: Do you know who recently moved to Palm Beach and who recently joined Mar-a-Lago? How about Sylvester Stallone. A man who was fired seven times once upon a time, talked to a man who spoke so poorly that no one would cast him in a movie. That\u2019s right. Rush talked with Sylvester Stallone about the movie Rocky Balboa and teaches us life lessons here.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Welcome to the program, Sylvester Stallone, Rocky Balboa. Sly, I want to be honest with you, I didn\u2019t know what was left to tell in the story. I\u2019ve loved all these other Rocky movies but there\u2019s been a long hiatus now, and I was stunned.<\/p>\n
STALLONE: Thank you.<\/p>\n
RUSH: You cover every demographic in this, I mean, looking at it from a production and marketing point. It looks like the first Rocky movie cinematographically.<\/p>\n
STALLONE: Right.<\/p>\n
RUSH: You haven\u2019t gussied it up with a bunch of computer generated fireworks.<\/p>\n
STALLONE: Technology, no.<\/p>\n
RUSH: You\u2019ve got life messages in this. It\u2019s a movie for everybody.<\/p>\n
STALLONE: Right, it\u2019s PG. Well, you know, what had happened is a good friend of mine is Susan Faludi who wrote the book Stiffed a couple years ago, it\u2019s about the diminishing and kind of like diluting of the American male in the workforce, and after, you know, almost World War II, and every generation it seems to get harder and harder for a man to express himself and we seem to be slowly being moved on this conveyor belt out before we\u2019re ready to be moved out.<\/p>\n
And it was kind of — I wanted Rocky to show that he still, as he says, has some stuff in the basement, he has a flame in his heart, and I think a lot of the American male feels that way. But society goes, “Nah, sorry, you\u2019ve had your up at bat and it\u2019s time to move on.” And I go, “Well, maybe you should move on when you\u2019re ready to move on,” and if you\u2019re willing to take the humiliation of sticking your head above the crowd, maybe it\u2019s, you know, the pleasure will be worth the pain.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/rush_interviews_sylvester_stallone.Par_.0002.ImageFile.jpg\")
RUSH: Well, it\u2019s an interesting thing you brought up here, basically the feminization of the American culture.<\/p>\n
STALLONE: Right.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Not just for men, you know, in their late years toward retirement or middle-age or what have you, but throughout. But, look, I think you highlighted this. One of my favorite scenes, because it\u2019s so poignant with the way the culture is today, your son… I don\u2019t want to give too much of this away, but the conversation you have with your son when he begs you not to take this last fight.<\/p>\n
STALLONE: Right.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Because he needs to get out of your shadow. And for him to do that, you need to go away. And what you say to him — and it\u2019s not a long scene — just had me cheering. I have to be honest.<\/p>\n
STALLONE: (laughing)<\/p>\n
RUSH: I don\u2019t cheer much at movies, but it had me standing up.<\/p>\n
STALLONE: Thank you, Rush. Well, you know, I guess a lot of fathers and sons have sort of had this conversation in some incarnation, and I certainly have, and I think it\u2019s an ongoing battle. It\u2019s almost from biblical times of, you know, sharper than a serpent\u2019s tooth, and finally the father has to say, “Stop, stop. You have to be accountable, son.”<\/p>\n
RUSH: Is this the last Rocky movie?<\/p>\n
STALLONE: Oh yeah, that\u2019s why I used the name “Balboa,” Rush. I didn\u2019t want a number attached because that would imply there was another one. (chuckles) But I felt so bad the way the fifth one turned out. I don\u2019t know what happened. I was just off my game, off the mark, maybe it was my lifestyle, but I was not thinking for the audience. I was thinking maybe for myself.<\/p>\n
And, you know, you have some downturns, careers have peaks and valleys, and I had a lot of time to think over the last ten-12 years, and I thought, “You know, if there\u2019s one thing I\u2019d like to remedy was the way that character went out.” All the other characters I could deal with, but that one really bothered me.<\/p>\n
But the opportunity at that time, I was 53, and they said (chuckles), “It\u2019s over, you know, the last one didn\u2019t work. Plus you\u2019re too old.” I said, “But this is a movie about being too old but willing to take the humiliation to try to remedy or, you know, right a wrong.” They said, “No, you\u2019re just talking about yourself.”<\/p>\n
I said, “No, I think there\u2019s a lot of people out there that wish they could go back to that crossroad in their life and change something — and if not that, maybe they just wanted to do something to purge grief or rid themselves of some feelings and you need an outlet.”<\/p>\n
RUSH: Now, you wrote and directed this. Is that part and parcel of the problem you had in getting it done?<\/p>\n
STALLONE: Yes, yes, that, but more than anything else, it was age. You know, Hollywood, because we\u2019re so in the limelight — you know, women, men — it just chews you up and spits you out, and now we have so many market outlets, you\u2019re really on a fast lane. Before, you know, you had a star like Kirk Douglas, they would have a 50-year career. Now if you have 15, consider yourself lucky.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Again, I\u2019m tempted, I\u2019m not a movie critic so I don\u2019t want to give too much away here, but it\u2019s a love story that women are going to absolutely adore.<\/p>\n
STALLONE: Thank you.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/APP-20201-040921-Stallone.jpg\")
RUSH: Fathers and sons are going to learn a lot from watching this. It\u2019s a movie about staying true to your desires and going for it when everybody tells you that you can\u2019t do it and shouldn\u2019t do it. I mean, there\u2019s a lot here.<\/p>\n
STALLONE: I\u2019m hoping that the Baby Boomers, my generation, come out and support the film because, if they do, and the film performs, that will be a message to Hollywood that, you know, there are 78 million of us out there. Let\u2019s start making stories about us, that are age appropriate and more profound than just us being relegated to, you know, the angry father or the angry mother in movies, and bring our stories up to the forefront. (laughing)<\/p>\n
RUSH: We\u2019ll it\u2019ll get the Baby Boomers out because the Baby Boomers think only about themselves and you\u2019ve made a movie about them.<\/p>\n
STALLONE: Right.<\/p>\n
RUSH: But I really did enjoy it.<\/p>\n
STALLONE: Thank you.<\/p>\n
RUSH: I enjoyed it as much as any of these movies.<\/p>\n
STALLONE: Thank you.<\/p>\n
RUSH: I wish you the best with it.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/rush_interviews_sylvester_stallone.Par.0009.ImageFile.jpg\")
STALLONE: You know what, you\u2019re very kind. I appreciate it. Thank you very much.<\/p>\n
RUSH: All the best. That\u2019s Sylvester Stallone. I don\u2019t do many of these screenings, but the ones I have seen and watched I liked, and this one was right at the top. The life lessons in this are well worth seeing.<\/p>\n
BRETT: It\u2019s incredible as I get older, as many of you get older — you know, as we live our lives — you start to realize that there are people who have come into your lives who have been around where you don\u2019t appreciate their greatness. It doesn\u2019t necessarily mean conflating fame with greatness, because I think for so many of us, we have a tendency to do that.<\/p>\n
“Well, obviously you\u2019re great because you\u2019re famous,” or, “You\u2019re famous because you\u2019re great.” We just watched the Super Bowl played out, Tom Brady, you know, breaking all the bonds in terms of age and continuing to play at an elite level. You see it with so many sports stars and superstars, and we have this tendency to not so much appreciate the greatness that\u2019s before us in front of us, but instead look for the next thing around the corner.<\/p>\n
I think listening to Rush do this interview with Sylvester Stallone, you get that same sense. Rush was such a multifaceted talent. He had a great passion for politics. I mean, there\u2019s no doubt about that. He also had a great passion for sports, for competition. He had a great curiosity on a number of levels, on a number of topics. He never wanted to stop learning.<\/p>\n
I think that\u2019s what\u2019s so important to understand, that there are multifaceted stories for every one of us, and it\u2019s important for us to take a moment and think about, “Are we performing at our best? Are we still continuing to get up and pursue it, whatever it is, whatever that dream is?”<\/p>\n
As we get up every day with your feet hitting the floor, as Rush said many times on the program, are we getting out there and trying to surpass expectations, even our own expectations, even if they\u2019re expectations that nobody may know about? Are we getting out there and doing it? I think that\u2019s the great challenge in seeing Stallone go pursue this and chase this. I think it\u2019s a hugely important thing.<\/p>\n
Rush recognized greatness in so many people. I think it\u2019s a remarkable thing to consider.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BRETT: Rush recognized greatness in so many people. I think it's a remarkable thing to consider.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":391641,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[12,1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n