Sylvester Stallone Has One Message for His Rocky Biopic: “I’m Not Dead Yet!”

Few Hollywood origin stories are as well worn as the tale of an unknown actor who insisted on starring in his own script. The 1976 film ‘Rocky‘ became the highest-grossing movie of its year, earned 10 Oscar nominations and won 3, including best picture. That underdog legend has followed Sylvester Stallone for half a century.

Now the story behind the story is getting its own movie. ‘I Play Rocky’, directed by Peter Farrelly from a script by Peter Gamble, dramatizes how Stallone fought to write and star in the boxing classic despite being told no at every turn. It held its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this month, in the Special Presentations program at the Princess of Wales Theatre.

Stallone’s reaction to the ‘I Play Rocky’ biopic has finally arrived, and it is very much in character. Speaking at a Monday chat at 92NY to promote his new memoir The Steps, he said he felt mixed at first, joking, as The Hollywood Reporter reported, “I’m not dead yet. Aren’t we jumping the gun a little bit?” It is a punchline that lands because the film covers only one chapter of a very long career.

“kind of mixed because I’m going, ‘I’m not dead yet. Aren’t we jumping the gun a little bit?’ And then I saw this video of this kid [Ippolito]. I actually thought it was me the first moment; there were a couple of angles. I go to my daughter and say, ‘That’s unbelievable.’”

The mixed feelings did not last. Stallone said he later saw a video of Anthony Ippolito, the actor who plays the young version of him, and for a moment thought he was looking at himself. He said the resemblance was so strong in a couple of angles that he called his daughter over to see it.

Stallone was also clear about how involved he was. He stressed that he has nothing to do with the movie, though he has extended an open invitation for Ippolito to reach out with questions. Farrelly, for his part, has said he would not have made the film without Stallone’s blessing, which he received.

Early reactions suggest the film is a crowd-pleaser. Deadline’s reviewer called Ippolito’s performance so uncanny that it felt as if de-aging technology had been used, and praised Kiki Seto as Talia Shire and Stephan James as Carl Weathers. Collider’s TIFF review found the film overly sentimental at times and almost mythic in its portrait of Stallone, but still a crowd-pleaser at its core.

Variety noted the film has the DNA of a TIFF audience winner and could contend for the People’s Choice Award. There is a neat symmetry in that, since Farrelly’s ‘Green Book’ won the same prize before going on to win best picture.

The supporting cast is deep, with Matt Dillon, AnnaSophia Robb, Tracy Letts, Toby Kebbell and Jay Duplass all on board. The film is produced by Toby Emmerich, Christian Baha and Farrelly.

The first trailer for ‘I PLAY ROCKY’ has been released.

The film follows a young Sylvester Stallone & the dramatic journey it took to get ‘ROCKY’ made.

In theaters on November 20. pic.twitter.com/yg5ePlhW43

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) July 15, 2026

The biopic was not the only topic of the evening. Stallone also said he is trying to get Amazon to let him recut ‘Rocky V’, a movie he described as a lingering source of frustration. He admitted he took his foot off the gas on it, said he should have directed it himself, and regretted trying too hard to be cool for the audience.

He joked that a recut would not be great, only acceptable. It is a rare moment of candor from a star who has spent decades guarding the legacy of his most famous character. The chat was moderated by CBS Sunday Morning’s Tracy Smith, who also asked him whether he could make it to the top of Hollywood if he were starting out today.

For anyone who wants to judge the resemblance for themselves, ‘I Play Rocky’ arrives in select theaters on November 6, with a wider release later in the month. That puts it 50 years after the original ‘Rocky’ reached theaters in 1976. Amazon MGM Studios is distributing.

It is fitting that a film about an actor betting everything on himself is arriving at the milestone anniversary. Whether Stallone’s own take on it changes after he sees the finished movie is the open question. For now, he seems to be warming to the idea, even if he would prefer the story to wait a few more years.

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