‘I Play Rocky’ Looks Back at the Making of a Classic With an Endearing Anthony Ippolito as Sylvester Stallone

Alci Rengifo

Filmmaking is one of those romanticized crafts where people easily fall in love with the idea of it all. What tends to stay hidden behind the big images is the chaotic, hard nature of making a movie. “I Play Rocky” starts off as a portrait of a young Sylvester Stallone trying to get a break, then it becomes a fun celebration of all the headaches and joys of making art. Some rougher edges in the structure are easily forgiven because of how director Peter Farrelly treats the material with such affection. The release of the film is timed to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the release of “Rocky.” Then, there’s Anthony Ippolito in what will surely be seen as a breakout performance, playing Stallone beyond imitation and as a universal underdog.

The Stallone (Ippolito) we meet is living in New York circa 1974, sleeping in a Times Square fleabag, taking odd jobs and trying to act. Even brief small roles escape the guy, and we get the hint casting directors don’t see much behind the hulking, yet nice, personality with a deep voice. All the while, Stallone adopts a pug he finds on the street and even does a soft-core porn flick (a true anecdote). When he gets a job at a movie theater, Stallone is instantly smitten by ticket-seller Sasha (AnnaSophia Robb). She prefers to get to know him instead of just falling for his near-goofy charm. Sasha also encourages him to write parts for himself if other doors refuse to open. They get married and move to Los Angeles, where Stallone works as a parking attendant while auditioning and penning scripts. On March 24, 1975, he sits at a bar and sees on TV the famous bout between Muhammad Ali and underdog Chuck Wepner. The aging fighter’s endurance immediately inspires Stallone to run home and start writing “Rocky.” The rest almost feels like a Hollywood fantasy as the actor sneaks his script into the hands of producers Irwin Winkler (P.J. Byrne) and Robert Chartoff (Tony Kebbell), who love it. There is just one catch. Stallone insists he play the title lead.

“Rocky” is of course a classic, one of those gems from the ‘70s golden age of New Hollywood. It also endures as one of the great sports films because boxing isn’t really the point, but the character portrait of Rocky Balboa as a lovably simple and good man for whom boxing is his genuine vocation. It would become the top grossing film of 1976 and won the Oscar for Best Picture. In the writing you can sense Stallone channeling the very energy of an underdog just trying to be seen. Most of the audience walking into “I Play Rocky” will probably already know all this, but the movie behaves as if they might not. Ippolito’s performance is endearing by making Stallone into an aspiring actor trapped with low confidence. When Sasha meets him, he goes by “Mike” out of embarrassment at the name Sylvester. His father, Frank Stallone Sr. (Matt Dillon), thinks he’s showing tough love by calling his son dumb, even in front of Sasha. Great art sometimes has to birth itself out of all those harsh details of how we were formed.

Farrelly, who won a Best Picture Oscar for 2018’s “The Green Book,” and once pioneered raunch co-directing Bobby, really uses these initial details about Stallone to guide us into what feels like the true purpose of the movie. “I Play Rocky” is a behind the scenes journey more than a biopic. With sobering insights and humor, the screenplay by Peter Gamble becomes about the hard road of making a production. Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff believe in the script, but United Artists boss Sandy Maddox (Tracy Letts) seems to have little faith in Stallone. He would have preferred a big star to guarantee earnings. Director John G. Avildsen (Jay Duplass) is brought in to helm “Rocky” on a tight budget with his no nonsense attitude. Anyone who has ever been involved in a production will love the moments where the director and producers argue over permits, public locales for shoots or avoiding unions in Philadelphia. 

The actual shoot proves to be physically grueling for Stallone. He gets injured doing the famous run up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Knuckles get broken during another well-known scene where he punches frozen meat. Co-star Carl Weathers (a pitch perfect Stephan James) gets the part of Apollo Creed through sheer charisma, but has to admit later that he, very hilariously, cannot box. Everyone involved with actors knows they tend to lie quite a lot. The other key co-star, Talia Shire (Kiki Seto), proves this point by revealing she can’t skate before a crucial scene is to be filmed at an ice rink (for which the producers mortgage their homes to include in the budget). Part of the fun here is how Farrelly and cinematographer Sean Porter re-create famous “Rocky” moments, as if we were witnesses to cinema history before anyone realizes how famous this material will become. In a great little moment, the producers debate over whether Bill Conti’s iconic “Rocky” theme is “too grandiose.”

At 128 minutes, “I Play Rocky” could have actually been slightly longer. For example, Stephan James as Carl Weathers virtually disappears and the film never goes into the actual shooting of the film’s climactic boxing match. Though, we do get a funny moment where Stallone insults Hollywood’s top boxing choreographer by calling his work too fake. And the cut from the shoot to the big premiere night almost feels too sudden, as if we needed some time with how post-production went and what Stallone did while waiting for “Rocky” to get fully formed. Yet, the human elements make up for it. Stallone isn’t being hailed as a genius, but as a filmmaker with a vocation who got some breaks and had to learn much along the way. A vastly misunderstood aspect of directing is that it isn’t about being some all-knowing genius. Avildsen is keenly portrayed as relying on being focused and trusting his crew, including the inventor of the steadicam, to make it all work. At times he pushes Stallone to dig deep in his acting, not by giving directions, but emphasizing that as the writer, he should know Rocky better than anyone. The rest is history. Stallone became a major movie star (though not quite gaining any greater respect as a writer), and “Rocky” still endures. “I Play Rocky” is a wonderfully sobering lesson in how getting there means shedding a lot of sweat and tears.

“I Play Rocky” releases Nov. 6 in select theaters and expands Nov. 20 in theaters nationwide.