Sylvester Stallone reveals he became bulimic filming Rocky III as he details the toll of his body obsession
Warning: This article contains discussion of eating disorders which some readers may find distressing.
Over 40 years on from the release of Rocky III and Sylvester Stallone has revealed that he was battling bulimia during filming.
Stallone created and starred in the hugely popular boxing movies, the third of which was released in 1982.
People who have seen the films will know that the actor had a very lean physique as he played Rocky Balboa, and apparently Stallone got his body fat percentage down to just 2.6 percent for Rocky III.
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Now he's revealed that he was suffering with an eating disorder while filming, something he's only just revealed for the first time.
Speaking to The New York Times, the 80-year-old actor said that they way he looked he became an 'obsession' for him.
'I became so obsessed'
"It got to the point where I became bulimic," the dad-of-five shared. "You heard it here first."
Stallone went on: "I couldn’t hold anything down, or I didn’t want to keep it down because I became so obsessed with staying at that point of fitness, literally an obsessive body-worship kind of thing. And nobody does it without additives and drugs, period. I don’t care what they say.
"It isn’t as though you’re a junkie, but if you’re going to work out and try to stay in shape for six months straight, and you’re eating yogurt and pudding, it’s not happening."
He also admitted that he had been using steroids when making the Rocky films. Stallone said: "You have to. But you do it in a sensitive way – six weeks on, six weeks off.
"People go, 'Oh, you don’t get that way naturally.' No, you don’t. But that also took a terrible toll.
"It wasn’t until I did Cop Land when I had to play the weakest guy in the room — partially deaf, overweight — that I felt somewhat liberated."
'I’ve abused my body'
He proceeded to say that he has 'abused [his] body' over the years, pointing out that he's had nine back operations, two shoulder operations, and three neck fusions.
"Everything is held together with baling wire, but I still want to stay in good shape," Stallone said of his many surgeries.
In hindsight, the Rambo legend wishes he let someone else do his own stunts so he wasn't 'hurting [himself] all the time'.
"I take a lot of pills to keep going," Stallone said of keeping 'sort of fit' at 80 years old.
"It’s come at a terrible price. If I could do it over again, I would say, 'Let someone else carry the banner and don’t do your own stunts.' I don’t know what it was about hurting myself all the time."
If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article and wish to speak to someone, contact National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD). You can reach them on their free hotline at 1(888)-375-7767, which is open Monday-Friday, 9am-9pm CST.
Topics: Sylvester Stallone, Mental Health, Hollywood, Celebrity, Film and TV
Niamh Shackleton