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| Robert De Niro and Sylvester Stallone in Grudge Match |
Come Friday and biggies Robert De Niro and Sylvester Stallone will blaze the big screen as ageing boxers gearing up for one last bout in Grudge Match.
You have both starred in some of the most famous boxing films in cinema history. Was the idea of doing a boxing comedy together something that you two were kicking around?
Sylvester Stallone: No, actually I had no intention of doing this. It was something I thought was absurd. But then Robert called me and we talked a lot about it, and they convinced me that I was completely wrong.
Robert De Niro: I liked the idea of us doing it, so that was it! (Laughs)
You never talked about it before?
De Niro: No, we never talked. It came from Pete (Peter Segal, the film’s director), I think. We met him at a party a year earlier or something. He said: ‘You interested in this thing?’ Then we started talking, Sylvester and I.
Can you talk about some of the themes of the film, and also about the training you did to get in shape for the boxing scenes?
Stallone: We always enjoy working out, but this thing was pretty extraordinary because I thought: ‘All right, here we get to prove that you don’t have to be of a certain age that you’re obliged to start winding down, or you’re going against trend or if you still have something to prove.’ I think a lot of people as they reach 60 and above, go: ‘You know what? I have some unfinished business.’ But, unfortunately, life does not afford you the opportunity to go back and right the wrongs. This is the beauty of fantasy and imagination — to be able to have these guys go and correct a moment in their lives that will make their lives feel somewhat fulfilled. That’s the fantasy, and that’s where I think the empathy comes in with the audience.
With the Rocky movies and Raging Bull preceding this film, what do you think it is about boxing as a sport that is such a fertile groundwork in which to tell stories of regular human beings?
Stallone: I think they’re not boxing movies or documentaries. They are biographies, and these guys happen to be fighters. Everyone knows what it’s like to be frustrated and want to fight back on any emotional level. And that’s what we pulled from. I just have an affinity for it, so do a lot of people. That’s why there have probably been more boxing films done than a lot of other kinds of films.
If you could trade your Academy Awards for a legitimate world championship in boxing, would you do it?
De Niro: It’s a tough sport, a tough profession. And I think, actually, having been in the ring with a couple of professionals, I made the right choice.
You’d rather be actors than boxers?
Stallone: Oh yeah, definitely. Because it’s great to be able to interpret it and try to get the feelings of it. For example, when you meet any of these fellas, there’s so much drama going on, and to be able to play that, but then get rid of it and not live with it the whole time because it’s a very heavy, traumatic life these guys live. Even though I did say to Bobby: ‘Once you’re in the ring, those Oscars aren’t gonna help you, man’. (Laughs) Bobby, did you want to be a heavyweight champion?
De Niro: No. You get banged around a bit. I mean, I have great respect for fighters because it is what it is. It’s a tough sport, and you have to pay a price. And if you really want to do it, you do it. I’m an actor, I’m not a fighter.
What did you enjoy most about your roles?
Stallone: I guess the somewhat edgier character is Robert. I’m kind of the more forlorn character, the kind of coward who went and worked in a steel mill and just sort of gave up.
De Niro: Mine is the guy who is like the bad guy in the beginning. I don’t know. See the movie! (Laughs)
What was the training process like for you, and was there any rivalry in the training sessions?
Stallone: Well, I couldn’t wait to fight him! (Laughs) I was dying... Raging Bull! He’s crossed the line. This was extraordinary. Bob will tell you about his aspect of it. But we had to train. This is like if you were casting the lead in The Nutcracker or Swan Lake, right, and you don’t get to see your lead dancer until the curtain goes up. What happened was he had to work on the East Coast, I had to work on the West Coast, and we couldn’t get together. So, by the time we got into the ring together, I’m going: ‘Oh god, I hope he looks good. I hope he can fight’. Because we didn’t know. So, this was really difficult. Usually with the Rocky movies, it’s five or six months of preparation with the guy. Every day you’re working. We didn’t have that opportunity. That’s why this is pretty extraordinary, to give him a little credit for his professionalism.
De Niro: We had this trainer that Sylvester has worked with a long time, Bob Sale, and I worked with him and another fighter, John Duddy. And I didn’t lose 35 pounds. I lost maybe 20 or something (laughs). And we worked hard. I worked as hard as I could to get to the point that we would need.
Sly, when you made Rocky, and Bob, when you made Raging Bull, if somebody had asked you then if you would be doing it again at this age, what would your answer have been?
Stallone: I would have punched them (laughs). I would have said: ‘Are you crazy?’ No, because when we started out, I thought: ‘Okay, Rocky I (1976) and that’s it’. I didn’t know there’d be Rocky 90! It’s one of those things, it just kept going. So, the answer is no, not for me.
De Niro: No, I didn’t. I didn’t even know if I’d be around (laughs). But I am, you know.
Sly, you were inducted into the boxing Hall of Fame. What did that mean to you as an actor, as a person?
Stallone: Well, first of all, I was a little embarrassed by it because actually I’m not a fighter. But they look at it as someone who helps promote boxing. So there I am with Mike Tyson and Cesar Chavez, Jr. It was amazing. It was just another validation that you’re helping promote the sport. But I’ve always loved the sport. There’s just something about it. Even when I was seven or eight years old, I was fascinated with this idea of two men just showing their hearts and going for it.
