Sylvester Stallone has given fans a rare behind-the-scenes look at the punishing physical preparation that went into making Rocky.
He shared a throwback video on Instagram that captures him and the late Carl Weathers painstakingly practicing every punch and drop before the cameras ever rolled.
The 79-year-old posted the footage on Wednesday, along with a reflection on what it really took to bring the iconic underdog boxer to life.
“Before Rocky ever stepped into the ring on screen, there were hours like this,” he wrote.
“Repetition. Footwork. Timing. Getting hit and getting back up. I wrote the script in three and a half days, but the physical work took months. Nothing about it was random. If you want it to feel real, you have to live it.”
The video itself is a fascinating watch.
In it, Stallone and Weathers, who played Apollo Creed, are seen meticulously blocking every move, with Stallone shouting instructions between takes as a director and a fighter at once.
At one point he tells Weathers, “So, I’m a little hurt. You’ve got me stuck with the sticks,” before throwing himself against the ropes after a drawn out punch, complaining with a laugh that the ropes felt like “guitar strings.”
He instructed Weathers on exactly where to throw his punches, “left, right,” before doing a 180-degree dive back into the ropes, explaining that he would grab them as he fell.
Carl Weathers, who appeared in several Rocky films as the charismatic and formidable Apollo Creed, died in February 2024.
The footage serves as a warm tribute to their chemistry and a reminder of how much craftsmanship and physical commitment lies beneath one of cinema’s most buoyant sports stories.
