{"id":1164708,"date":"2026-11-04T11:11:23","date_gmt":"2026-11-04T11:11:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1164708\/"},"modified":"2026-11-04T11:11:23","modified_gmt":"2026-11-04T11:11:23","slug":"how-anthony-ippolito-became-sylvester-stallone-in-i-play-rocky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1164708\/","title":{"rendered":"How Anthony Ippolito became Sylvester Stallone in ‘I Play Rocky’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Anthony Ippolito is in the midst of the kind of hyper-scheduled, dizzying promotional blitz that many actors hope for but rarely experience. \u201cIt\u2019s a weird period of time,\u201d he says over Zoom. \u201cIt\u2019s a part of the job of acting that I didn\u2019t really think about.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Long Island native, 26, who first caught the industry\u2019s eye with a well-received portrayal of Al Pacino in the 2022 Paramount+ series \u201cThe Offer,\u201d<\/a> is commanding new attention for his performance in a similarly high-risk, high-reward project: playing Sylvester Stallone in \u201cI Play Rocky,\u201d the Peter Farrelly-directed film about the low-budget struggle to make the iconic 1976 boxing movie.<\/p>\n

Ippolito has been appearing at festivals and special advance screenings since the film\u2019s auspicious debut at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, where it began building strong word of mouth<\/a> as well as life-altering possibilities for its star, whose performance has been called \u201ctransformative,\u201d and \u201ccareer-making.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Anthony Ippolito as Sylvester Stallone in the movie \u201cI Play Rocky.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Claire Folger \/ Amazon Content Services LLC)<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m slowly trying to get my bearings with this part of it \u2014 it\u2019s pretty foreign,\u201d he says. Ippolito, who started acting as a kid and pursued it more seriously after playing young Adam Sandler in 2015\u2019s \u201cPixels,\u201d is self-aware enough to be skeptical about the current hype, which he is still figuring out how to talk about. \u201cI\u2019m taking things as they come, trying not to listen to too much of the noise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not listening to outside noise is a big part of how Ippolito ended up in \u201cI Play Rocky.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody was asking me to audition,\u201d he tells The Times from the Savannah Film Festival in Georgia, where he\u2019s due to receive the Breakthrough Award in a few hours. Ippolito has an easy charm and nonchalance about him, possibly due to being jet-lagged and sleep-deprived, but his general vibe is relaxed. Dressed casually in a bulky patterned sweater, he takes thoughtful pauses to answer certain questions, absentmindedly running his hands through an enviable mop of hair.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had heard bits and pieces of Stallone\u2019s story just growing up as an actor myself,\u201d he says, not to mention occasional comments about his passing resemblance to Stallone, with those lush brown curls and heavy-lidded eyes. When he heard about Farrelly\u2019s film, he let his hopes rise.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know if I could, but I wanted to be in the conversation for it if possible,\u201d he recalls. Ippolito started watching as much of Stallone\u2019s work before \u201cRocky\u201d as he could find. \u201cBecause he was an unknown actor at the time, a lot of the footage he\u2019s in for only a couple minutes \u2014 there\u2019s an episode of \u2018Kojak,\u2019 \u2018The Lords of Flatbush,\u2019 \u2018Death Race 2000.\u2019 Some of these he\u2019s only in a scene or two, but watching that and interviews he did around the time of \u2018Rocky\u2019 was the first step.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ippolito, whose natural speaking voice is a completely different tone and register from Stallone\u2019s grumble \u2014 it\u2019s lighter and more laid-back \u2014 eventually put himself on tape performing a few \u201cRocky\u201d scenes with the help of a cousin who \u201cheld a lamp in the corner\u201d of his grandmother\u2019s basement. Why the basement? \u201cOh, that part of her house was very stuck in the \u201970s,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd, I mean, I love my grandma.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fittingly, for the retelling of a story about an iconic underdog, Ippolito\u2019s tape made its way to Farrelly. \u201cPeople keep asking me, \u201cHow\u2019d you get him there?\u2019 I say, \u2018I didn\u2019t \u2014 he got himself there,\u2019 \u201d says the \u201cGreen Book\u201d<\/a> director. \u201cWe hadn\u2019t started searching yet. And we\u2019re like, \u2018The search is over.\u2019 He\u2019s the only guy we looked at.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gearing up to shoot \u201cI Play Rocky\u201d required Ippolito to add the only thing lacking in his basement audition: the physical bulk of Rocky Balboa. Ippolito\u2019s natural build is more slender than Stallone\u2019s for Rocky, so he started training hard with weights, eating a ton of protein-rich meals and boxing for roughly 18 months before production began.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to learn how to hit a speed bag, which was a new thing and wasn\u2019t very easy at the beginning, but I got there,\u201d he says. Ippolito humbly talks about the extensive prep like it\u2019s an everyday thing that anyone would do in his situation. Farrelly knows that is not the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not natural, it\u2019s total work,\u201d he says. \u201cHe gained 40 pounds, got his face punched in the gym and he\u2019s a really good actor who\u2019s smart as hell. He also knew the subtle difference between Stallone and Rocky, and he had them both fully formed by the time he showed up on the set.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re looking at Anthony because it\u2019s a generational performance,\u201d says \u201cI Play Rocky\u201d director Peter Farrelly. \u201cHe didn\u2019t walk around as Stallone, thankfully. That would be annoying.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Jason Armond \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

While Stallone was not directly involved with \u201cI Play Rocky,\u201d he was consulted about the script and Ippolito\u2019s casting. The two connected before cameras rolled. \u201cHe was kind enough to share a lot of what the experience of making the film was, and a lot of the dark times that he was stuck in before and while he was writing the script,\u201d says Ippolito. \u201cIt was a very lonely period of time in his life. I appreciated his vulnerability in telling me everything he did.\u201d<\/p>\n

The only child of Anthony, a chiropractor, and Lorraine, who works in the tech industry, Ippolito was encouraged to audition for commercials after his baseball skills impressed a friend of his parents. \u201cI went on a ton of commercial auditions and didn\u2019t do a ton of commercials,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI remember going into one for a Cheerios commercial and being like, \u2018Do you have Honey Nut Cheerios? I don\u2019t really like just normal Cheerios.\u2019 The executives from Cheerios were like, \u2018All right, we can\u2019t use this guy.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Ippolito has maintained that casual can-do attitude about the profession, taking classes and working with acting coaches along the way, but \u201cThe Offer\u201d and \u201cI Play Rocky\u201d have become calling cards.<\/p>\n

At this time last year, Ippolito and Farrelly were mid-production on their 34-day shoot for \u201cI Play Rocky,\u201d most of which was filmed in New Jersey, except for three days on location in Philadelphia, where the original was filmed in just 28 days. He remembers re-creating the famous training sequence where Rocky jogs up the steps in front of the Philadelphia Art Museum.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t believe that I was finally going to get to go up those steps,\u201d he says. \u201cTo do it after going through the process of trying to get the part and then to be in those sweats, running up them for the first time, was pretty surreal.\u201d<\/p>\n

That part of the shoot went off mostly according to plan, save for Farrelly having to call in a favor to get permission to move the Rocky statue, a tourist attraction that now sits atop the steps. A crew member noticed a name among the museum\u2019s donors who turned out to be Philadelphia native Brian Roberts, current CEO of Comcast, which owns Universal, the studio that made Farrelly\u2019s \u201cGreen Book.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI called Brian,\u201d the director remembers. \u201cI said, \u2018I hate to bug you because it\u2019s not your movie, but these guys are being difficult. They won\u2019t move the statue. Is there anything you could do?\u2019 He goes, \u2018I don\u2019t know, but I\u2019ll look into it.\u2019 And then the next morning it was gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

The day prior, they filmed Rocky\u2019s sprint along the harbor, which Ippolito still can\u2019t believe Stallone did wearing \u201970s-era Converse: flat-bottomed shoes that have no cushioning or support for running. \u201cEverybody thinks we sped that scene up,\u201d Farrelly says. \u201cWe did not speed that up. That kid\u2019s an athlete and he outran the camera car. We had to stop for 20 minutes to get under the camera car and fix it so it could keep up with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ippolito happily put everything he had into the performance, especially when it came to replicating the classic \u201cRocky\u201d scenes, which included drinking a glass of raw eggs. \u201cI mean, you only get to do this sort of thing once,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The actor has a charmingly self-deprecating way of talking about his work and his experience so far. He didn\u2019t plan on being here. \u201cShe hasn\u2019t seen it yet but I\u2019m excited for her to see it,\u201d he says about that grandmother who let him use the basement. It\u2019s a sweet aside you could imagine Stallone himself saying.<\/p>\n

Farrelly, who has been around the block with Hollywood highs and lows, is happy to brag about his star and his potential. \u201cIt was very easy to direct him because he knew the character better than I did,\u201d he says. \u201cYou\u2019re looking at Anthony because it\u2019s a generational performance. He didn\u2019t walk around as Stallone, thankfully. That would be annoying. To me, it\u2019s also more impressive that he\u2019s himself, and then you go \u2018Action!\u2019 and he becomes someone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

The director can\u2019t wait for more people to discover him. \u201cI think he\u2019s a little shell-shocked,\u201d adds Farrelly. \u201cIt\u2019s hard when you go your whole life being treated normally and all of a sudden over a one-month period the whole world adores you. It kind of reminds me of Stallone after \u2018Rocky.\u2019 He was suddenly thrust into the limelight.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, Ippolito is trying to stay present and enjoy the ride, which currently involves back-to-back travel and promotional obligations. \u201cIt\u2019s important to set certain boundaries,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m glad that I\u2019ve been acting for a little while and this kind of thing isn\u2019t happening when I\u2019m 15, for instance. I don\u2019t know how some younger actors deal with that, but I\u2019m trying to figure it out as we go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ippolito relies on family, close friends and other hobbies to keep him grounded when he\u2019s not working. <\/p>\n

\u201cI like to paint,\u201d he says. \u201cI like to read. I like to go to the movies with my friends and stuff like that. But honestly right now I, unfortunately, am just sleeping. This is the true answer. I could throw a Tolstoy novel at you or I can just tell you that I\u2019m passing out on these flights.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anthony Ippolito is in the midst of the kind of hyper-scheduled, dizzying promotional blitz that many actors hope…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1164709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[414911,51651,1582,276,33011,463578,1020,350661,463577,2961,224,5337,5996,18281,29181,9260,68987,17823,6620,14164],"class_list":["post-1164708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-anthony-ippolito","tag-basement","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-commercial","tag-farrelly","tag-film","tag-first-step","tag-ippolito","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-part","tag-performance","tag-rocky","tag-scene","tag-sylvester-stallone","tag-thing","tag-time","tag-way"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117557873032115996","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1164708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1164709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1164708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1164708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1164708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}