Sylvester Stallone Hid His Struggles. At 80, He’s Coming Clean. | The Interview

Overview

Sylvester Stallone discusses his memoir The Steps, focusing on how an abusive, emotionally deprived childhood—along with later betrayals and losses—shaped the “tough guy” persona audiences associate with Rocky and Rambo. Interviewers stress that behind his muscular exterior is a long-running struggle with grief, anger, abandonment issues, and anxiety. Stallone says he often learned to suppress these feelings by mentally “boxing up” painful memories and moving forward.

Reframing the “tough exterior” as emotional survival

• Nurturing affection was absent early on. Stallone says he was raised largely by strangers in a boarding house, and that his parents viewed his arrival as derailing their ambitions.
• Hostile parental dynamics and trauma.
  • He says his parents divorced around ages 10–11.
  • He claims his mother’s departure involved a traumatic incident—he tried to stop her and was left behind.
• A cycle of intimidation and humiliation with his father.
  • He describes beatings, cruelty to animals, and public episodes intended to “break” him.
  • He also notes brief moments of comfort, including a single gesture while returning from caring for horses.
• How these patterns shaped later life.
  • Stallone says he became intensely competitive and “pitbull”-driven.
  • He suggests that real, secure love came much later, especially once his own family became central.

Trauma and mental health: repression, institutional abuse, and anxiety

Stallone describes mental and emotional harm that persisted even when he learned to function.

• Institutional settings and violence. He recounts being sent to reform settings, describing a psych ward environment “like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” with filthy conditions and other patients attacking him.
• Resilience paired with lingering damage. He frames these experiences as formative—“You can’t break me”—but says emotional damage returned in cycles.
• Ongoing anxiety. He describes a persistent, magma-like anxiety that can reappear even in calm situations.
• Recurring panic patterns. He describes panic episodes that often occur when he feels he’s about to perform or be in crowded spaces, adding that they never fully went away.

Art as discipline and outlet

Stallone portrays creativity as both structure and release.

• Determination despite rejection and poverty.
  • He worked as a movie theater usher.
  • He studied cinema obsessively, taking notes on dialogue, audience reactions, and emotional pacing.
• Filmmaking as a “temple.” He describes art as a place to channel volatility into craft.
• Museums and sustained creative hunger. He credits museums such as MoMA with fueling a lifelong creative drive.
• Intensity built through purpose. He argues that his emotional “cauldron” can overflow into volatility, but can also be directed toward artistic purpose—shaping how he builds performance intensity.

Rocky as both personal myth and career rescue

• A writing moment at the edge. Stallone describes writing Rocky when he felt he had little to lose, close to despair, believing he would regret it if he didn’t cross the “bridge.”
• Personal longing behind the casting choice. He says he cast his father as the timekeeper not for practicality, but from a deep longing to be seen and loved—despite chaos and altercations on set.
• Instant fame. He describes Rocky’s success as arriving almost immediately: from anonymity to intense public attention within hours, likening the effect to a rare “tsunami.”

Regret, aging, and dealing with pain rather than erasing it

• Regret as enduring “building blocks.” Stallone says he lives with regret and turned it into building blocks, while acknowledging it never fully dissolves.
• Skeptical view of therapy and mindfulness. He says therapy didn’t help because underlying anxiety returned beneath new coping strategies.
• Limited time and present focus. He frames later life as having finite time, emphasizing seeing “the light at the end of the tunnel” and cherishing today rather than replaying the past.

Family tragedy and lingering wounds

• Death of his son, Sage. He addresses the 2012 death of his eldest son, Sage (age 36), from an undiagnosed heart condition, describing guilt, shock, and overwhelming grief.
• Complex dynamics with his mother.
  • He says she became a celebrity psychic.
  • He describes feeling rejected and unable to “go back” after Oscar-era events where she refused to support him.
• Emotional wounds that resurface. He suggests grief and long-term emotional damage left scars that still “weep” at times.

Body as armor—and its costs

• Physicality as protection. Stallone says his physique became “armor” once he became an action star.
• Fitness obsession and steroid use (as described). He describes obsession with maintaining the look, including steroid use, and frames it in cyclical terms.
• Physical toll and emotional effects. He cites surgeries, chronic pain, and the emotional weight of living in a body-performance mindset.
• Stunt work as masochism linked to survival logic. He describes repeated self-pushing as masochistic, tied to the same “don’t break” mentality he learned from his father.

Shifting politics: from war-adjacent bravado to anti-war

In a follow-up segment, Stallone describes an evolution in worldview.

• He says he moved from earlier “avatar” war energy—linked to the worldview of earlier films like Rambo—to becoming personally anti-war.
• He stresses he’s not trying to turn everything into a political debate.
• He connects his stance to believing war is futile and destructive to both sides, while acknowledging institutions and industries still benefit.

Career persistence and craft philosophy

• Rejection as fuel. He discusses periods when Hollywood tried to move on from him, including film disappointments and dismissiveness, and says he used that rejection for motivation.
• A “racehorse” approach. He describes his later career as continuing out of needing the work for life and identity—not merely to prove something.

Note from Devo

A spokesperson for Devo comments at the end that they didn’t read the book, but respect Stallone’s right to tell his story and take it seriously. They also express concern and sympathy about trauma memories.

Presenters / contributors

• Lulu Garcia Navarro (interviewer)
• Sylvester Stallone (guest)
• Seth Kelly (conversation producer)
• John Woo (edited)
• Safhia Landman (mixing)
• Dan Powell (original music)
• Marian Lozano (original music)
• Philip Montgomery (photography)
• Allison Benedict (executive producer)
• Pria Matthew, Wyatt Orm, Powella Nudorf, Joe Bil Munos, Eddie Costas, Mark ZL, Gabby Contraras, Kathleen O’Brien, Brooke Mentors (team credits)
• Devo spokesperson (quoted via response request)