Ippolito Landed the Stallone Role With Audition Tapes — SkimNews
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- Anthony Ippolito pursued the Stallone role in I Play Rocky with an audition video built around an old punching bag and gloves before he had much of the script, then repeatedly sent taped scenes until they relented.
- Ippolito rewatched a period of Stallone’s films over and over, including Rocky Balboa and The Prisoner of Second Avenue, to study the physicality and movement required for the role.
- I Play Rocky represents Ippolito’s move from playing Al Pacino in The Offer to leading a major motion picture, a change that brings sustained press attention to the actor rather than only his character.
- MGM kept raising its offers to Sylvester Stallone to persuade him not to play Rocky, the in-demand script Stallone had written.
- Sylvester Stallone met Ippolito about a month before filming; Ippolito found him generous and disarming and said his detailed account of building Rocky as a writer was hugely informative.
- Peter Farrelly recounted that Stallone said he knew nothing about the film after being told to remain separate from its shaping, prompting the objection: ‘Not that far, man!’
Why it matters: Ippolito’s persistence was central to landing the part: multiple audition tapes, including a punching-bag-and-gloves video made before he had much of the script, continued until the casting side relented. A meeting with Stallone one month before filming added the writer’s perspective that Ippolito called hugely informative.
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