Ippolito Lands Stallone Role After Years of Tapes — SkimNews
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Ippolito spent years sending self-taped audition performances to the makers of I Play Rocky before a script existed, despite websites tipping David Corenswet, Jacob Elordi and Timothée Chalamet for the role.
- Farrelly said Ippolito was the first person he and the producers considered for the Stallone role; once they saw him, they did not audition anyone else.
- Stallone contacted Ippolito with a positive reaction to the portrayal, which Ippolito called “a love letter to what he persevered through.”
- I Play Rocky covers Stallone’s “very dark, lonely” early years, when he worked in a fishmonger’s and appeared in an adult movie to scrape together rent while being belittled for his speech and looks.
- Rocky was filmed through frenzied single takes, with Stallone limping on a strained tendon and breaking his hand while punching a frozen side of beef; crew later hid equipment from a union representative in a walk-in freezer.
- Stallone rejected a $300,000 offer—nearly $2 million today—to keep the title role in Rocky, despite few career prospects, a heavily pregnant wife and having to sell his dog.
- Ippolito altered his voice, posture, movement and physique through a protein-heavy “lifestyle shift,” while his performance is being talked up for a Best Actor Oscar nomination.
Why it matters: Farrelly bypassed a conventional search after Ippolito’s unsolicited tapes, giving the 27-year-old a role once expected to go to Corenswet, Elordi or Chalamet. With Stallone already approving the portrayal and chatter focused on a Best Actor nomination, Ippolito moves from a struggling newcomer to a serious awards-season name.
Ask SkimNews
