Although Sylvester Stallone made his film debut as the boxer Rocky Balboa, he had always dreamed of playing a gangster. Who would say no to him playing a gangster when he has that rugged machismo and an athletic build? The Godfather, the original gangster movie, is the answer to that query, and Stallone’s attempt to appear in it as an extra didn’t exactly go as planned.
Sylvester Stallone only intended to disappear into the background during the wedding celebration scene in The Godfather. Was that too much to ask? He would have had the opportunity to be in one of the best movie opening scenes. Stallone revealed to Empire that Paramount rejected his application for the role of the mobster in the movie.
The Godfather wasn’t an option for the Rambo actor to have on his acting portfolio, but he didn’t require it in order to establish himself on the Hollywood stage. Three years later, Rocky, a small film, ended up becoming a successful franchise. When he first started working on Rocky, Stallone was just a man with a dream, his own screenplay, and a cute Bullmastiff named Butkus. He realized that the March 24, 1975 bout between boxer Chuck Wepner and Muhammad Ali would make a fantastic movie after witnessing Wepner continue to fight and advance in the face of Ali’s attacks.
The producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff made a $350,000 offer to the New Yorker for the script in exchange for allowing Stallone to portray the lead. The movie Rocky ended up earning the most money in 1976 and won the Best Picture award. This sports drama was followed by numerous sequels and the Creed spinoff movies, so it didn’t end there.
Sylvester Stallone never intended to be an extra in The Godfather, but five decades later, he was able to fulfill another goal by playing a mobster part. He’ll be a complete badass in the upcoming crime drama Tulsa King, so expect that. In the movie Tulsa King, which was made by the same person who made Yellowstone for Paramount, Stallone plays Dwight “The General” Manfredi, a New York mafia captain who is trying to build his empire after serving a 25-year prison sentence. As he adjusts to “the flow” of working on a written television series and builds relationships with the other performers, this Oscar winner is incredibly thrilled to be a part of this Western/gangster movie.
Sylvester Stallone may have had to wait roughly 50 years after The Godfather before landing the mafia role of his dreams, but as he famously quipped, “Everything comes to those who wait.” Prepare to be amazed by this underdog actor’s performance in the upcoming Paramount+ release Tulsa King on November 13.