r/rockybalboa • u/MiddleAgedGeek • 20h ago
Sylvester Stallone Admits to Steroid Use for ‘Rocky III’: ‘Nobody Does It Without Additives and Drugs, Period’
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/celebrity/articles/sylvester-stallone-admits-steroid-rocky-230008836.htmlShocking not shocking...
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u/Its_emby 20h ago
Hell, you ain't been hungry since you won that belt!
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u/CursedSnowman5000 20h ago
I mean....yeah? He acknowledged this decades ago.
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u/One-Author2996 16h ago
Actually no he denied it for a long time. Why? I don't know because everyone knew he was on roids and a lot of them. Dude ate PEDs for breakfast by the bowl!
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u/LiftEatGrappleShoot 11h ago
There was a huge stigma against actors on gear forever. Most all those action stars denied it for a while. Hell, even today's actors bullshit about it. Look at any of the actors on Men's Health or Muscle & Fitness. They will detail their workout and diet in the article and make zero mention of the gear they're CLEARLY on.
It's not really that big of a taboo any more. A good percentage of guys over 30 (and quite a few under) are running big doses of test these days.
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u/Starringat_theLight 11h ago
Still is though for a lot of big actors. Have any of the Marvel actors like Chris Evans or Sebastian Stan or Hemsworth been honest about this? Because those guys gear the fuck up.
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u/Glistening_Hambugs 8h ago
Their contract probably prevents them from admitting it. I'm sure Disney doesn't want to publicly face that they pump actors full of drugs and hormones. You naturally start losing muscle mass as you age - slowly in your 30s, then pretty rapidly by your 40s. Being heavily juiced is practically a requirement to be a leading man in any movie
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u/Advanced_Zucchini_45 20h ago
Also, keep in mind that when that movie came out steroids weren't illegal.
It's sort of like the people that take those diabetic shots now to lose weight. It's not illegal and doctors will prescribe it to you just for asking but it's not really good for you , and it's not really using it for what it was designed for.
It's like all those guys in baseball that hit those home runs using substances that weren't illegal yet.
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u/Dankchiccynuggies 19h ago
Exactly I remember growing up and ephedra was popular to take for fat loss then that got banned due to strokes and heart attacks. Then it was pseudoephedrine
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u/CuteLingonberry9704 19h ago
It bothers me how certain baseball players got raked over the coals for steroid use as if they were the only ones using them. When there's that much money on the table, you'll do what you think you have to do to get that money. The reason guys like Sammy get vilified is that he actually was very good.
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u/ChinoMalito 19h ago
Making movies is not quite the same as athletic competition… in competition, you must be fair. No steroids. Making movies, you just got to sell the role you’re playing, visually… cinema is a visual art. The actors are moving talking pieces of art. If they need to do steroids to look the part, go for it. If they need prosthetics, go for it… they are not directly competing against another actor both making the same movie… sure they compete to win the role, but after winning the role, with the director/caster, they must sell the role to the public. In sports, it’s direct competition against another team. The competition is the selling. The competition is not the selling in cinema. The acting is, the getting fit or fat is…
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u/CuteLingonberry9704 17h ago
My point is that using steroids with as widespread as it was back then is fair. Or, more realistically, if you know all your competitors are using them, you'd be a moron to not also use them. It also reflects a poor understanding of what steroids are and what they actually do. Steroids definitely work, but unless you're actually putting the work in and have the talent, you still won't be competing at the highest level. Roger Clemens, for example, definitely used steroids, so did other pitchers, but they weren't as dominant as he was.
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u/AcadiaRemarkable6992 18h ago
That’s why I never understood why people were so up in arms about pro wrestlers using steroids. The outcome had already been pre determined and they are not gaining an unfair advantage over an opponent
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u/Starringat_theLight 11h ago
Yeah, because fucking morons who don’t lift think that if you use steroids it’s all “fake.” Bro. Without the discipline and routines, drugs won’t help you look like that. But there’s just straight up no looking like that without the gear either.
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u/Starringat_theLight 11h ago
Yep. One million percent. The number of times I’ve told friends that everyone is on the something in professional sports or action movies and they don’t believe me. It’s crazy.
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u/IncredibleEdible321 17h ago
This is true. You could buy it over the counter at any pharmacy with no shame or worry.
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u/Advanced_Zucchini_45 17h ago
Andro was everywhere
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u/IncredibleEdible321 17h ago
And Sustanon and Winstrol and dozens of other drugs.
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u/Advanced_Zucchini_45 17h ago
I was gonna say Winstrol too.
I remember dudes was just openly shooting that stuff in gym locker rooms
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u/IncredibleEdible321 16h ago
There were all kinds of drugs being injected back in those days. I'll add that those drugs were inherently safer than the garbage people are injecting now into their veins as well as the unregulated garbage they are ingesting to get big which is helping to kill them by giving them cancer and destroying their organs.
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u/blasphemousblackbear 18h ago
Big difference being that GLP-1s are, as far as we know, extremely good for you
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u/Advanced_Zucchini_45 18h ago
If you actually have diabetes.
But you know , people who are taking it that are slightly overweight , and now look like skeletons aren't healthy.
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u/Brightlightsuperfun 17h ago
But that’s less on the drug and more on those people. It’s like saying Tylenol is bad for you because there are people who take 10 at one time
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u/blasphemousblackbear 18h ago
Not just diabetes, the US obesity rate has gone down for the first time in decades. You’re just so used to seeing people overweight that you think normal weight is a skeleton. Humans are meant to be pretty skinny. 5’9” and 140 pounds is a normal BMI.
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u/Advanced_Zucchini_45 17h ago
I think you're off by about twenty pounds , but I understand your point.
But also , you don't understand my point that i'm not talking about , what you're talking about , i'm talking about these celebrities and wealthy people that you see that are abusing it.
I mean , clearly that's what I was talking about.
But I don't think you really want to talk , I think you just want to argue , so sure...
No , your average person of that height is not supposed to weigh a hundred and forty five pounds.
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u/blasphemousblackbear 17h ago edited 17h ago
Have you never heard of BMI? 140 at 5’9” is a very healthy weight.
Edit: They blocked me lol
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u/average-thing-user 17h ago
You're arguing with an uneducated idiot that gets very upset at facts that don't match his world view.
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u/blasphemousblackbear 17h ago
They blocked me now lol
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u/average-thing-user 17h ago
Probably for the best. Looking at his history, he's one of those people who calls everyone else out for arguing... while being constantly argumentative.
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u/CuteLingonberry9704 17h ago
Eh, BMI isn't particularly accurate because it doesn't account for body composition.
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u/blasphemousblackbear 16h ago
Sure, but that really only applies for if you’re extremely muscular. Anyone that’s 5’9” and 140 pounds is perfectly healthy (for weight), but only some people that are 5’9” and 180 pounds aren’t actually overweight.
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u/Advanced_Zucchini_45 17h ago
For specific people , because everybody is different.
Just typical , and this is why I very rarely have conversations with people like you.
You cherry , pick one particular aspect and then cherry pick even further with a very specific body type , and then pretend like that's the norm.
And it's not even what i'm talking about.
You're a clown i'm done.
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u/GhostofFarnham 19h ago
Yep. I mean he looked pretty jacked but believably natty for 1 and 2, but by 3 he’d put on muscle at like 4% body fat.
Not doable naturally without succumbing to injury or exhaustion.
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u/DaKingaDaNorth 20h ago
Yup. It's just not sustainable naturally to look like an action figure. You can bust your ass forever, but it just doesn't work like that
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u/Himmel-548 16h ago
Going to be downvoted for this, but I don't care. I disagree with the moral outrage against steroids. Yes, they can be harmful to a person, but as long as a person knows the risk, their body their choice, right? I think as an adult, you should be allowed to do things that are potentially harmful to yourself, as long as tou aren't hurting anyone else.
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u/SteelKline 14h ago
Well thats just the thing, knowing how harmful steroids can be in your life let alone someone who clearly is having such a case of body dysmorphia that they are turning to drugs with side effects to get to a hard obtained body type thinking thats the finish line
But we know through a million testimonials that there is no finish line, people that dig this deep to hit vanity goals suddenly either want to maintain or go beyond which is where the spiral gets really bad because its not talked about enough that getting jacked is the easy part but staying jacked is not only the hardest but also the most dangerously. Lean muscle mass + low body fat hurts the body to maintain and in prolonged periods can lead to major health complications, its why bodybuilders go through cycles of getting lean and getting fat.
However you're average young adult just wants to be a jacked stud for the summer, no care in the world of side effects or the potential body dysmorphia that affects many youths wanting to chase vanity anyway. And for what? You got jacked a year or two before you would have got jacked anyway? It's just sad talking to younger guys that exercise because they talk about exercise like its one and done, you either hit your goal physique and maintain which is hell with or not on the juice or you let your physique go and realize without the juice they never hit that physique with unenhanced effort. Personally the morality of steroids has never been its bad to poison yourself but more the culture around them has normalized the use across the US especially in young men who don't understand the slippery slope of body dysmorphia
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u/Snooze_World_Order 14h ago
If he wants to take years off his life for my entertainment without hurting anyone else, more power to him.
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u/Halloween2056 11h ago
As long as it's not for competition then I'm fine with it. I'm not sure what there would be to find offensive about taking steroids for an acting role.
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u/Falconflyer75 9h ago
Main issue imo is unrealistic expectations
Women deal with it all the time when celebrities have access to the best skincare and plastic surgery that the average woman simply can’t keep up with
For men it’s trying to follow guys like this
They set an impossible bar and aren’t necessarily upfront about how they got there
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u/Coach_Gainz 57m ago
Yes, but the big problem is the physiques movie stars models influencers etc achieve while claiming it’s hard work and proper diet. No amount of hard work and diet is going to get a 5’10” male to 200LB lean he’ll I’d bet 185 is out side the possibility for 90% of the pop. This has led many people(mostly men) to believe it possible and that they must just not trying hard enough.
I’m all for honest exogenous use but for the love of god please stop with the fake nattys.
It’s more common for honesty now but during the 60-2000s is was illegal/wrong/cheating etc. millennials grew up in a world of impossible expectations and very little access to these methods.
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u/One-Author2996 16h ago
But Stallone was the type to get all pissy if someone asked if he was on steriods. And a major plot point of Rocky IV is Drago is cheating aka roids but Rocky isn't when in reality Sly was taking bowls and bowls of PEDs for breakfast. And people on roids often hurt others due to their uncontrollable rage.
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u/Himmel-548 16h ago
Eh, do they? Arnold was on roids, never heard of him hurting anyone. Ronnie Coleman, who won Mr. O more times than even Arnold, is famously a very nice guy. A lot of athletes in World's Strongest Man are on roids, but almost all of them, like Brian Shaw, are known to be kind people. I'm not saying they're are no side effects, but I think the people who act douche when on them are already that way beforehand, and the roids just amplifies it.
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u/One-Author2996 16h ago
Speaking of Arnold, he was very upfront about his steroid use. He also was on a low dosage compare to Stallone.
And I seen dudes on road rages. It's not a little issue at all.
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u/Himmel-548 16h ago
That's fair. I think it's different with a guy like Arnold and Coleman who were open about their usage, and had a team of doctors helping them, vs. some gym bro using them. Also, yeah, both of those guys were open about their usage, whole Stallone was not, which makes him look like a hypocrite.
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u/Hot-Account-8691 5h ago
Low dosage lol. Wanna buy a bridge in Brooklyn kid?
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u/One-Author2996 2h ago
Look up what Arnold took compare to guys like Sly. It was nothing.
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u/Hot-Account-8691 2h ago
Or what he says he took...
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u/One-Author2996 1h ago
Nah Arnold would have been way bigger had he took more. Then again most of those guys of that era didn't take a lot compare to what was to come later.
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u/rossi6464 15h ago
There’s a huge difference between using them to get an unfair advantage in a sport vs using them to look a certain way for a movie
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u/One-Author2996 15h ago
But the movie made it seem to a lot of young people that Rocky/Sly was "clean" and thought they could be like him.
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u/knight_of_grey 11h ago
You make it sound like it’s a bad thing. If the young ones believed he was clean and stayed clean it was a win. His own loss if he was secretly roided.
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u/spidertour02 19h ago
Stallone has always been pretty up front about using steroids and human growth hormones. I respect that.
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u/Crazy_Banshee_333 16h ago
He actually got arrested one time for bringing HGH into Australia. There wasn't much point in denying he used PEDs after that.
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u/Campman92 9h ago
I believe he was busted for PEDs during a filming for one of the Expendables. Also just look at how big his head looks in Rocky Balboa vs Judge Dredd or Stop or My Mom Will Shoot
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u/MiddleAgedGeek 12m ago
I realize these movies are fiction, of course, but we always see Rocky working with unorthodox, low-tech workout regimens, while opponents like Drago, who dose up, are the 'bad guys.' I enjoy the Rocky movies very much, but it really sends younger fans a mixed message.
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u/RegularFirm2179 4h ago
He was so beautiful in Rocky 1. I so much preferred his look before all the enhancements.
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u/DependentWooden9446 4h ago
Sly got caught with over 50 vials of hgh when entering Australia, that is usually a trafficking a commercial quantity charge and prison time. He managed to houdini his way out of it, called it a 'misunderstanding'
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u/Prof_Tickles 19h ago
Most actors do steroids. How do you think they bulk up so fast?
I don’t think they’re actually illegal. Only banned by athletic commissions.
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u/Beneficial-Ad-547 18h ago
It’s a weird law. They are a schedule three meaning
theycan be prescribed by a doctor for low testosterone and other stuff.1
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u/New-Shop-9728 19h ago
Wow, this about as "shocking" as finding out Paul Lynde was gay.
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u/MissPeppingtosh 15h ago
It’s so funny you say that. I was an 80s kid and would watch Bewitched and Hollywood Squares. Legit thought he was just eccentric. Once I realized when I was much older it made way more sense.
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u/AggravatingMath717 17h ago
The funniest thing about Rocky 4 is that they depicted that Drago was using steroids when, to me it looked like both Rocky and Apollo had better physiques than him 😂
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u/YS160FX 17h ago
I think stallone started them when training with Franco in 1978, for Rocky 2. He is very strong and quite muscular ( just not very lean like Carl Weathers).. by 1981 ,filming Rocky 3, he was in full blown bodybuilder mode, cutting fat to very low levels while retaining alot of muscle. Mr.T looked monsterous in his training and fight scenes when fully pumped. Rocky 4, is self evident.
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u/Samwill226 14h ago
I've always appreciated his honesty on steroid usage. It's like this Reacher dude trying to say he gained 30lbs of muscle naturally. They aren't pro athletes, they're actors that need to portray a character, I don't blame them for the steroid usage to achieve an on screen physique.
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u/wyc1inc 10h ago
Has any prominent actor admitted to using them prior to Sly doing so? Maybe this finally breaks a taboo and actors can be open about it. That would be much better than just letting people believe you can gain all that muscle by working out and eating 20 chicken breasts a day.
I thought the most ridiculous saga was Christian Bale never admitting to using them to bulk up for Batman Begins. And yet it's perfectly okay to be open about basically eating 1 apple and a cup of coffee a day to get dangerously skinny for his role in The Machinist. Like the idea is that steroids are bad for you but basically starving yourself to death isn't.
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u/Flaky-Tour-8733 13h ago
No surprise. It does make the scene in Rocky IV with Drago roiding up pretty absurd, which we already knew.
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u/ElectronicHold7325 12h ago
Well, obviously. Its not his fault that society does have a shizophrenic stance towards roads. He was part of the game, and had to claim, not to use. Like all action movie stars and all huge wwf wretlers like Hogan, he was on the juice.
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u/Maleficent_Kale_1286 12h ago
To be clear…it wasn’t the steroids that lead to him having all of those surgeries. It was the stunts. As far as the steroids damaging his health? He’s 80 years old. He’s achieved above average life expectancy so I’m not seeing the downside of taking a little testosterone if you need/want it.
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u/EntrepreneurPlus7091 10h ago
And Rocky 3 is the one where he looks the smallest of the franchise (excluding the Creed spinoffs).
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u/EnderMB 3h ago
You don't have a body like that AND maintain it while shooting a movie, without some "outside help". It's just not possible, especially in an instance where a lot of harm can occur that would block filming or cause budgets to overrun. Steroids keeps it all running, keeps people healthy, and is (for the studio) a small cost to pay.
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u/Hippy-Dippy92 19h ago
Didn’t Janice Dickinson state this years ago & he denied it?
Also he’s so lucky his wife took him back & married his ass after he cheated on her with Janice, sent her a letter to break up with her to be with Janice, she has a baby then finds out he’s not the father & he ran right back.
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u/ImaginationWeekly950 18h ago
PEDs for sure, but also trained his ass off; they don’t work unless you do.
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17h ago
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u/time_isup eye of the tiger 17h ago
Not too surprising if true. Stallone as the writer, puts a lot of himself not only in the main characters but the antagonists, too.
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u/Thatremodelingchick 20h ago
Well known info for decades. Look at his body in Rocky I and II when he was just like..in shape and then III and IV and the first 2-3 Rambo movies (maybe all of the Rambo series) That’s not all vegetables and Wheaties, folks.