Sylvester Stallone has criticised Hollywood for overlooking audiences in Middle America, crediting television producer Taylor Sheridan with reaching viewers who want stories beyond California and New York.
Speaking on Thursday’s episode of The Rest Is Entertainment podcast, the actor argued that the industry had neglected those audiences since the era of Western star John Wayne.
“They’re always writing about California and New York,” he said.
Stallone told interviewer Marina Hyde that Sheridan recognised an audience hungry for a different portrayal of American life. However, he maintained that traditional film studios had yet to fully respond to that demand.
He contrasted their approach with streaming services, praising the platforms for their flexibility and ability to move programmes into production and onto screens quickly. Stallone has found a television audience of his own through Sheridan’s Tulsa King.
In the Paramount+ crime drama, he plays Dwight Manfredi, a New York mobster who leaves prison after serving 25 years. His former criminal organisation sends him to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he starts building a new operation.
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Meanwhile, Stallone’s struggle to establish himself in Hollywood forms the basis of I Play Rocky, a biographical drama from director Peter Farrelly.
Anthony Ippolito portrays the young Stallone as he fights to write and star in the 1976 boxing film, despite resistance to casting an unknown actor in the lead.
Stallone said he declined to participate in the biopic because he worried his involvement would make it seem self-congratulatory. Nevertheless, he praised Ippolito’s preparation and physical transformation for the role. The original Rocky won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Amazon MGM Studios says I Play Rocky opens in select cinemas on Friday, with a wider release later in November.
(With input from Fox News.)
