Anthony Ippolito saw the opportunity of a lifetime when he learned that Oscar-winning director Peter Farrelly was developing a film about Sylvester Stallone’s determination to write and star in the original “Rocky.” There was just one problem: No one had asked him to audition for “I Play Rocky.”
“So I took it upon myself to do some stuff on my own and send it to them unsolicited,” the 27-year-old actor said in a recent interview with The Associated Press ahead of the film’s limited release on Friday.
It was a move that could be seen as taking a page from the book of Stallone’s unexpected rise to stardom, but according to Ippolito, “It didn’t feel like it at the time, to be honest. I was just hoping someone would see it.”
Farrelly did this and was convinced from the start.
“He sent his tape in coldly and we think that’s the guy,” the director recalled. “We were going to do a worldwide survey, but we never did.”
Farrelly was particularly impressed by Ippolito’s ability to separate the man from his famous on-screen persona.
“This guy came fully formed; he was exactly what I was looking for because he wasn’t a caricature of Stallone or Rocky, and he knew the difference,” Farrelly said.
Ippolito already has experience stepping into the shoes of a Hollywood icon. He previously played a young Al Pacino in “The Offer,” a miniseries about the making of the 1972 classic “The Godfather.” Farrelly was a big fan of “The Proposal” and his favorite performance was playing Pacino. What he didn’t realize was that Ippolito was the actor behind it.
“That’s when I realized: ‘Oh, this guy is good.’ I mean, I knew he was good for what we had, but I didn’t realize how this guy could become whatever he wanted,” Farrelly said.
Both roles faced similar challenges: portraying legendary actors at key moments in their careers, before fame and success defined their public identities. He had to, as he put it, “cut out the celebrity,” looking beyond familiar voices and mannerisms to find the people underneath. To portray Stallone, Ippolito explored the challenges that shaped and nurtured the older actor; these included a difficult childhood, limited parental support, and a deep sense of loneliness. Ippolito described the process as partly voyeuristic, partly speculative.
“It’s at this point and you’re kind of trying to imagine moments that don’t exist in the cinema,” he said.
Equally intriguing to Ippolito was Stallone’s determination. Here was a struggling actor who turned down offers in the $300,000 range for the “Rocky” script rather than quit the lead role. Fifty years later, Ippolito sees that gamble as the heart of Stallone’s story: a man willing to risk everything for a dream that Hollywood was ready to buy but wouldn’t let him live.
“What he does is incredible… and the faith he has and his determination to see his idea through to the end is incredible,” Ippolito said.
For AnnaSophia Robb, who plays Stallone’s first wife, Sasha, Ippolito’s transformation seemed almost effortless.
“He was very tactful about everything. I met him, and he’s not methodical or anything, but, you know, he had devoted about a year and a half to getting into this role,” Robb said. “So when we stepped on set it felt very natural. It felt right.”
As rumors about the film grow, Ippolito gets his first taste of Stallone’s life-changing spotlight. “It was very, very gratifying and surprising to see the film reach certain people,” he said.
One of these people was Stallone, who did not appear in the film except for his conversation with Farrelly. But he saw it, as he told the AP in a September interview.
“This is amazing. And the kid did a great job,” he said. “That’s weird. They usually do that when you’re dead and gone.”
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AP National Writer Hillel Italie contributed reporting.