Sylvester Stallone is now well over the age of retirement, but that hasn’t stopped him from getting in front of the camera. Does he do his own stunts?
Sylvester Stallone does some of his own stunts. The actor sometimes uses a stunt double but will try to do the stunt on his own merit before asking the double to step in. In fact, he suffered a broken neck on the set of The Expendables (2010) and was in the intensive care unit after a punch that proved too hard during the filming of Rocky IV (1985).
Keep reading to find out more about one of Stallone’s stunt doubles and about those awful on-set injuries.
He Uses a Stunt Double on Occasion
Billy Moore, a British author, and boxer worked as Sylvester Stallone’s stunt double on the set of Rambo IV (2008).
Moore spoke to Metro about the experience and how the American star struggled to understand his thick Liverpool accent. “I was quite close to him, and we spent time in his little caravan, but he couldn’t understand a word I was saying. It was quite funny.”
Despite the communication barrier, Moore enjoyed his time with Stallone. “He was a great guy—he never seemed out of character,” the UK boxer revealed.
“He was always like how you see him in the movies—he just talks the way he does and that’s how it is,” Moore continued.
“He was more intimidating, and he had a presence, I got a feeling that people respected him and when he was there you knew he was there,” Billy reflected.
The British stunt double remembered a time when Sylvester Stallone paid him a compliment.
“One day he watched me fight in this competition and he said to me, ‘You know what, you’re a warrior!’ That inspired me, for him to tell me that well, that was huge you know,’” Billy shared.
Talking about his time on set, Billy remembered a scene with the American actor.
“The craziest thing that happened is, he was ripping somebody’s throat out and he needed someone to stand in, so he could practice, and he used me. So, he had his arms around my throat—but it was brilliant,” Billy recalled.
Broken Neck
Sylvester Stallone is the age of a grandfather, but he tries not to let that stop him from performing dangerous stunts on set—maybe he should. While filming Expendables, Stallone was performing a fight scene with Steve “Stone Cold” Austin, wrestler and co-star.
The actor was flipped onto the floor and it must have been a hard landing—he needed emergency surgery in which a metal plate was inserted in his neck.
Syllevetor told FHM magazine, “Actually, my fight with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin was so vicious that I ended up getting a hairline fracture in my neck. I’m not joking.”
He continued, “I haven’t told anyone this, but I had to have a very serious operation afterward. I now have a metal plate in my neck.”
“…Heart Slammed Into Breastbone…”
Talking about his life-threatening injury received on the set of Rocky IV, the actor explained how he was filming a scene with Dolph Lundgren, who plays Ivan Drago in the movie.
Stallone told Ain’t It Cool, “…after the third take of taking body blows, I felt a burning in my chest, but ignored it.”
He continued, “Later that night I couldn’t breathe very well, and they took me to the emergency room.
The next thing I knew I was on a low-altitude flight from Canada to St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, and there I resided in intensive care for eight days.
He struck me so hard in the chest that my heart slammed against my breastbone and began to swell, so the beating became labored, and without medical attention the heart would’ve continued to swell until it stopped.
Many people that have car accidents die like this when the steering wheel slams into their chest. So in a sense I was hit by ‘a streetcar named Drago.’”
Sylvester Stallone Does Some of His Own Stunts
Although perhaps he shouldn’t. If these injuries didn’t stop the ‘40s-born actor from performing his own stunts, who knows what will. Hopefully, the aging star will take it just a little easier in his next blockbuster.
Watch Sylvester Stalone’s infamous training montage from the first Rocky movie below.