I Play Rocky, the true story of how a broke, unknown Sylvester Stallone refused to let anyone else play Rocky Balboa, had its Los Angeles premiere on Saturday at AFI Fest, where it screened as one of the festival’s red carpet premieres at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
Director Peter Farrelly walked the carpet with his cast, led by Anthony Ippolito as the young Stallone. AnnaSophia Robb plays Sasha Czack, Stallone’s first wife and the film’s female lead, and she was there alongside Stephan James, who plays Carl Weathers, Kiki Seto, who plays Talia Shire, and Matt Dillon, who plays Stallone’s father, Frank Stallone Sr. P.J. Byrne, who plays producer Irwin Winkler, was also on hand.
The Los Angeles premiere follows the film’s world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, where audiences made it the first runner-up for the People’s Choice Award. The premiere also lands in a milestone year for the franchise: the original Rocky opened in 1976 and went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, and the story behind it is now being retold 50 years later.
Farrelly directs from a script by Peter Gamble, following Stallone as he turns down bigger and bigger offers rather than hand his screenplay to a studio that wanted an established name in the gloves. TDN readers got their first look at Ippolito in the role earlier this month, and the film’s second trailer leans hard into that gamble.
UPDATE, Wednesday, Oct 28, 7:34 a.m.: Ippolito on becoming Stallone and working with the dog playing Butkus, and Stephan James on his Carl Weathers tribute, added.
Ippolito earned the part the hard way, and he told Variety at the screening that becoming Stallone took nearly two years of training at Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn, bulking up from about 150 pounds to roughly 180. His first scenes, though, belonged to a co-star who could not be directed: the dog playing Butkus, Rocky’s bullmastiff. Ippolito met the 140-to-160-pound dog only the day before filming, and by his own cheerful account the dog “wasn’t a huge fan of me” at first, warming up only after a couple of days and plenty of treats, and doing largely whatever it wanted on set. It is a fitting echo of the real story: Stallone, too broke to feed Butkus, sold him for $40 before fame found him, then bought him back for $15,000 once the Rocky script sold.
Stephan James, who plays Carl Weathers in the film, brought his own tribute to the afternoon. James told Variety that he had the white three-piece suit Weathers wore to the Rocky II premiere in Philadelphia remade for him, so he could, in his words, “literally walk in his shoes yet again.” It was a fitting nod to the original Apollo Creed from the actor now stepping into his role.
Fans in New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia do not have long to wait: early access screenings are set for November 1 and 4, with tickets on sale now. I Play Rocky opens in select theaters November 6 and in theaters everywhere November 20. The film is rated PG-13.