ROCKY “HASN’T BOUGHT A TUX IN 40 YEARS”
The Academy announced their list of 2016 award nominations this morning, and we’re thrilled to report that Sylvester Stallone now ranks on that elite list. This honor comes just days after Stallone’s well-earned Golden Globe win for Creed.
When Stallone’s name was announced during the Academy’s live telecast, the loudest cheer of the morning went up from the packed crowd of reporters and members of the press. Sly’s competition in the Best Supporting Actor category include Christian Bale in “The Big Short”, Tom Hardy in “The Revenant”, Mark Ruffalo in “Spotlight”, and Mark Rylance in “Bridge of Spies”.
Unfortunately, Stallone’s nomination is the only one earned for the entire Creed production despite the film’s excellent cast, and extraordinary writing from Aaron Covington and Ryan Coogler, not to mention Coogler’s moving direction. The film’s star, Michael B. Jordan, didn’t receive a nomination, either.
It’s been nearly 40 years since Sly first garnered a coveted Oscar nomination for portraying the character he created in 1976’s Rocky, as well as a nomination for his Best Original Screenplay (he lost in both categories, though the film won for Best Picture). Stallone joins a short list of actors including Bing Crosby, Paul Newman, Peter O’Toole, Al Pacino and Cate Blanchett, all of whom have received Academy Award nominations for playing the same role in different movies.
The Los Angeles Times caught up with Stallone, asking him what his alter ego would say about today’s exciting news. “He’s thrilled, though he doesn’t know what to wear,” Sly says of Rocky Balboa. “He hasn’t bought a tux in 40 years!”
“The competition is so extraordinary. And now here I am 40 years later,” he says in the Times interview. “How many peaks and valleys and how difficult it is to maintain any sense of longevity, and then to be brought back into drama from basically spending so much time in another genre, that to me is extraordinary to have bridged that gap back to where I started in drama. It is really amazing to me.”
