Stallone on CGI and his Marvel Experience: 'Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing'
By Jim Slotek
If you’re talking to Martin Scorsese, the question is, “Are Marvel films cinema?” If the interviewee is Sylvester Stallone, it’s “Are Marvel films really action films?”
After all, nothing is actually happening onscreen except in bits and bytes of CGI. This, while franchises like John Wick, The Fast & the Furious and, yes, Stallone’s The Expendables (the fourth instalment of which, Expend4bles, opens in theatres next week), trade in punches, pyro and actual destruction.
Stallone was interviewed publicly by TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey at the TIFF Bell Lightbox as part of the festival’s In Conversation With… program on Friday, in advance of the festival’s Saturday closing gala, the documentary Sly.
Stallone (who played Starhawk in the second and third Guardians of the Galaxy movies) was judicious with his words, but his preference for what makes an action movie was clear.
“I like doing things that aren’t CGI based,” he said. “You know, you can put on a costume, Velcro your muscles on this and that.
“But (in The Expendables), these guys are tough guys. Some of them are football players, Jason Statham is a former Olympic diver. (Stone Cold) Steve Austin. These were all the real deal. So, I enjoyed working with them because they took the pain and the accidents.
“I don’t know if this kind of filmmaking is going to prevail or whether it’s going to go the way of the dodo bird. It’s just bothering me, it really is. You have to put yourself on the line and take the bruises and the bumps.
“I don’t know if that’s the smartest thing. It’s just the only way I know, and it’s just I think the audience knows the difference.”
Recounting his Guardians experience, Stallone told the audience, “Wow. The green screen is five times the size of this stage. I look at these actors with respect. I say, ‘How do you do this for months and months and months and not get outside to act and do your character?’
“It’s really tremendously difficult. It seems like it’s easy. It’s not.”
“What we’re doing out there (in The Expendables) is much easier because it’s real. Things are blowing up, buildings are going sideways. So, you get excited. You’re outside, you’re doing it as opposed to pretending.
“I don’t look down on the Marvel type films. It’s just a different kind of acting that requires a whole different discipline. It’s almost like you’re signing up for boot camp.
“The other one is, again, a different kind of actor. And I don’t have it. I just like to be out there where it’s a little bit more challenging and real.”
In the 50-minute session, Stallone recounted how his early pay the bills jobs contributed to his filmmaking dreams. He was a movie theatre usher and recorded dialogue from the movies. He said he worked in a book store and admitted he stole books to learn about writing.
In 1974’s The Lords of Flatbush, with Henry Winkler, he was given the credit “additional dialogue by Sylvester Stallone,” his first writing credit
He talked about the hellish give-and-take in First Blood, the debut of Rambo, his fights with Canadian director Ted Kotcheff, and his insistence that Rambo “find” a poncho because he was freezing in the B.C. forest.
And, in discussing his favourite characters, he allowed that Rambo is done. “Obviously I could do Rocky until I’m 100 years old. You don’t have to fight in the ring. There’s so many fights in life. Rambo, I could leave him. He’s done, pretty much. Even though they wanna do another one, I’m like, ‘What am I fighting, like, arthritis?’”
He ran through his work-related injuries. “I’ve had seven back operations, three neck fusions, shoulder replaced, knees replaced, ruptured gall bladder. Especially in Rambo, I’ve had a lot of injuries.
“And I recommend, use a stuntman. It’s really simple. Don’t be a moron like me.”
And, in a nod to those super-hero stories, he said, “I’ve always thought, comic books had a big influence on me, coming to the rescue.
“Grandeur, good triumphs over evil, the guy saves a bus full of children. That’s who I want to be. I want to be the guy who saves people.”