Actor Anthony Ippolito transforms into Sylvester Stallone for the biographical feature I Play Rocky, tracing the 1976 struggle to bring the underdog story to the screen. Following its European premiere at the Zurich Film Festival, the film traces the parallel journey of a writer fighting studio gatekeepers.
Zurich Film Festival Hosts European Premiere of I Play Rocky
The 22nd Zurich Film Festival brought the European spotlight to the biographical drama I Play Rocky, directed by Peter Farrelly. Screened within the Gala Premieres section, the project turns its lens back to the mid-1970s to capture the real-life battle behind the creation of the 1976 cinema classic Rocky.
Actor Anthony Ippolito walked the red carpet in Switzerland to showcase the project, stepping into the shoes of a young Sylvester Stallone before the actor became one of the most prominent stars of Hollywood through the character of Rocky Balboa. Farrelly’s feature directs attention away from a standard Hollywood historical recap, zeroing in on the financial desperation and creative defiance that nearly stopped the original sports drama from ever reaching theaters.
Anthony Ippolito Secures the Lead Through Unconventional Auditions
Landing the role required a departure from traditional casting calls. Rather than waiting for a formal invitation, Ippolito built his own setup in his grandmother’s basement, installing a punching bag and filming an audition tape focused intensely on the physical carriage and movement of Stallone during his struggling years.
Director Peter Farrelly wrapped the casting search almost immediately upon viewing the tape. Preparing for the demanding physical transformation took a year and a half of intense physical training—adding roughly 40 pounds of muscle—alongside a deep dive into historical footage of the Hollywood icon, as reported during the festival rollout.
Virtual Sessions With Sylvester Stallone Shape the Performance
Though the original creator of the iconic boxing franchise is not formally attached to the biographical film, Ippolito connected directly with Stallone across multiple Zoom conversations during pre-production. Those direct exchanges changed the actor’s approach.
“This performance felt tailor-made for me, allowing me to genuinely be myself, something I’ve never done in my entire life,” Anthony Ippolito, via Mobtada
The young lead noted that speaking with Stallone helped him strip away the instinct to merely mimic a famous voice, allowing him to focus instead on the human being enduring the lean years in New York before breaking through.
Sylvester Stallone Reflects on His Early Hardships and Memorable Reactions
The feature mirrors Stallone’s actual origins, born on July 6, 1946, in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen. An obstetrical forceps delivery damaged a nerve on the left side of his face, leaving him with a partial speech impediment and weakness in part of his lip, chin, and tongue that drew mockery during his youth—adversity that ultimately shaped his screen persona.
By March 1975, working as a struggling actor who had cleaned lion cages at Central Park and taken minor parts in films like Klute, Stallone watched Muhammad Ali face Chuck Wepner. That underdog endurance inspired him to draft the screenplay for Rocky in just three and a half days, refusing studio offers that sought to buy the script without casting him as the lead.
When first approached about a biographical film covering his early struggles, Stallone admitted to initial hesitation during a promotional event for his memoir The Steps.
Sylvester Stallone told Vetogate, I asked myself: I'm not dead yet, aren't we rushing a bit to present a biography?
That skepticism vanished once he viewed footage of Ippolito in character. I thought for a split second that it was me
, Stallone remarked, adding that he even showed the footage to his daughter in disbelief over the resemblance.