The undisputed champion of the action movie world, Sylvester Stallone, embodies the kind of entertainment that audiences demand from the genre. Whether it’s the hard-hitting bouts of Rocky or the adrenaline-fuelled intensity of Rambo, Stallone has always delivered the most explosive moments of cinema throughout his career.
Stallone is no brute, though, as his films also capture his emotional capabilities, although perhaps it is somewhat overshadowed by his sheer physical ferocity. There’s just a sense of unapologetic fun that drips throughout every Stallone performance, and though his films are sometimes considered guilty pleasures, they’re also worth their weight in gold.
His larger-than-life characters have delivered countless one-liners throughout Stallone’s time on screen, and there’s always been a tongue-in-cheek nature to his efforts. That nature came to fruition when Stallone appeared in the 1984 musical comedy movie Rhinestone, a feature the actor has some rather conflicted feelings about.
“The most fun I ever had on a movie was with Dolly Parton on Rhinestone,” Stallone said. “I must tell everyone right now that originally the director was supposed to be Mike Nichols, that was the intention and it was supposed to be shot in New York, down and dirty with Dolly and I with gutsy mannerisms performed like two antagonists brought together by fate.”
“I wanted the music at that time to be written by people who would give it sort of a bizarre edge,” he added. “Believe it or not, I contacted Whitesnake’s management and they were ready to write some very interesting songs alongside Dolly’s. But, I was asked to come down to Fox and out steps the director, Bob Clark. Bob is a nice guy, but the film went in a direction that literally shattered my internal corn meter into smithereens.”
Based on the 1975 hit song ‘Rhinestone Cowboy’ by Larry Weiss, Rhinestone saw Stallone and Parton star alongside Richard Farnsworth and Ron Leibman. Parton plays a country singer who makes a bet with a New York City nightclub owner that she can make anyone into a country star, and the person just so happens to be a country-hating cab driver played by Stallone.
Stallone admitted, though, that he would have liked to have “done things differently” with Rhinestone around that point of his career. “I certainly would’ve steered clear of comedy unless it was dark, Belgian chocolate dark,” he said. “Silly comedy didn’t work for me. I mean, would anybody pay to see John Wayne in a whimsical farce? Not likely.”
The actor signed off on the matter, “I would stay more true to who I am and what the audience would prefer rather than trying to stretch out and waste a lot of time and people’s patience. I also should’ve done many more indie films in between the large ones, which would’ve helped keep my feet on the ground.”