Rocky II was almost killed as Sylvester Stallone revealed after he suffered a serious injury before the shooting of the film.
During a one-on-one interview with Arnold Schwarzenegger, The Expandable star remembered his pectoral muscles were torn in an intense workout session before the production of the sequel.
Reflecting on the injury, the Golden Globe shared that his trainer Franco Columbu who happened to be the Terminator star’s gym guide too, was laser-focused on his work.
“I gotta tell you about Frank. This guy here, he was very eccentric,” Sylvester said in footage shared by TMZ.
“We’re working, and he goes, ‘Let’s have a competition with bench press.’ I said, ‘You won.’ He goes, ‘No, come anyway.’ So I go down, and it’s maybe only 200, and I’m just [warming up] and I hear, ‘Pow!’ I go, ‘Ugh,’ and I fall on the floor, and I’m going, ‘Ahh,’ and then Franco goes, ‘Let me see,’ and he jams his fingers.”
Adding, “I’ve torn my pec off the bone. I mean, bad. I could hear it go rip, and he was jamming his fingers then. I think I’m going to black out.”
However, the 77-year-old said he made use of his injury by adding this to his character’s arc.
“So I go home. I feel like my career is over. I’m supposed to start Rocky II — direct it, everything — in a month and a half. And I said I got to have this thing sewn up,” he continued.
“Here’s the difference, and [Arnold] would have done the same thing. I can’t use this arm, so I’ll change it in Rocky; he’ll fight right-handed. Completely illogical, but I said ‘I’m not stopping this movie just for this.’”
Proving his resilience, Sylvester concluded the anecdote, saying, “So in Rocky, that was one of the key things. It’s interesting the way these incredible journeys happen. But we don’t stop, we don’t quit.”