Sylvester Stallone has spent much of his career playing men who seem impossible to knock down. In a new interview, he is talking about moments in his own life when sudden anxiety has left him struggling to stay upright.
Stallone, 80, told The New York Times that the episodes began in his mid-30s and have continued over the years. He described the first as so frightening that he believed he was dying.
Sylvester Stallone Recalls His First Anxiety-Induced Attack
Sylvester said his first episode happened at 36 while he was watching dailies from a film project.
“The first time was when I was 36 and I was watching dailies, and then all of a sudden I stood up and the hair on my neck went up and I started getting hot and I go, I’m dying, this is it, I’m on my way out. And bang, down I went. Took a knee, crawled, rolled over, and now I’m in this dark movie theater.”
The “Rocky” star did not describe the experiences as panic attacks. He said the intense anxiety returned “again and again and again.”
The ‘Rocky’ Star Says the Episodes Still Happen
GettySylvester said the attacks can surface in crowded settings. He recalled attending an art exhibition with his wife when he felt another episode beginning.
“When I’m in a crowd, I’d be with my wife at an art exhibition and the room is filling up. It’s getting more and more, and then I’d go, ‘I’m going down,’ and she’d be like, ‘Let’s get out of here.’ And literally I just make it to the alley, boom, get down on one knee.”
The admission offers a rare look at something he has dealt with privately while spending decades in the public eye.
Sylvester Stallone Opens Up About His Body Struggles
GettyElsewhere in the interview, Sylvester reflected on the pressure he put on himself to maintain the muscular physiques associated with Rocky Balboa and John Rambo.
He said that pursuit became unhealthy while preparing for “Rocky III.”
“It got to the point where I became bulimic,” he said.
“I got down to 2.6 percent body fat when I was doing ‘Rocky III,’ and I couldn’t hold anything down. Or I didn’t want to keep it down because I became so obsessed with staying at that point of fitness, literally an obsessive body-worship kind of thing.”
GettySylvester also discussed using drugs while pursuing a specific physique and said the process took “a terrible toll.”
Stallone also reflected on another frightening on-set injury that happened years earlier while filming “Rocky IV” in 1985. He said a punch from costar Dolph Lundgren landed with enough force to send him to the hospital.
“He hit me so hard he almost stopped my heart,” Stallone recalled in a 2019 interview with Vulture.
“Next thing I know, I’m on a low-altitude plane to the emergency room, and I’m in intensive care for four days.”
‘The Steps’ Will Look Back at Stallone’s Life
The revelations come days before Sylvester’s memoir, “The Steps: A Memoir,” is scheduled for release on Tuesday, September 29.
The book revisits his life before fame, his rise through Hollywood and the experiences that shaped his career. It arrives as the actor speaks more openly about the personal cost behind the physical toughness audiences have associated with him for decades.
