Speaking of Sylvester Stallone is talking about one of the actors who has given us the most hours of entertainment to those of us who grew up in the 80s and 90s, thanks mainly to his starring roles in the Rambo and Rocky series, but also in lesser-known action and science fiction films like Demolition Man. However, before becoming the superstar he is today, the protagonist of The Expendables had to hear more than one “no”, even to be an extra.
And not in just any movie, but in what many consider the best film ever produced of all time (at least according to the votes of thousands of users on IMDb): The Godfather. As Stallone himself recounted in several interviews a few years ago, before rising to fame in his boxer character in the legendary Rocky (1976), he tried his luck as an extra, someone who had not a single line of dialogue, in Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece. The reason? “They didn’t see me as Italian enough,” he commented in 2023 speaking to Fox News.
“For some reason, gangsters have that aura, and I’ve always been left out… I remember I went to an audition for The Godfather as an extra, one of the 250 people at the wedding. They said I didn’t look Italian enough.”
“I went to Paramount and said, ‘Can I be an extra in the wedding scene.’ They said, ‘We don’t know if you’re the right type.’ And I said, ‘I’m not the right type? To be in the background, hiding behind a damn wedding cake?'”.
Now He’s Dwight “The General” Manfredi
This excerpt is part of another interview with Empire, where he tells how happy he was to be able to accept the offer made by that same Hollywood studio 50 years later to become a gangster. The project we are talking about is Tulsa King, a television series aired in Spain through SkyShowtime where Sylvester Stallone plays Dwight “The General” Manfredi, a newly released capo sent to the second largest city in Oklahoma to take over its underworld.
El Padrino (The Godfather) – Trilogia 50 Aniversario (Blu-ray)
* Prices may have changed since the last review
Tulsa King has just premiered its second season on SkyShowtime, so if you have ever imagined what the actor from Rocky could be like in a mob movie, you might want to give this program produced by Taylor Sheridan a chance, who has shown a good hand so far with his series, with successes like Yellowstone and its spin-offs, Mayor of Kingstown, etc.
As for his non-role in The Godfather, we understand he is referring to this scene where there are a large number of extras of all sizes and classes. Seeing Stallone now in Tulsa King, it’s hard for us to understand why he was rejected. The Francis Ford Coppola trilogy, by the way, can now be seen through Max.
In 3DJuegos | Stallone was offered money non-stop until he accepted to star in Over the Top. Nevertheless, the star thought that no one would watch the movie
In 3DJuegos | It’s not The Penguin, but it’s also on Max and it’s a great gangster series you’ll want to watch for the next 30 nights; Godfather of Harlem
