40 Years of Rocky: The Birth of a Classic (2020) - full transcript

It was early in

the morning

on the streets of Philadelphia.

It was freezing cold.

And I just started to feel

something welling inside.

And they go, "Sly, are you

ready?"

I go, "I'm not.

"But Rocky is."

I was a complete unknown,

even unknown to myself.

And I had this idea.

A lot of peo

e were feeling

kind of the way I was, going nowhere fast.

And I didn't know whether I had

it or not.

So I wrote this story about an

underdog,

a person who wasn't very

appreciated,

and I was

ven a break by United Artist and

now, you had to put up or shut up,

so I couldn't believe my good

fortune

and every day we'd go to the

studio

and work on the script a little

bit.

Of course, I had a bit of

an odd personality I guess.

Maybe I was born

o play this part, I don't know, but it

just seemed to fit into all the things

that I sort of believed in.

Anyway, we started working on

experimental ideas about boxing.

There had been many boxing films

like,

maybe over 300 made in Hollywood

and they weren't very successful

so

I couldn't believe my good luck

here

when they're doing a boxing

film about this character.

But the point is, it wasn't a

boxing film.

It was a story about

obsolescence,

about not getting an opportunity

in life,

and more importantly, eventually,

a serious love story.

And he happens to be a boxer.

So the relationship comes

a little bit later on

but it's the key to the whole

movie.

John Avildsen in the background.

He always took these,

he's driving me crazy

with these eight millimeter

films

but here we are, so I'm glad he

did it.

But at the time I thought,

what a waste of film.

Now, Mike Westmore, who

was a great, great, great

makeup artist, part of

the Westmore family,

he started doing all of the

experiments.

Here again, I'm just overdoing

everything.

Makeup tests.

And it was great, but I ended

up with barely any eyebrows

left the rest of my

life, so there is that.

At one time I actually

wanted Rocky to look

very, very punchy and I thought,

why don't you glue my nose

to the side of my face?

So they got this kind

of colostomy bad glue

and it was so bad, it

looked like a cartoon,

like I had run into a wall like

Gumby.

So anyway as you can see, I

took things to kind of extremes.

I mean, it looks like a lost

clam.

We got lucky with Burgess

Meredith

who was a world class actor

with 50 years experience

and he took it very serious.

He was f

tastic and developed his characterthat

was based on a real character

and he had all the mannerisms.

'Cause I did real good last

night,

and you should've seen me.

Big deal.

You should've seen me, too.

Hey, kid.

You ever think about retiring?

No.

You think about it.

My friend

Stan Shaw in the back.

Great guy.

I didn't know anything.

You know, I talked a good game

like, yeah, I'm a good boxer.

I didn't know how to box

anything, except maybe oranges.

But I was willing to try.

The character was not supposed

to be a gifted fighter.

He was gifted in other ways.

He just could take an

incredible amount of punishment,

and he was fighting for an

ideal.

He had no allusions that he was

a winner,

he just wanted an opportunity.

Then we came across this

amazing guy, Carl Weathers,

the gr

test film boxer of all

time.

This man could move.

Well, he was a world class

athlete and a great actor,

but God, could he move.

This is us really

beginning to figure it out.

There was a situation happening.

They had hired a choreographer

and the choreographer was used

to doing old-fashioned films

like you hit me, I hit

you, you hit me, I hit you.

And that's what was normally

done in a closeup of two guys

just sort of, as we say,

shoe-shining.

One-two, one-two, one-two,

one-two.

And I thought you know, let's

try to do something different.

Look who just popped up.

My brother.

He was a great singer, is a

great singer,

and I thought well, since I

can't afford anyone else,

I'll use him.

Now here's him in the ring,

really showing his love and

appreciation for the job.

Appreciate it, like start

tackling me, knocking me down.

Of course I'm trying to

make him feel good here

by getting a concussion.

Back to Carl, he's improving a

great deal.

And I said to the stunt

coordinator,

I said, "Why doesn't Carl come

out

"and hit me like four jabs on

the right?

He goes, "That isn't the way it

is."

I said, "Well how about

three jabs on the right?"

He goes, "No, just follow my

thing."

I said, "Well, I wanna

see something different."

He goes, "Okay.

"I quit."

So he left, and I was stuck,

and Irwin looked at me

like hey, who are you to...

Well this is the guy actually

right before he left.

His name was I think Stackler

or something like that.

Nice guy, but he had his

old-fashioned way of doing

something,

and I wanted it to look as

close to real as possible,

and usually boxing films,

the actors really were not

in any kind of great shape

and they didn't work any

kind of choreography,

it was sort of done on the fly.

You hit me, I hit you,

and no one was ever in

really excellent shape

so we started writing it up.

The director said hey, why

don't you write it out?

And I thought okay, you mean

like a dance?

Absolutely like a dance.

Then we hired Jimmy Nickerson

and he got in some semi-pros

here

who blocked out the actual real

boxing

and I would study it and go

that's believable, that's

believable.

And then I started to borrow things

from the world's greatest fights

and condense them into

moments in our film.

So everything you've ever seen

in Rocky

has actually happened before.

In the back there's famous Gene

LeBell,

world famous stuntman and Judo

champion.

This is all practice footage,

and he's working on Jimmy

Nickerson

who insists on him

actually hitting him a lot,

which I don't know what was

going through Jimmy's head.

He actually did get knocked out.

There's Gene LeBell practicing.

He's overacting as his

as a referee.

I never

w a referee

get into a full squat, but why not?

This is footage that was

never seen in the movie.

It was supposed to be in the

movie.

Rocky is watching Apollo

knock all these people out.

Mickey is going, "You don't

have a chance," basically.

This is a real fighter

named Sonny Shields,

father of the world class

fighter named Randy Shields.

He thought Carl was just an

actor,

I said he's a powerful

man, and he blasted him,

and eventually knocked

him down again, for real.

We never used this footage,

which is unfortunate.

It was a work in progress.

So in between setups, I would

constantly be re-writing

and re-writing

and trying to make this thing

work

for the budget that we

had, which was nothing.

And our locations were pretty,

you know, pretty sparse.

But you know, I think that

worked out for the best.

I hadn't figured out

Rocky's color combination,

so this is just us practicing

basically choreography

and makeup tests.

And you can see like the

ropes hanging on the ground.

This was again, just for us,

too much smoke or too much

makeup,

we were trying to figure out.

Like this.

Hey, anybody want a hamburger?

How you doin'?

Like, little bit of overacting

putting the cart in

front of the horse here.

I think Carl again, this

was mostly a makeup test.

This place was freezing by the

way,

it was in the dead of winter,

so.

It was not conducive

to moving around a lot.

But again, we did what we could

because we were borrowing

the Olympic Auditorium.

And we're seeing how close we

could get with the punches.

Those are actual eight ounce

gloves

that are not doctored up,

and when you get hit with them,

it's...

My eye is closed, your depth

perception

is way off.

So this is what these

rehearsals helped with,

figuring out what works

and what doesn't work.

There's my father.

We're sitting around before the

film

kind of figuring out theúlogistics with the set designer

and it was great to be

part of all of this.

I didn't know what I was

doing, but it sounded good

and it looked good.

And we were pretty passionate

about it.

But really there's something

good

about not knowing everything,

you're just throwing

yourself headlong into it.

Made my father the bell

ringer, that was interesting.

He'd always ring the bell

about 20 seconds late

and I would take a beating.

And I kept going, is this kind

of Freudian by any chance?

That's me wearing my incredibly

expensive York shirt.

Kind of hung up on the

tank tops at the time,

I don't know why.

Storyboards are something

I'd never seen before.

It was very interesting.

It was laid out what

we were supposed to do.

This whole kind of ritual of two

men

getting ready to face one

another,

Rocky being incredibly inferior

and Carl, or Apollo Creed,

just taking it as another day

in the life of a champion, no

big deal.

But all these maneuvers

here like the Vick's

and the greasing up, this is

pretty much

what we were taught by authentic

trainers.

Rocky knows he's basically

going to get slaughtered

so he's just praying he

doesn't get hurt too much.

And Carl, this is the first

time we actually see him

get serious in the film as

Apollo Creed.

You won't believe this camera.

This is so gigantic.

Everything we had was, I don't

know,

just scraping things together.

This gigantic camera, that

we had to lash to the car.

They don't even exist anymore.

This fella here, his

name was Jimmy Gambina,

he was also a trainer,

his father's a trainer,

and I thought I'd put him in a

movie

'cause he was really

some kind of character.

And it worked out.

Don't you think you oughta

take a rest?

No, my back is hurt.

Your back?

My back is hurt.

You deaf?

No, I'm short.

As I was

getting prepared again,

me being very mature between

takes,

this is how I prepare for a movie, by

chasing Adrian with a meat cleaver.

You think it's a little odd

perhaps.

We tried to keep it loose.

It was a lot of fun in

a way, and I tend to

ot want to walk around all

moody, and I just try to

keep it relaxed 'cause if you're

relaxed,

the rest of the crew is relaxed.

And then you turn it on when you

have to,

so you can see me with Joe

Spinell who played Mr. Gazzo

and John Avildsen,

makeup man Mike Westmore,

and we're just having a good

time.

That hat was a real bone of

contention.

Nobody wanted me to wear the

hat.

They wanted me to just

be, you know, bareheaded.

I go,

So there was a store there

and I bought the hat,

there's the director's children,

bought that hat for like $3

and I wanna wear the hat.

And the producer goes,

"You can't wear this hat."

and I go, "Why?"

He says, "Because,

"Gene Hackman wore it

in French Connection."

I says, "So, that's the end of

hats?

"So, hats are banned?"

I said, "It kind of

tops off the character."

And I just went ahead and used

the hat.

I'd never seen a hat like it,

it was like this cheap,

felt, cardboard hat,

but it just worked perfectly,

and I think made a great

impression on the character.

I think it just set the whole

thing like a suit of armor.

It was a costume that he

was sort of hiding behind.

And then when you see

him put on the glasses

like they should realize, he's

not this real tough specimen,

he's kind of nerdy in a way.

Yeah, this is us in between

takes, just hanging out.

This is a scene that was

amazing.

I wrote it for 300 extras.

And Adrian was s

posed to be taken out on the ice by this

incredible ice skater and he's showing off

and I'm sort of humiliated

and then I get into sort

of a beef with the fella.

I show up on the set, they said,

"Well, we've had to cut the

extras back a little bit."

I go, "To what?"

He goes, "To none."

You're kidding me!

How about a heads up?

So I went back and I started

re-writing immediately

and, well, the proof is in the

pudding.

It became just the two of us on

the ice

and since I can't ice skate,

Rocky runs alongside of her.

That's George Memmoli who

was a great character,

actor and a friend,

and it turned out to be

a thousand times better

if there had been a big, big

crowd here.

So, again, taking the negative

and making it a positive.

Got very lucky on that day.

But that scene sort of set the

tone for Rocky's first date.

He wasn't used to you know,

being very...

Well we'll just say

sophisticated,

but I think that was part of

his charm was his honesty.

No it's okay, it's okay.

Hey listen, are you closed

to the general public,

or are you just closed to

everybody, you know what I mean?

You can see here, we really

struggling.

She was not exactly you

know, Ice Capades either.

We're just struggling

out there which I thought

kind of reflected on who they

were, too.

It's like, neither one of

them is very graceful in life.

But together, they're a perfect

fit, they really really are.

I almost b

ke my neck on this about 10 times.

This turned out to be very, very good.

You can see where John's

rehearsals

were absolutely duplicated in

reality,

so it was a perfect thing.

I tell you, things get

pretty rough in the rink.

Again, this is the

makeup with Mike Westmore

and we'd be running lines here.

So we've hit the ground running.

I like to learn a lot of

dialogue

a long time before the

production

so you can let it go and ad lib

and then come back to the

script.

And Burgess, who's a classically

trained actor and I wasn't,

was totally on board with that.

And he was just fantastic.

He's really a consummate

performer.

I didn't realize it at the time

'cause I had never worked

with anyone that good,

but now, as I reflect on

it, one of the greatest.

This was an actual

apartment, believe it or not,

and I thought we should add

some things that are a bit odd,

like a mattress stuck to

the wall full of bayonets.

Don't explain it, just,

that's the way he lives.

And a bowl full of turtles and

so on.

We couldn't afford a hose

to wet down the street,

so we'd do it by buckets.

Rocky solidifies his

relationship with Mickey

after a tempestuous brawl

a few moments earlier

where he just unloaded on

Mickey about being ignored.

But that's what made the

character,

he's just always forgiving.

This

s my friend Gene Kirkwood, he was very, very

important in having the film actually made.

And Burt Young, who was

fantastic.

We start in Philadelphia and

we end up here, this is L.A.,

running along the side of

the meat packing place.

I don't know exactly why

I wrote in a slider house,

but it was just an idea.

Like boxers are considered meat,

you know,

we don't think of them as you

know,

regular human beings, but they

are.

They have a lot of heart and

soul,

they're not just flesh to be hit

upon.

And so that was somewhat a

symbolic move,

a little heavy-handed

but I think it worked.

And here we are outside.

Yeah, with my dog Butkus

which was actually my dog

and I thought Rocky and the

dog looked very much alike,

so I wanted him in the movie.

And I thought it again added

a little bit of character

to who Rocky was, and it

was a gift from Adrian.

This is a scene that

was made up on the spot.

What's that, Butkus?

Whose truck is this?

Come on.

I was supposed to just be in

there.

I thought, you know, it'd

be great if he just shows up

and there's Burt saying,

"Hey, hope you don't mind,

"I called your television

network,

"and I'm basically here to

embarrass you."

And of course, Rocky takes it in

stride

and goes along with it 'cause

he's that kind of a guy.

This place was so magical.

I mean just these streets,

I go back there every now and

then.

It's amazing.

They're so small, so

narrow, so claustrophobic,

the terrain is just so

graphically interesting.

Yo.

Yo.

Yo, you look great.

And then, right here, this

is where she just exploded.

I mean, she became Cinderella.

This is what he saw.

When he's here to pesh up,

everyone else saw this homely,

very, very shy woman.

He saw really a beautiful

person, inside and out.

And she really sold it in that

moment.

This is the game changer.

This man's name is Garrett

Brown, he's an inventor,

he lives in Philadelphia

and just out of luck,

he goes, "I got this camera

called the Steadicam."

I go, "Excuse me?" It kinda

looks like a vacuum cleaner.

But no, this thing was amazing.

You could run as fast as you

could, be on a bouncy truck,

yet the picture is incredibly

level.

And here we are in this

very, very inexpensive film

using a revolutionary

camera, which really,

basically revolutionized the

business

and is used probably

on every movie there is

around the world.

Extraordinary.

Yeah, fight night.

Carl

we had this idea of him being Uncle Sam. I

thought, we're gonna push the envelope here.

This probably was so

much out of our budget

we could barely afford it.

The robe they made for me

was for a guy who was six foot

five

but again, we work it into the

movie.

"Don't you think this

robe is kind of baggy?"

"It looks great, don't worry

about it."

We don't have many extras,

so the camera angles

are very, very important

to be shooting up

and these little lights which

you see in the background

which add depth of field,

these Christmas lights,

they're very effective.

And out here, we're starting

out working on the choreography

that eventually will be

almost punch for punch

exactly what happens in the

final product.

So it's interesting to see how,

bam bam.

It worked!

I mean, it was shocking.

I enjoy seeing this here.

Of course, you never know

when you get out there.

It could be the biggest waste of

time

and you go it looks really

phony,

but we're able to take it from

the gym

where you didn't know, I mean,

you have to understand, we

didn't know what we were doing.

No one ever rehearsed for

months and months and months

and months and months.

And boxing films weren't

very, very popular,

so I thought, are we just

really wasting our time?

Or is this actually going

to translate into something?

So every day you go in there,

I hope this is just not

gonna be an embarrassment.

From that little gym, it

worked in the big picture.

Punch for punch.

And we were able to do this

time and time and time again,

ich is why I always advocate for a long,

long, long rehearsal for boxing films.

And most people don't do it.

It's well worth the effort.

He can't

even get his gloves up

to protect himself.

Here's Carl

just laying it on me.

Beautiful.

His timing is amazing, it really

is.

The canvas was interesting.

We designed these stars

which was reminiscent

of Apollo Creed's trunks.

The acting started six

months earlier in the gym,

and you're just hoping it works

there.

We've been building up

to this, right here.

This is the harder part.

How do you keep the audience

engaged with the drama

that these men are going

through,

and the trauma what they're

going through.

This I believe is after the

show.

We're all pretty much wrapped up

and having a little bit of

barbecue

with John and his children.

In my Howdy Doody shirt.

This is I guess, yeah,

it has to be probably while

we're editing

because my hair is longer in

this part.

This is great.

We tried to keep this as free to

the core,

this kind of family group.

Bill Conti, who I cannot express

how important he was to this

movie.

His music just took it to

another level.

Yeah, classical music

in an un-classical film.

Very interesting dynamic.

They wan

d to put in rock music at one time and

was talking about even Jimi Hendrix

and bringing in Bill,

he figured it all out.

There's John's children

Hey Rufus.

I believe we opened up

in maybe two theaters

and this is the place where I

was an usher

several years earlier.

Two doors away at the Baronette,

and I would also work

over there at Cinema 2.

And now I'm back with a film.

That was my beloved manager Jane

Oliver.

She was great.

And then John with his son.

And the irony of being

in this movie theater

where I used to go back

and forth with my brother

there all the time

and he was singing on the

corner and I'm carrying tickets

and now I'm in the theater,

I'm on the marquis.

How did this happen?

It's amazing.

And this was in also on the

West Coast, in Westwood.

In one year, my life

exploded for the better.

So I tell people, you never

know.

You just never, never know if

you're gonna hit the lottery.

You just gotta k

p buying

tickets, you gotta keep going for it.

Yeah, I used to cut my

own hair, I know, I know.

Don't comment on it.

I was too cheap to hire

a barber at the time.

I didn't know any better.

Here on the lobby just greeting

customers.

I felt like hey, thank you for

showing up.

I didn't know how long

it was going to last,

I didn't know it was

going to be successful.

Yo

re a very lucky person when you can find outthe

best friend you ever had is some character

that just popped out of your

mind,

someone who was always

there when things got rough

and never quit on you.

That's what I look at

Rocky as, my best friend.

And the winner is, Rocky,

Irwin Winkler and Robert

Chartoff

To all the Rockys in

the world, I love you.