Opening in theaters on November 6th is the new film ‘I Play Rocky‘, which was directed by Peter Farrelly (‘Green Book‘) and is based on the true story of how Sylvester Stallone wrote and starred in ‘Rocky‘.
The film stars Anthony Ippolito (‘The Offer‘) as Sylvester Stallone, as well as AnnaSophia Robb (‘Rebel Ridge‘), Matt Dillon (‘There’s Something About Mary‘), P. J. Byrne (‘The Wolf of Wall Street‘), Toby Kebbell (‘Fantastic Four‘), Stephan James (‘If Beale Street Could Talk‘), and Tracy Letts (‘Ford v Ferrari‘).
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with director Peter Farrelly and actress AnnaSophia Robb about their work on ‘I Play Rocky’, their first reactions to the screenplay, why Farrelly wanted to make the movie, his casting process, Robb’s research into her role, and her experience working with Farrelly on set.
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Moviefone: To begin with, Peter, Can you talk about your first reaction to this screenplay and at what point did you know that you wanted to direct this movie?
Peter Farrelly: Well, I have a good story about it. It came from Toby Emmerich and he called me and said, “I got the script about this ‘Rocky’ thing.” But I’m lazy and I could easily go months without looking at that script. But I happened to print it up and I threw it on my kitchen table. My daughter’s boyfriend at the time, musician, 21-year-old kid, he sees the script, he goes, “What’s this?” I said, “Oh, somebody sent me a script.” He goes, “Can I read it?” “Yeah, go ahead and read it.” So that night at dinner he goes, “I read that script.” I said, “Yeah, what’d you think?” He goes, “I think it’s one of the greatest movies of all time.” I though, what a moron. This kid’s an idiot, an imbecile. He’s probably got a beginning, a middle, and an end, and there’s dialogue. He’s never read a script. He can’t know. But because of that, I said, “I’m going to read 10 pages.” I picked it up and I could not put it down. I could not believe how good it was. It’s the best script I ever read. I told the kid that night, I go, “You can read a thousand screenplays before you come across one this good. You have no idea how good this was.” He goes, “I told you, I think it’s one of the best movies of all time.” What I recognized quickly was that the beauty of this movie is that it’s ‘Rocky’. Stallone’s life parallels Rocky, except Rocky’s fiction. Stallone’s real. So it might even be better.
MF: AnnaSophia, what was your first reaction to the screenplay and what did you learn about the making of ‘Rocky’ that you did not already know about?
AnnaSophia Robb: All of it. I didn’t know anything about the making of these movies. Reading the script for the first time was my introduction to the ‘I Play Rocky’ story. So when I read the script, I thought, “Oh my goodness, is this all real? What’s fact? What’s fiction?” And it’s all real, which is remarkable to me. I think that’s what’s so special about our movie is that it’s the underdog story behind the underdog story. It’s a testament to how many people it takes to make a person’s dream come true. I think everybody should bet on themselves, but it also takes people in your corner to help you up when you’re down to get you across the finish line.
MF: AnnaSophia, did you have a chance to talk with the real Sasha Czack, and if so, how did that help inform your performance?
ASR: So, I reached out at the beginning and she’s a very private person and I completely respect that. I think that’s super healthy. Sly sent me a note that was passed along to me describing their marriage as two stones leaning against each other and he described her as sunshine. So, those were two very tangible things that I took in. Then there’s the ‘Rocky’ scrapbook. We have so many photos of ‘Rocky’ from Sasha. She was the photographer. So our perception of that movie through the photos is all her. I loved looking at those and getting a sense of how intimately she was involved. She typed up all of his screenplays. She was his first read. I think that really informed how involved she was. They were both artists. She saw his brightness before the rest of the world did and I think they shared a vision. It was like that line, “It was us against the world.” I felt that way towards Anthony. If he won, I felt like I was winning too.
MF: Peter, can you talk about the casting process to find the right actor to play Sylvester Stallone and why you landed on Anthony Ippolito?
PF: Okay, here’s the thing. I could do a TED Talk about Anthony Ippolito because we didn’t go through a big casting process. We were planning on doing a worldwide casting search for Stallone, but before we began, Anthony had heard about the script, tracked it down, put himself on tape in his grandmother’s basement in Long Island, and then sent it to our casting agent, Rick Montgomery. Rick called me, he goes, “I got the guy.” I go, “What guy?” He goes, “Stallone.” I was like, “What are you talking about? We haven’t even started the search.” He goes, “Some kid sent me a tape.” So he gave me the tape and I looked at it, it’s like, that’s the guy. We never looked past it. He was the only guy we looked at. It was like a miracle, except he looked like him, he sounded like him, but he was skinny. He weighed like 145 pounds. I tell people, I say, you know the one-handed pushups that he does in the movie, this kid couldn’t do three-handed pushups. He was just a little wispy kid. So we put him in the gym for a year and he gained 45 pounds, all muscle. But no, he found us. Oddly, AnnaSophia Robb was the first person I read for that role, and Jay Duplass was the first person for that role. The reason that was is because I was thinking, I want to get a real director to play John Avildsen, the director. Then Jay Duplass called me out of the blue. I didn’t know Jay. He said, “Hey, my favorite movie of all time is ‘Rocky’. I know you’re doing this thing. Could I play Avildsen?” I said, “Yeah.” He said, “What do you mean?” I said, “Yeah.” He said, “Well, what does that mean?” I said, “It means yes, you’re right. You’re Avildsen.” He said, “It’s that easy?” I said, “Yeah.” He said, “I’m going to start calling people more often.” But he was perfect because I’d seen him act and he was a director. I knew he would be great for it. By the way, it was a dream of mine to work with Tobey Kebbell. Ever since I saw him in ‘The Entire History of You’, the ‘Black Mirror‘ episode where he had the thing in the eye. I called him because that’s one of the great performances I’ve seen on television because it’s all him reacting, almost all. He barely talks. I mean, he makes that show work, that episode. I called him then. I said, “Hey man, someday I want to work with you. You’re excellent.” And it finally came to be.
MF: Finally, AnnaSophia, what was your experience like collaborating with director Peter Farrelly on set?
ASR: He’s so collaborative, so much fun, not precious about anything at all, and very clear. You can tell he’s been doing this forever because he directs musically is how I describe it. Tonally, if you’ve been on set and watched him, he does it beat by beat. Then everybody’s on the same page and knows what the rhythm of the scene should be or in his mind. If you have something you want to try differently, he’s like, “Yeah, sure. Go for it.” It feels very creative and fast-paced. We didn’t have a lot of time to do a lot of takes, but that gives an energy and a momentum to filming, I think.
Editorial Note: James White conducted this interview and contributed to this article.
What is the plot of ‘I Play Rocky’?
The film is an electrifying true story about an unknown actor with an unshakable belief that he wasn’t just meant to write ‘Rocky’, he was meant to be Rocky Balboa. Told “no” at every turn, Sylvester Stallone (Anthony Ippolito) bets everything on himself, holding the line on playing the lead against seemingly impossible odds. The result is the ultimate underdog story behind the ultimate underdog movie.
Who is in the cast of ‘I Play Rocky’?
- Anthony Ippolito as Sylvester Stallone
- AnnaSophia Robb as Sasha Czack
- Matt Dillon as Frank Stallone Sr.
- P. J. Byrne as Irwin Winkler
- Toby Kebbell as Robert Chartoff
- Stephan James as Carl Weathers
- Tracy Letts as Sandy Maddox
- Jay Duplass as John G. Avildsen
- Kiki Seto as Talia Shire
- Robert Morgan as Burgess Meredith
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