Movies - TV
Carl Weathers Got Cast In Rocky By Insulting Sylvester Stallone’s Acting Skills
By JOSHUA MEYER
When Carl Weathers auditioned for the role of Apollo Creed in the first “Rocky” film, Sylvester Stallone was unknown in the acting world. In a 2017 interview on The Rich Eisen Show, Weathers revealed that he underestimated his scene partner, Stallone, during his audition because he only knew Stallone as the writer of the film, but it may have landed him the role.
Weathers recalled that his audition ended in silence: “I'm really nervous now, because I think I blew the [audition], right? [...] So I chirp out, 'You know, if you get me a real actor I could do a lot better!' I have no idea why they laughed, too! And Stallone looks up at me like, 'This idiot, who's he?' [...] And I tell people, I think I got the job because Sly wanted to beat the hell out of me.”
Weathers would go on to don the star-spangled boxing trunks as Apollo Creed in four “Rocky” films. Looking back on his first “Rocky” audition, Weathers concluded, “As far as I know, as far as I've heard, one thing Sly always said was, 'He was so arrogant, I knew he could do the role.' But I wasn't being arrogant. I was being nervous, man. I wanted the role!”