American actor Sylvester Stallone admitted that he initially feared the 1982 action film Rambo was so awful it would ruin his movie career forever.
Speaking in an interview with Port magazine, the movie star revealed that he hated the early edit of the picture so much that he tried to buy up copies of the footage to burn them.
Stallone recalled that when he and his agent first watched the raw footage in the editing room, his agent gagged at the quality of the cut. He added that he believed he was the eleventh actor offered the iconic role because other stars had repeatedly turned it down as improper.
Filmmakers had previously approached a string of Hollywood leading men, including Paul Newman, Al Pacino, Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, John Travolta and Clint Eastwood. Stallone eventually won the part of John Rambo, a troubled Vietnam War veteran who relies on his survival skills when forced to fight local authorities in a small town.
Cutting down the runtime
Extremely dissatisfied with the original outcome, Stallone insisted that the filmmakers slash the 180-minute version of the movie down to 89 minutes. He explained that he wanted the runtime cut drastically so his weakest acting moments would not make it onto the big screen.
The edits demanded by the actor proved decisive in rescuing the production. Upon release in 1982, Rambo became a major box office hit and launched a major Hollywood franchise that went on to spawn four sequels and gross more than 800 million dollars worldwide.
Price of stardom
Stallone, now 80, established himself as one of Hollywood's premier action heroes through the Rambo series alongside his role as boxer Rocky Balboa. The admission follows earlier comments by the veteran actor reflecting on the personal price of his long career in film.
