Oscar nominee Sylvester Stallone has revealed he offered to boycott this year’s ceremony because his co-star and director were not among the nominees.
Sly is nominated for best supporting actor for reprising his role of Rocky Balboa in Creed, but star Michael B. Jordan and writer-director Ryan Coogler were notably absent from the nominees list.
Sly is the only member of the Creed cast and crew to receive an Oscar nomination (Ian West/PA)
The veteran star celebrated his nod at the annual nominees luncheon and revealed he discussed whether he should attend the ceremony with Ryan, adding he offered to boycott the event because neither Ryan nor Michael was nominated.
He said: “There is a universal law of existence, you adapt or cease to exist, so adaption is necessary.
“I spoke with Ryan to ask how he wanted to handle this and told him, ‘I believe you are responsible for me being here’.
Sylvester Stallone has already won a Golden Globe for his performance (Jordan Strauss/AP)
“I said, ‘If you want me to go, I’ll go. If you don’t want me to go, I won’t’. He said, ‘I want you to go and respect us and stand up for the film’. Because that’s the kind of guy he is.
“I do believe things will change and it’s a matter of time and all talent will rise to the top but it’s a matter of getting a new paradigm, a new way of thinking.
Sylvester was last nominated for an Oscar in 1977 for his lead performance in the original Rocky film.
He said: “I never thought I would be able to cross this threshold again. As you get older miracles begin to diminish, I couldn’t be more thrilled. My daughters look at me now as an actor rather than a bad golfer. I tell them I used to do this but they won’t look at my videos.”
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here