Sylvester Stallone was bribed to give up Rocky Balboa role

Sylvester Stallone is Rocky Balboa, and Rocky Balboa is Sylvester Stallone. It is impossible to separate the two, ever since the inception of the character by the actor himself.

However, Stallone almost didn’t play the character he so loves.

In a decades-old interview with the BBC, the Rocky star revealed he was offered money to ‘stay away’ from the film. Stallone was working as an actor and screenwriter, in the first film of the Rocky series (1976–present).

In the films, Stallone plays Rocky, an underdog boxer who overcomes several opponents, and wins the world heavyweight championship twice.

When asked how much producers were willing to pay during the interview, Stallone responds:

"It went up to about $265,000 ... to stay away."

However, the actor stuck to his guns, he revealed:

"I knew that if I sold it ... even for $500,000, I knew that after the money was gone I would become very bitter for having sold out, because my one love was to at least fail on my own terms."

Upon its release in November 1976, the film went on to win the box office with over $200 million, making it the highest-grossing film of that year.

Rocky was not only a roaring commercial success, it also thrived at the Oscars, winning for best editing, best director, and best picture. Stallone himself was also rewarded for not giving in to opposition and received nominations for both his original screenplay and performance.