Sylvester Stallone is no stranger to getting beaten up on camera. In the original Rocky – his breakout role – he famously got the crap kicked out of him by Apollo Creed and kept coming back for more. Since then, his characters have often been punching bags, with the Rocky, Rambo, and Expendables series all bringing the pain. Now, Stallone has given us a look at one of the incredible makeup jobs needed to bring this to life.
He posted a video on his Instagram page showcasing the efforts of Fiona Cush, who worked on 2019’s Rambo: Last Blood. And it’s such a good job that it looks genuinely gross, as you can see below.
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Stallone heaped praise on Cush as well, who he says “always makes him look so damn pretty” and poked fun at Rocky’s propensity to take a beating, saying:
“Hi kids, obviously you can see I know exactly how to fight. No one ever laid a glove on me, so if anyone wants boxing instructions by the very best, the king of defense, the swiftest man alive, the flash, call my boxing studio. I think it’s called Sudden Death on Wilshire. Ciao.”
Sadly, Rambo: Last Blood didn’t see the venerable hero go out on a high. Prior to its release, it was being billed as a brutal, vicious, and down-to-earth revenge movie. But while Stallone delivered on showing John Rambo dealing with PTSD after a lifetime of violence, his vengeance against a drug cartel felt like it could have been lifted from a million other straight-to-VOD cheapo action flicks.
That film has concluded Rambo‘s adventures, though there are whispers that Stallone might delve into his past with a prequel. In other news, we’re still awaiting the release of his director’s cut of Rocky IV (now titled Rocky vs. Drago) and eagerly anticipating him voicing King Shark in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad this summer. And then, as always, there are rumors of yet another Rocky sequel.
It seems that whatever you throw at Sylvester Stallone, he’s always going to keep coming.