Sylvester Stallone Gives Stern Warning After 7th Back Surgery
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Sylvester Stallone opened up about the long-winded effects of doing stunt work as an actor, and what he had to say about it may be sobering for some.
During the fourth episode of the second installment of family's reality TV series The Family Stallone, which first aired on Wednesday, Feb. 21, the 77-year-old Golden Globe winner revealed that he's undergone seven surgeries on his back–all of which he said were related to stunts he performed while filming the 2010 action-thriller movie The Expendables.
“There’s something romantic about doing your own stunts,” Stallone shared per The Hollywood Reporter. “There’s something very unromantic about after doing your own stunts.”
Stallone recalled the incident he said was ultimately responsible for his injury: a fight scene with WWE legend Steve Austin. “I remember one slam, and I could actually feel one bang."
“I never recovered from Expendables 1,” Stallone shared. “After that film, it was literally physically never the same. So I warn people, don’t do your own stunts.”
His wife, Jennifer Flavin, accused the Rocky star of trying to "mask the pain" and pretending "like it didn't happen."
“He doesn’t like people to know he’s had so many surgeries,” she added, noting that she's never seen her husband of nearly 27 years "not in good spirits." However, she hoped this last surgery, which required doctors to clean a large herniated disc in his back, would be the one "to make him live a more comfortable life."
One of the couple's daughters, Sistine, agreed with her mother's representation of the Rambo alum, “I think my whole childhood he was in pain. He did everything he could to push through the pain and be present.”
While Stallone clearly has some regrets about his stunt work now, at the time of the film's initial release, he couldn't have been happier to lead the cast–which also included Jason Statham, Jet Li and Dolph Lundgren, among others–to the No. 1 spot at the box office.
Stallone, who was 64 at the time, called the film's success one of the proudest moments of his career–second only to Rocky Balboa, a role he took on four years earlier, in 2006–in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter from Aug. 2010. And his sentiment was shared for good reason because not only did he star in the film, but he also wrote and directed it.
Next: Sylvester Stallone's Daughters Claim He Makes It 'Nearly Impossible' for Them to Date
