Sylvester Stallone talks about bulimia, panic attacks and body abuse during his career

Hollywood legend Sylvester Stallone says he suffered from bulimia when he was younger. At the height of his career during the “Rambo” era, his body was his armor, the now 80-year-old said in an interview with the “New York Times.”

In his opinion, the cult figure Rambo should be more animalistic than boxer “Rocky,” Stallone explained. "Not big like Arnold (Schwarzenegger), but rather wild and aggressive and very supple and athletic." It had become a terrible obsession. “It got to the point where I became bulimic.”

While filming “Rocky III,” his body fat percentage dropped to 2.6 percent and he couldn’t keep anything down. Stallone, who was in his 30s at the time, called it "compulsive body worship." Nobody can do that without aids and drugs - you have to take steroids.

Constant panic attacks

Referring to parts of his career, he said: “I abused my body.” He had nine back and two shoulder operations as well as several procedures on the cervical spine. Today he's still in fairly good shape, but he takes a lot of pills to keep going, Stallone said.

In the conversation with the New York Times, the actor also reported panic attacks. He experienced his first at the age of 36. He watched raw footage of recordings, suddenly stood up, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up, he felt hot and he thought: “I'm dying. That's it. Now it's over for me." Then it was folded up. It was repeated again and again.

Breakthrough for Stallone came with “Rocky”

Frustrated by his then sluggish acting career, Stallone wrote the script for the boxer film "Rocky" - and thus took on the role of the fictional boxer Rocky Balboa. “Rocky” became an Oscar sensation in 1977 with ten nominations. The boxing drama won awards for best film as well as for directing and editing.