Sylvester Stallone Remembers Late Son Sage Stallone After Golden Globes
Sylvester Stallone’s late son, Sage Stallone, wasn’t something the actor forgot about after receiving his Golden Globe award the other night. Sage famously played Rocky’s son in Rocky 5 but did not reprise his role in the 2006 movie Rocky Balboa. Stallone’s son died on August 30, 2012, of a heart attack due to atherosclerotic coronary artery disease.
According to Vanity Fair, one journalist wondered whether the father-son story of Creed helped him wrestle with the loss of his son.
“To be frank, any time you can vent emotions that are real, I feel that it’s very, very helpful. Most importantly, I just wanted to respect his memory, and I think we did,” Stallone explained.
Tears crept into his eyes, and he added, “So it was good.”
Many of the actors were throwing around lighthearted responses backstage for the press, but Stallone constantly took things seriously, even opening up a bit about his daughters.
“My kids really have no idea who I am, and to tell you the truth, that’s O.K.,” Stallone said.
“I was a kind of a peripatetic actor, on the road all the time, and I wasn’t really in the moment [when they were growing up]. Then I realized that family is everything and that is the greatest award that you get,” he continued.
“When you are laying there on your death bed, you are going to be basically judged on how you raise your kids and what you’ve left behind. So finally [at this stage in their lives] they get to understand that they have a caring father. Movies are wonderful, but they don’t compare to the movie of life.”
It’s fair to say that Stallone was close with his son Sage, and that’s something he wants to focus on with his daughters in the present. As for winning the award and his speech, Sly revealed that he didn’t even know he received a standing ovation.
Sylvester Stallone says he owes the #Creed team "everything" after #GoldenGlobes omission: https://t.co/NGSrt4YSfT pic.twitter.com/LH3Ju6M4tJ
— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) January 12, 2016
“Was there really?” he asked.
“So I’m going to have to get a TiVo? I did not expect to win at all. I was promising myself that I was going to be very aware the whole time. It proves I’m not aware, because I got really caught up with emotion,” he continued.
“Just the mere fact that these incredible people were applauding… you know, in life, it makes me realize that it’s never really over until it’s over. It indicates that people should never give up trying. I think it was a very, very positive message for everybody.”
Sylvester Stallone has now appeared as Rocky an astonishing seven times, and with rumblings of another Creed movie in the works, according to ComingSoon, it appears he will get to revisit the character an eighth time.
#Creed 2 could open exactly two years after the first movie. https://t.co/61frVmYmIS pic.twitter.com/r9Q6zpyjac
— Variety (@Variety) January 12, 2016
One journalist backstage wondered if Rocky would live forever.
“He certainly will not live forever because he represents what life is all about,” Stallone said. “We don’t stay here permanently. It’s a cycle. And the greatest man in the world will die… not just Rocky Balboa but really important men—scientists, doctors, heroes, Galileo, the greatest warriors.”
Death is something Rocky has to deal with in Creed, and it elevates Stallone’s performance, as seen by his Golden Globe award.
“We do try to project that life is a one-strike baseball game. You better fight to keep it. You don’t get a chance to try it again… dying is easy. Living is hard.”
[Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images]
