Overview
- Stallone revealed on Saturday in a New York Times profile and companion podcast that his pursuit of a signature Rocky/Rambo physique became an obsession that led to bulimia.
- He said he dropped to about 2.6 percent body fat while preparing for Rocky III and confirmed he cycled performance‑enhancing drugs on a roughly six‑week on, six‑week off schedule.
- The actor described long‑term physical consequences, saying he has had nine back operations, two shoulder surgeries and three neck fusions as a result of years of extreme training and drug use.
- Stallone said taking the 1997 role in Cop Land, in which he played an overweight, impaired character, helped him break the cycle and feel liberated from the need to keep an extreme physique.
- The admissions accompany his memoir The Steps, out Sept. 29, and reporters note they reflect personal testimony about a broader 1980s Hollywood culture that prized hyper‑muscular bodies rather than new legal developments.