Sylvester Stallone is perhaps the biggest action superstar and filmmaker in Hollywood. The actor has successfully helmed numerous blockbuster projects and has starred in many iconic, long-running action franchises. Throughout the 70s and 80s, Stallone appeared and directed some of the highest-grossing projects, which allowed him to work with top-tier talents in the entertainment industry. 

The 77-year-old star has done significant physical transformation for his parts in the movies, he built an impressive physique for his Rocky film franchise series, and his extraordinary performance in each of its sequels shot him to global superstardom.

The U.S. native star once revealed that he was honored to work with the late legendary Brazilian professional footballer Pele in their 1981 American-British-Italian sports war movie Escape to Victory. Stallone claimed that he thought soccer was a sissy sport until he worked with the sports icon, and during a particular scene, the actor broke his finger while trying to block a penalty by Pele.

Sylvester Stallone Shares His Experience Working in Escape to Victory

Sylvester Stallone
In 1981, Sylvester Stallone graced the silver screen with the late sports legend Pele. The actors starred together in the John Huston-directed blockbuster sports war movie the Escape to Victory. In the film, Stallone played the role of Captain Robert Hatch, while the sports icon Pele depicted the part of Corporal Luis Fernandez.
Sylvester Stallone and Pele
In an interview, the Demolition Man movie star revealed that he knew very little about the soccer game and thought it was not a big deal for him to work in the film, so he avoided doing warmups before filming the sports sequence. He further shared that after experiencing several on-set injuries, he admitted that he was wrong about the sport and his ideology that soccer is for weak people. The actor stated:
“I thought Rocky was tough, but I’ve never trained so hard. I thought soccer was a sissy sport until they kicked the ball into my stomach, and I crossed the border into Austria with haematoma on both hips.”
Sylvester Stallone shared that during his initial days on the set, he thought training for this film would be easier until he suffered a few on-set injuries that changed his perception of the game.

Sylvester Stallone Felt Inspired by Sports Legend Pele

Sylvester Stallone and Pele
In an interview with BBC, Sylvester Stallone once revealed that he broke his finger while trying to block a penalty by the late sports icon Pele in the film. The actor stated,
“That was one of the low points of my life. What a b-tt-kicking I got! I still have a broken finger from trying to block a penalty by Pele.”
Stallone then gushed about the football legend and said,
“He put on a pair of World War II shoes, which were steel-tipped, and the ball was like a cannonball – it was twice as thick and heavy as footballs are today. He was telling me he was going to take a shot, and I thought ‘It’s soccer, what’s the big deal? It’s easy. He came to take one penalty shot, and he told me exactly where he was going to put it, so I stood there, but the ball still flew past me before I could move.”
He continued,
“He put it literally right where he had said. He did it again, and it ripped through the back of the net and broke a window in the barracks where we were filming. I went ‘Are you kidding me?’ I found a new kind of respect.”
The Escape to Victory has a star-studded cast that features many sports legends: Bobby Moore, Osvaldo Ardiles, Kazimierz Deyna, Paul Van Himst, Mike Summerbee, Hallvar Thoresen, Werner Roth, and Pelé.

Escape to Victory is available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

Source: BBC