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I Play Rocky star reveals the key difference from transforming into Sylvester Stallone compared to another Hollywood legend

Anthony Ippolito is developing a reputation for playing American cinema icons – having previously played Al Pacino in TV show The Offer.

Anthony Ippolito as Sylvester Stallone in I Play Rocky, with his hands in the air.

Photo Credit: Claire Folger © 2026 Amazon Content Services LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Published: Thursday, 5 November 2026 at 2:45 pm

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Anthony Ippolito is still in the relatively early days of his acting career, but the young star has already carved out an interesting niche for himself: playing icons of American cinema.

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A few years ago, Ippolito took on the role of the legendary Al Pacino in the 2022 Paramount+ miniseries The Offer, which told the behind-the-scenes story of the making of The Godfather.

Now, four years on, he has the lead role as none other than Sylvester Stallone in I Play Rocky, Peter Farrelly's well-received new film which details how Stallone came to play his most iconic role, after writing the part for himself while he was still considered something of a nonentity as an actor.

You might wonder how similar his approaches were to playing these two major figures, and speaking exclusively to Radio Times ahead of the new film's UK release he admitted there were a few things in common.

"On some level, they are similar because it's this voyeuristic thing where we’re imagining some of the in between moments that creatively these actors are experiencing on the sets or the process of getting the jobs," he said.

"But past that, I think approaching each of them as characters, they're very different individuals, and they've had incredibly different careers – both great careers and really talented guys. It's just they're vastly different. So they both had their own sort of challenges."

As far as the specific challenges of playing Stallone went, Ippolito revealed that one of the trickiest components was tackling the role from a physical perspective.

"I had to gain a good amount of weight just to kind of fill out and get that silhouette that he had in the first film," he said.

"He was a heavyweight boxer – in the movie, Rocky was – and Stallone was inspired by Steve Reeves, who played Hercules. He was a huge seminal actor for him, and he just developed this... it's an important part of him, and so that was difficult.

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"But [I was] just trying to find everything I could from him during that period of time, and unearthing as much footage and interviews... you slowly start to piece things together."

Although Stallone himself was not involved in the conception or the making of I Play Rocky, the star has recently sung his praises for Ippolito's performance, even explaining: "I actually thought it was me the first moment."

But Ippolito said he had to try and put Stallone's potential reaction out of his mind when he was playing the role, even if it was tempting to think about it.

"That's just maybe a little too much," he said. "Obviously it was something that I was conscious of, but you just got so much stuff on your plate and you just got to put your head down and put your best foot forward.

"But afterwards, I guess there was a little bit of anxiety about hoping that he'd have a positive reaction. You want him to to like it, of course."

As far as that goes, it looks like mission accomplished!

I Play Rocky is released in UK cinemas on Friday 6 November 2026.

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Authors

Black and white cut-out portrait headshot of Patrick Cremona, smiling against a lime green background.

Patrick CremonaSenior Film Writer

Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.

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