Sylvester Stallone’s Role In I Play Rocky Casting Confirmed By Director

I Play Rocky director Peter Farrelly reveals the role Sylvester Stallone played in the movie’s casting.

The biopic about the making of Rocky features Anthony Ippolito playing both Stallone and the titular character. In terms of his involvement with the movie, Stallone previously said he was “blindsided” and “shocked to read [about] it. I have zero to do with it. Since I lived it, I thought I might be able to participate and give them some insight.” Farrelly later shared that a script was sent to the original Rocky star and writer, who gave his blessing to proceed with the project.

In an interview with The Ankler, Farrelly has now explained that “when I met with Sylvester Stallone to get his blessing, he had one request. He goes, ‘If you could, I’d like you to hire a relative unknown because that’s what I was.’ And I think that was part of the charm of the character is that nobody really knew him before.”

At the time, Farrelly and his creative team had started discussing who should be cast, but the official process had not begun yet. Then “Anthony [Ippolito] heard about it, tracked down the script, put himself on tape in his grandmother’s basement in Long Island, did three scenes, including ‘the thing’ scene at the end when he’s at the door, and I sent it to Rick Montgomery, my casting agent. He sent it to me. I was like, that’s it. It’s over.”

Ippolito starred in Adam Sandler’s critically panned 2015 movie Pixels and played Al Pacino in Paramount+’s 2022 miniseries The Offer, but he was a relative unknown before being cast as Rocky. As for how Farrelly knew he was the right choice, he reflects on how “people say, ‘How’d you know? What gave you the courage to take a chance on him?’ I was like, ‘I wasn’t taking a chance. It was fully formed.'”

Farrelly continues, “This kid came in and he’s a genius. He knew the difference between Stallone and Rocky, and there’s a subtle difference . . . Anthony Ippolito didn’t do a caricature of either. When you’re looking at him as Stallone, it’s like he is Stallone.”

While Stallone was not directly involved in the casting process for I Play Rocky, his advice was taken into account and honored by casting Ippolito, with this being the 27-year-old actor’s most high-profile role yet. Per Farrelly’s explanation, the selection was about more than Stallone’s advice, though, as it had more to do with Ippolito being able to seamlessly play both the real-life artist and the iconic fictional character he brought to life.

Following its premiere at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival, the movie has received an 87% Tomatometer score based on 62 reviews. In ScreenRant‘s I Play Rocky review, George Bate gave it a rating of nine out of 10 stars. In terms of Ippolito’s performance, he wrote that it “produces the kind of awards-worthy performance that actors make careers out of; there is more heart and humor in a single scene than most movies possess in their total runtime; and, perhaps most surprising of all, Farrelly creates a film that somehow matches the inspiration fostered by watching Rocky.”

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The positive reviews and awards buzz are promising for the film ahead of its limited theatrical debut on November 6, followed by a wide release on November 20. It appears to be a crowd-pleaser that will appeal to fans of the Rocky movies and of Stallone in general, especially given the praise for how Ippolito excels in these dual roles.

Ippolito’s co-stars include AnnaSophia Robb as Sasha Czack, Matt Dillon as Frank Stallone Sr., P.J. Byrne as Irwin Winkler, Toby Kebbell as Robert Chartoff, Stephan James as Carl Weathers, Jay Duplass as John G. Avildsen, Robert Morgan as Burgess Meredith, Kiki Seto as Talia Shire, Scot Teller as Burt Young, and Tracy Letts as Sandy Maddox. I Play Rocky was written by Peter Gamble and directed by Farrelly.

I Play Rocky