Sylvester Stallone spent decades building a body that became almost as recognizable as Rocky Balboa himself. But behind that image was an obsession that, by his own admission, pushed him far beyond healthy limits.

Now 80, Stallone is looking back on the price he paid to maintain the physiques that defined his action-star career. In a candid conversation with The New York Times, the actor admitted that he abused his body in what he described as a “very masochistic” process, including using steroids while preparing for Rocky III.

When Stallone first appeared as Rocky in 1976, the character looked more like an ordinary fighter than a comic-book superhero. That changed as the franchise progressed. Stallone wanted Rocky to become more conscious of his appearance, while his role as John Rambo demanded an entirely different physical presence.

“I looked at Rocky: very smooth, very normal-looking guy. And then I said, I think the character would start to become a bit more vain,” Stallone explained. His vision changed again with Rambo. He wanted the warrior to look less polished and more animalistic, imagining a body shaped like “a jaguar, a cat.” That idea eventually turned into an obsession.

For Rocky III, Stallone pushed himself to an extreme level of conditioning. He revealed that he reached an astonishing 2.6% body fat while filming the movie and developed bulimia during the process. He struggled to keep food down – or, at times, deliberately avoided doing so – because maintaining his physique had become more important than his own well-being.

The actor also acknowledged using steroids to help sustain the look. “Oh, my god, you have to,” Stallone said when asked directly about steroid use. He explained that he approached it in cycles but admitted that the decision came with consequences. “That also took a terrible toll,” he added.

The physical consequences did not end when the cameras stopped rolling. Stallone said he has undergone nine back operations, two shoulder operations and three neck fusions over the years. Despite all of that, he continued pushing his body because fitness had become part of the identity he built in Hollywood.

It took Cop Land in 1997 to make him see that identity differently.

For the film, Stallone deliberately moved in the opposite direction, playing a heavier, physically compromised character rather than the muscular heroes audiences had come to expect. He described the experience as liberating because he no longer had to treat his physique as armor.

By the time he turned 80, that mindset had changed completely. “No, no, no,” Stallone said when asked whether he still viewed his body as armor. He remains active, but he now acknowledges the cost of spending so much of his life trying to stay physically imposing.

“If I could do it over again, I would say, ‘Let someone else carry the banner and don’t do your own stunts,'” he admitted.

Stallone’s experience, however, wasn’t unique to Hollywood’s action era, as another bodybuilding icon also faced the consequences of pushing his body to its limits.

Sylvester Stallone’s steroid admission echoes Arnold Schwarzenegger’s past

Stallone’s admission also places him alongside another defining figure of the action-movie era: Arnold Schwarzenegger.

During the 1980s, the two stars helped establish a new Hollywood ideal. Muscular bodies became part of the language of action cinema, with movies such as Rambo and Schwarzenegger’s Commando pushing physical transformation into the spotlight.

Schwarzenegger, unlike Stallone, entered Hollywood after establishing himself as a professional bodybuilder. He has openly discussed his own steroid use and later became increasingly critical of the way performance-enhancing drugs are used today.

In a 2023 Men’s Health interview, Schwarzenegger recalled using testosterone and Dianabol during his bodybuilding years. He also stressed that the drugs he used were taken under medical supervision and argued that modern steroid abuse has created serious dangers for young athletes and bodybuilders.

“Anytime you abuse the body, you’re going to regret it,” Schwarzenegger said, pointing to people he had seen suffer severe consequences from drug abuse.

His own approach to fitness has also changed with age. Rather than training to build the kind of enormous physique that helped make him famous, Schwarzenegger said he now works out to stay healthy and remain capable of making movies.

That shift mirrors the lesson Stallone says he eventually learned himself. For years, his body served as Rocky’s armor and Rambo’s weapon. But after decades of surgeries, extreme dieting, and relentless physical demands, the actor now sees that armor differently.

The physiques may have helped define an era of Hollywood action heroes. For Stallone, however, maintaining them came with a price he no longer wants others to pay.