Sylvester Stallone may be a multimillionaire with the Midas touch when it comes to making movies now, but his rags-to-riches story includes spending time homeless and working some seriously surreal odd-jobs before he found success. Appearing on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Sly shared an inspirational story behind his first failed attempt to climb the famous ‘Rocky steps,’ and how an enduring relationship with an old Philadelphia landmark has informed his attitude towards life.
These days, Stallone has earned the right to be mentioned alongside Hollywood’s elite and is a go-to guy if you want your project to become a success. With multiple movies that have spawned sequels like Rocky, Rambo, and The Expendables, this writer, actor, and director has proven time and time again to be a bankable commodity on celluloid.
Still, during his September 16, 2025, interview on The Tonight Show, Sly shared that one of his first odd jobs in New York was to clean out the lion cages in the zoo. He further illustrated his humble beginnings, reflecting that while working on a deli counter he was given a staff allowance of three-and-a-half ounces of pastrami to eat, per day. Of course, our hero would pack on plenty more protein to play the iconic Rocky Balboa, and he used his recent appearance on the talk show to promote an exciting new book, titled: The Steps — A Memoir. But while the tale of Sly’s unlikely path to stardom and the creation of one of the greatest underdog stories of all time won’t be released until May, 2026, the screen legend did share that his first strides up the steps resulted in failure.
Sylvester Stallone Explains His First Failed Attempt at Climbing the Rocky Steps
“When I got to Philadelphia and did the movie Rocky, I wasn’t even thinking about the steps,” said Stallone in conversation with Jimmy Fallon. “We didn’t have any money to shoot there, we didn’t have a license,” added the actor. The long set of steps that caught Sly’s eye lead up to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Nowadays, there is a statue of The Italian Stallion at the foot of those steps, but before the release of the low-budget boxing movie in 1977, Stallone didn’t have the kind of clout that he enjoys now. “I just get out of the car. (I said) let me just run up the steps, get a shot of it and we’ll get outta here before the police come.”
In that first take, Stallone says he made an embarrassing error when he decided it would be a good idea to carry his beloved dog, Butkus, up those lofty steps. “My dog is a buffalo,” recalls the Rocky star. “It’s a 130-pound Bullmastiff, I got half-way up and my knees buckled, I go like, ‘dog… out.’” With Butkus now relegated to staring at the steps from the car, Stallone completed his scenes. The movie went on to bag Stallone a Best Actor nomination at the Oscar’s and Rocky won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1977, spawning a total of six movies plus three Creed spin-offs (and counting).
“Anyway, we did it, and it became a very famous scene, but I thought it’s also a great name for a biography about the steps you make in your life, to arrive.” Stallone told Fallon. “Because, guys, trust me, I had zero going. It’s like I said, I worked in a lion’s cage, a deli, I was an usher for a year.”
With his trademark proclivity for motivational speeches, Sly further explained how winning is done. “Am I gonna win, or is life gonna win?” Stallone told the audience to ask themselves. “It’s a battle. It’s a punchout, and it’s not easy, because you’re always under the gun, no one ever really gets ahead of it, but it’s the fight you put up that gets you where you wanna go.”
Sylvester Stallone will return to put up another epic fight in the third season of Tulsa King, premiering on Paramount+ September 21, 2025.
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