How a 27-year-old talked his way into Stallone's boxing gloves in ‘I Play Rocky' - NBC10 Philadelphia
By Google News Sports ·
Anthony Ippolito is seen on set of “I Play Rocky” on November 19, 2025 in Philadelphia.
Anthony Ippolito saw the opportunity of a lifetime when he learned that Oscar-winning director Peter Farrelly was developing a film about Sylvester Stallone’s determination to write and star in the original “Rocky.” There was just one problem: Nobody had asked him to audition for “I Play Rocky.”
“So, I kind of just took it upon myself to make some stuff on my own and kind of send it to them unsolicited,” the 27-year-old actor said in a recent interview with The Associated Press ahead of the movie's limited release Friday.
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It was a move that could be seen as taking a page from the book of Stallone's own improbable rise to stardom but, for Ippolito, “it didn’t really necessarily feel that way at the time, to be honest. I was just hoping somebody would see it.”
Farrelly did — and was convinced from the start.
“He sent his tape, you know, cold, and we’re like, that’s the guy,” the director recalled. “We were going to do a worldwide search, we never did it.”
Farrelly was particularly impressed by Ippolito’s ability to distinguish the man from his famous screen persona.
“This guy came fully formed — he was exactly what I was looking for because he didn’t do a caricature of Stallone or Rocky and he knew the difference,” Farrelly said.
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Ippolito has already had some experience stepping into the shoes of a Hollywood icon. He previously portrayed a young Al Pacino in “The Offer,” the miniseries chronicling the making of the 1972 classic “The Godfather.” Farrelly had been a big fan of “The Offer,” and his favorite performance was the portrayal of…
Originally published by Google News Sports