Sylvester Stallone has spoken about the extreme measures he took to achieve his physique during the peak of his career, revealing that his preparations for ‘Rocky III’ included bulimia and steroid use. 

In an interview with The New York Times, cited by E! News, Stallone said his efforts to develop a highly defined and athletic body for his action roles became an obsession.

“I started to think: Design your body like a jaguar, a cat. Not big like Arnold Schwarzenegger, but more feral and aggressive and very limber and athletic,” Stallone said, adding, “It became an obsession. Really bad. It got to the point where I became bulimic.”

Stallone's extreme ‘Rocky III’ transformation

Stallone played boxer Rocky Balboa in ‘Rocky III’, released in 1982. While preparing for the role, he said he reduced his body fat to 2.6 per cent and became intensely focused on maintaining that level of fitness.

“I got down to 2.6 per cent body fat when I was doing ‘Rocky III’,” he said, adding, “I couldn’t hold anything down. Or I didn’t want to keep it down because I became so obsessed with staying at that point of fitness, literally an obsessive body-worship kind of thing.”

The actor also acknowledged using steroids during his career. He said he believed reaching the physical condition he wanted was not possible without what he described as “additives and drugs”.

“Nobody” achieves their fitness goals “without additives and drugs, period,” Stallone said, adding, “I don’t care what they say.”

When asked specifically if he had taken steroids, Stallone replied, “Oh, my god, you have to.” He said he used them in cycles, describing the pattern as “six weeks on, six weeks off.”

‘It took a terrible toll’

Stallone said his approach to steroid use had consequences over time. He described the fitness regime he followed during that period as “very masochistic” and said the steroid use “took a terrible toll” on his body.

His perspective on his physique changed while working on ‘Cop Land’, the 1997 crime drama in which he played a physically weaker, overweight and partially deaf character.

“It wasn’t until I did ‘Cop Land’, when I had to play the weakest guy in the room, partially deaf, overweight, that I felt somewhat liberated,” Stallone said, adding, “Then things went sideways and I just fell out of grace with Hollywood.”

Stallone reflects on physical toll of career

Looking back at the physical demands he placed on himself, Stallone said he had “abused my body”. He also spoke about the surgeries he has undergone, including nine operations on his back, two on his shoulders and three neck fusions.

“Everything is held together with baling wire,” he said, while noting that he still wants to maintain his fitness.

Stallone said he would approach his career differently if he had the opportunity to make the same choices again.

“It’s come at a terrible price,” he admitted, adding, “If I could do it over again, I would say, ‘Let someone else carry the banner and don’t do your own stunts.’ I don’t know what it was about hurting myself all the time.”