Sylvester Stallone Reveals the Late Carl Weathers’ Rocky Audition Story: ‘Hired! He Had It All’

Sylvester Stallone still remembers his own Rocky Costar Carl Weathers, who reportedly died of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease in his sleep on February 1 at the age of 76.

Stallone, 77, detailed Weathers’ audition for Rocky to Jimmy Fallon on Friday’s episode Tonight’s showrevealing how the late actor landed the role of Apollo Creed in the popular film franchise.

The Rambo star told Fallon his death was “shocking” and described him as “magnificent” before recalling when Weathers, who was still playing for the Oakland Raiders at the time, auditioned in the mid-1970s.

“Rocky it was a compilation of really great actors, almost born to play those roles,” Stallone said. “I couldn’t fill that position [for Apollo Creed] because it required incredible athleticism, intelligence, spirit, talent, speed. [Weathers] had everything. I mean, he had everything.”

How Carl Weathers Got His Rocky The role by insulting Sylvester Stallone’s acting during the audition

Stallone recalled that Weathers was in a “bad mood” when he arrived for the audition, which he said was a good thing because Weathers would be playing opposite Stallone as Rocky Balboa’s boxing rival.

Then Weathers apparently took his shirt off, to which Stallone responded, “Oh my God, am I the problem, because I looked like Pooh Bear at the time, I did, and he looked like Adonis. He fired three shots into my forehead, and I said, ‘Hired!’ ”

“I loved him. I couldn’t have done it without him,” Stallone concluded, before sharing behind-the-scenes footage of the pair rehearsing their final fight scene in 1976. Rocky.

Sylvester Stallone and Carl Weathers in 2017.

Paul Drinkwater/NBCUniversal via Getty

Weathers previously talked about the audition in a 2015 interview The Hollywood Reporter.

“There was no one to read with and they said: ‘You will read with a writer [Stallone],’ ” Weathers told the paper. “We read the scene and at the end of it, I didn’t feel like it was really over, that the scene had sailed away, they were quiet and there was a moment of awkwardness, I felt whatever, so I just blurted out, ‘I could be a lot better if you found me the right actor to work with.’ ”

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Weathers added: “I just insulted the star of the movie without knowing it and without intending to. Sometimes it’s the mistakes that get you the performance.”

Carl Weathers and Sylvester Stallone in ‘Rocky II’ in 1979.

Michael Ochs/Getty Archive

Mariska Hargitay, Snoop Dogg, Octavia Spencer and more pay tribute to Carl Weathers after his death at 76

Weathers reprized his role as Apollo Creed’s rival-turned-friend Rocky II in 1979, Rocky III in 1982 and Rocky IV in 1985.

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Source: HIS Education