A star-packed after-party is typically the next stop for those taking
home an Oscar, but when Sylvester Stallone’s “Rocky” nabbed a surprise
Best Picture award 40 years ago, the actor celebrated in a more unlikely
locale: a fast-food joint.
On the biggest night of his career (photo), Stallone ducked the
Champagne and hit a Fatburger in a white limo with his family, recalls
Irwin Winkler, the producer who took a chance on an unknown’s boxing
script.
Superfit Sly ditched his strict diet to indulge in burgers, fries and milkshakes.
“We dumped the Oscars on the table, and everyone was looking at us,”
says Winkler. “I saw the look on people’s faces and they were thinking,
‘Why are there these silly people here in tuxedos with their silly gold
statues?’ ”
Sly felt “like an alien” when he walked into the Dorothy Chandler
Pavilion in L.A. for the awards ceremony on March 28, 1977, said
Winkler. Neither he nor Winkler figured they had any chance of taking
home a statue, being up against “Taxi Driver,” “Network” and “All the
President’s Men.”
The win was all the bigger a shock given that the movie — which had
opened just 10 weeks earlier — initially looked like a clunker. It was
granted only two screens — in L.A. and New York — and Vincent Canby of
The New York Times hammered it.
“It was a terrible, terrible review and I thought, ‘Oh, boy, that’s the end of that,’ ” Winkler said.
But soon the movie expanded to other theaters and “it just grew,” snowballing into a runaway hit.
Sly was nominated for Best Original Screenplay and Actor for “Rocky”
but didn’t win. Now 70, he is still hungry to nab an Oscar, Winkler
said. Last year, he was a favorite to win Best Supporting Actor for
returning as the Italian Stallion in “Creed.” But while he won Golden
Globe, SAG and Critics Choice awards, Mark Rylance took home the Academy
Award for “Bridge Of Spies.”
And don’t tell Winkler that being nominated is what counted - those who
trot out that line are delivering “a complete and utter lie,” he says.
“That is the biggest lie you will hear all this weekend. It does matter that much.”
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