Sylvester Stallone claims he tried to buy back Rambo so he could ‘torch it’ because it was ‘so horrible’

DAILYMAIL • 1h ago

By NIOMI HARRIS, SHOWBUSINESS REPORTER 17:11 02 Oct 2026, updated 17:24 02 Oct 2026

Sylvester Stallone has claimed he tried to ‘buy back’ the first Rambo film he made so he could ‘torch it’ because it was ‘so horrible’.

The Hollywood actor, 80, portrayed troubled Vietnam war veteran John Rambo in the first movie of the franchise back in 1982, which saw the character wage a brutal one-man war against a small-town sheriff and the local police force.

After escaping to the mountains amid his cruel mistreatment at the hands of the sheriff and his associates in police custody, a huge manhunt ensues, forcing the PTSD-suffering green beret to fight for his survival – with brutal results.

And during his appearance on Friday’s The Graham Norton Show, Sylvester reflected on the controversial film, as he admitted ‘no one wanted to play it because it was so politically incorrect.’

Looking back on when he first read the script for the film – adapted from David Morrell’s 1972 novel – Sylvester shared: ‘When we first saw it in the edit my agent threw up. That’s how horrible it was.

‘I think I was the eleventh actor to be offered the part – no one wanted to play it because it wasn’t very politically correct. It was so bad I tried to buy it back so I could torch it.’

Sylvester added: ‘In the end I cut it from over three hours to 89 minutes. What I cut out was mostly me!’

Before the Rocky star bagged the role, several big name actors were considered for the part of deeply traumatised John Rambo before turning down the role.

Dustin Hoffman rejected the role as he reportedly deemed the script too violent, while James Garner was said to have disapproved of how the Vietnam veteran character was portrayed.

Robert De Niro, Paul Newman and Michael Douglas were also said to have passed on the film.

Sylvester portrayed the character John Rambo across five films in the hit franchise, including 2019’s Rambo: Last Blood, which received lacklustre reviews from critics.

Meanwhile during the chat, Sylvester spoke about his other huge movie franchise – Rocky.

Speaking to Graham, he said: ‘I wrote the screenplay and I only had one condition – that I play the lead.

‘Everyone wanted it, but they didn’t want me – they said, ‘Over our dead bodies,’ which I understood because I wasn’t a leading man.

‘The money kept going up for the screenplay without me. I held out because I knew I would never find something like it again and without it, I would never make it in Hollywood.’

Meanwhile, he touched on his legendary rivalry with fellow action star Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose feud across the 80s and 90s is well known in pop culture history.

He explained: ‘We are good friends now but the competition between us started as soon as I saw him. It was a different era.

‘We were both in the same genre and I needed a rival. We pushed each other like two prize fighters – everything had to be bigger and better than what the other one had.’

The Graham Norton Show airs on BBC One on Friday at 10.40pm and is also available on BBC iPlayer.

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