Long before Rocky made him a Hollywood household name, Sylvester Stallone was living on the edge financially, with only $60 to his name and just $34 a week coming from his job at a New York movie theatre.
The actor, now 80, looks back on those years in his new memoir, The Steps, recalling the lengths he went to while pursuing an acting career after returning to New York in 1969.
Food was one of the everyday challenges. Stallone said he sometimes ate spoonfuls of cottage cheese followed by three or four raw eggs simply to keep hunger at bay. When he had a little more money, chicken breast and apple juice became something of a treat.
Even basic hygiene required improvisation. Rather than pay for a laundromat, he recalled showering while wearing his clothes and washing them at the same time.
Stallone’s living conditions were similarly difficult. He rented a tiny room and shared a bathroom with 10 other people, conditions he later compared with the minimum space recommended for a federal jail cell.
Yet his circumstances did not persuade him to abandon acting. His job at the cinema instead gave him an opportunity to study filmmaking, as he watched movies night after night while continuing to pursue his own ambitions.
“I think it comes from naïveté and the folly of youth, that you still have this sense of, ‘I can do it, I can break the mold,’” Stallone told Fox News Digital.
He said he had not yet been discouraged enough by life to conclude that his dream was impossible.
Stallone eventually went on to achieve the success he had imagined, becoming one of Hollywood’s most recognisable actors and filmmakers.