Sylvester Stallone was out on the links when he found out his mother, the eccentric Jackie Stallone, had died.
asserted
mother → find → links
“I was playing golf and someone called, ‘Your mother’s dead,’” Stallone told me.
asserted
Stallone → play → me
He didn’t go to the funeral.
asserted
He → go → funeral
Now you’re getting the scoop,” he said with a small chuckle.
asserted
he → get → chuckle
It is a startling admission from one of the most famous men in Hollywood, but then Stallone’s relationship with his flamboyant mom — a celebrity astrologer known for her extreme plastic surgery who died in September 2020 at age 98 — was anything but conventional.
asserted
who → know → age
As Stallone, 80, has recalled, Jackie would tell him, “The only reason you’re here is because the hanger didn’t work.”
asserted
hanger → recall → him
In his brilliant new memoir, “The Steps,” the actor recounts how, when he offered his mother a ticket to the 1977 Oscars — where “Rocky,” the movie he both wrote and starred in, would win Best Picture — she refused to come because he wouldn’t give her a plus one for her hairdresser.
asserted
he → recount → hairdresser
And as Stallone looks back on his life, he is clear-eyed about it.
asserted
he → look → it
“Some people just shouldn’t have children,” he said.
asserted
he → have → children
“And I think she knew that …
asserted
she → think → that
She was very, very immature and she wanted to be a star …
asserted
she → want → ?
She tried to be this palmist, this astrologist, this rumpologist [Jackie claimed to read fortunes from buttocks], she was a trapeze artist, she played piano, but she never reached out for her grandchildren or her children.
asserted
she → try → grandchildren
But it’s this lack of love that ultimately fueled Stallone, as he said, “It’s the ones that have all the issues that usually end up being the most creative.”
asserted
that → ’ → issues
Eventually, he said, “It got to the point where she just didn’t want to talk to me.
asserted
she → say → me
So she died in isolation.
asserted
she → die → isolation
“My father waited till his deathbed to give advice on love,” Stallone said.
asserted
Stallone → wait → love
“You’re 96, you’re dying.
asserted
you → ’re → ?
And now is when you figure it all out?”
asserted
you → figure → it
It is only now, at 80, that Stallone realizes how grief, ignored for decades, can finally erupt.
asserted
grief → realize → decades
“You suppress, and you suppress, and you keep trying to ignore it, and then it comes out as an adult,” he said of the emotional “Vesuvius” that erupted “a few years ago.”
asserted
that → suppress → Vesuvius
It nearly cost him his marriage when Jennifer Flavin, 58, the mother of his daughters Sophia, 30, Sistine, 28, and Scarlet, 24, filed for divorce in August 2022.
asserted
Flavin → cost → August
The couple reconciled weeks later after talking through their issues at home.
asserted
couple → reconcile → home
“Thank God,” Stallone told me.
asserted
Stallone → thank → me
He dedicated the book to Flavin, writing, “Your love has been a beautiful miracle!”
asserted
love → dedicate → Flavin
Looking back, Stallone sees the crisis as part of something much larger.
asserted
Stallone → look → something
“Finally all the grief, everything just came out, and it was horrible,” he revealed.
asserted
he → come → ?
In 2012, Stallone’s eldest son, Sage, whom he shared with his first wife, Sasha Czack, died suddenly.
asserted
he → share → wife
At just 36 years old, he’d had a heart attack caused by coronary artery disease.
asserted
he → have → disease
Stallone can still recall precisely where he was when he got the news.
asserted
he → recall → news
He was in his office writing a screenplay when his mother’s third husband, Dr. Stephen Levine, called to tell him Sage had died.
asserted
Sage → write → him
“He goes, ‘I’m calling to say he’s gone,’” Stallone recalled, shaking his head.
asserted
Stallone → go → head
(He hadn’t met Levine before, and he’s never been clear on why he called with the heartbreaking news.)
asserted
he → meet → news
Not like, Can I help you?
asserted
I → help → you
In 1996, at age 20, Sage told People that his relationship with his dad had been strained before they eventually reconciled.
asserted
they → tell → dad
He confessed that playing opposite his dad as Rocky Balboa Jr. in 1990’s “Rocky V” had been painful as well as cathartic.
asserted
playing → confess → V
“When I was screaming [in the movie] ‘You never spent time with me! You never spent time with my mother!’ that was true.
asserted
that → scream → mother
I was looking into my father’s face and really saying that,” Sage said.
asserted
Sage → look → that
“I got a lot of things out.
asserted
I → get → things
We broke into tears a few times.
asserted
We → break → tears
After the film, everything changed.
asserted
everything → change → film
…and 47 more, not listed.
The Aporia
