Sylvester Stallone has thrown his weight behind the writers on strike in the entertainment industry and told Newsweek it's an "unheralded" and underappreciated profession.
The Oscar-nominated writer and actor is the latest entertainer to offer his support to members of the Writers Guild of America. The WGA is on strike in a dispute with major television networks and streaming services. Writers are picketing studios in Los Angeles and New York as a number of TV shows have been forced off the air. Stallone said that the strikes also affect his work, notably the second season of his show Tulsa King.
Despite writers producing the foundation that "Hollywood is built on" in Stallone's opinion, the WGA says that the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) is refusing to negotiate with them.
The WGA's talks with the AMPTP broke down in early May, and writers have been on strike since Tuesday, May 2, 2023.
Stallone may be best known for his roles in front of the camera in movies like Rocky, Rambo and The Expendables. However, the 76-year-old has written dozens of screenplays throughout his career. The writers' strike is also leaving his current Paramount+ TV show, Tulsa King, at a standstill.
"It's definitely affecting work because we can't move forward with a lot of projects, especially Tulsa King," Stallone told Newsweek. "But I think it's changed so much that the writers do have a serious gripe [...]. They're in a grievance that it's changed. There's not enough work to keep all these writers going."
Stallone detailed some of the challenges facing writers these days. "And then they're living in under this cloud of AI [artificial intelligence]. It's a very terrifying time to be a writer. They work on, like, for our show [Tulsa King], eight episodes, and then you're done, and that's it. Like, 'What do I live on for the rest of the year?' sort of a thing. So I understand their plight."
Stallone received Academy Award nominations in 1977 for best original screenplay and for best leading actor for the first Rocky movie. Since then, he also wrote and co-wrote a number of famous movies including the Rocky sequels, the Rambo franchise, Cliffhanger, Homefront, The Expendables franchise and more.
Having been in the industry for a number of decades, Stallone said that Hollywood would be nothing without its writers.
"Writing, I've done all the different aspects of filmmaking. I've written 40 screenplays that it's, it's so laborious and so unheralded. It's not appreciated." Stallone added. "The audience doesn't get it. That's the hardest part of the process. Without that, there's nothing. That's what Hollywood is built on, 'the word.' And yet they're not very appreciated."
Stallone was speaking to Newsweek alongside his wife, Jennifer Flavin Stallone, and three daughters, Sophia, Sistine and Scarlet Stallone. The family is promoting a new reality TV show The Family Stallone.
Newsweek will have more from the entire family in the buildup to the launch of the show, which debuts exclusively on Paramount+ on Wednesday, May 17, 2023.
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Jamie Burton is a Newsweek Senior TV and Film Reporter (Interviews) based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on ... Read more
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