Sylvester Stallone just got back together with his wife, and now he’s thinking about how he balanced work and family life in the past.
In a recent interview with Sunday Times, the 76-year-old “Rocky” star talked about how his family relationships are going right now. He and his wife of 25 years, Jennifer Flavin, said they were getting a divorce in August, but a month later, they changed their minds.
Stallone told the publication, “Let’s just say that it was a very tumultuous time. There was a reawakening of what was more valuable than anything, which is my love for my family. It takes precedence over my work, and that was a hard lesson to learn.”
The father of five talked about how his focus on his job affected his kids and how they get along with each other even now. Stallone has two sons from his first marriage, and three daughters from his marriage to Flavin.
The Golden Globe winner said, “I didn’t pay enough attention when they were growing up. I was so career-oriented, and now I go, ‘OK, I don’t have that much runway up ahead, and I want to start asking them about their lives.’”
Stallone told The Times that he feels bad about the mistakes he’s made in the past, but that he’s working on those relationships now, especially with his daughters. “I ask them about their day, and they started at first a little monosyllabic,” he went on. ”Then I heard one say, ‘I was just thinking about you.’ Oh, my God. I’ve never heard that before in my life. When a daughter knows you care, she’s there forever.”
In another part of the interview, the action star gave advice to young people, telling them to put physical safety first. Stallone said that action movies have changed a lot since it became possible to Velcro muscles on, and that actors today should take advantage of these changes.
“Don’t do your own stunts, that’s the moral of that,” he stated. “But the special effects became more important than the person. Life is a matter of managing your ass-whipping,” he said. “That’s why I’ve always been a fan of defeated fighters. The undefeated boxer? I’m not interested.”
The actor also said that he didn’t think Rocky or Rambo would ever have anything to do with politics. He said, “I didn’t even know what a Republican or a Democrat was until I was 30 years old. I really didn’t until I went to Hollywood. I didn’t know wrapping myself in a flag in Rocky would throw down the gauntlet.”
People have called Stallone a Republican because he backed John McCain for president in 2008, but he says he’s not a member of the GOP. He said, “May the best fighter win.”
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