Before Sylvester Stallone became one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, he only had $60 to his name – $43.60 of which was already set aside for rent.
But even as he struggled to make ends meet in New York City, the future “Rocky” icon refused to give up on his dream.
In his new memoir, “The Steps,” Stallone recalls his years before fame, including his arrival in New York City in 1969, when he was determined to become an actor despite poverty, rejection and uncertainty.
The 80-year-old told Fox News Digital that even in his worst moments, he had faith that his life would eventually change for the better.
“I think it comes from the naivety and foolishness of youth, that you still have this feeling of, ‘I can do this, I can break the mold,'” Stallone said.
“I wasn’t so defeated by life yet to say it’s over, because as an actor, if you haven’t made it by 30, I’d say 99% you’ll never make it. I didn’t know about that, so I kept going.”
Stallone said, “In New York, when I was really depressed, I didn’t focus on, ‘God, you’re going to be destitute.'”
“There was a certain optimism that if you made every possible effort, if you deprived yourself of every moment of happiness – going to the movies, dating a girl – if you gave it all up and dedicated yourself, I believe you will know 100% whether you really have a chance to play the character you always wished you could be.”
Stallone never stopped believing that he would one day be successful as an actor.
After leaving American college in Switzerland without graduating and leaving the University of Miami just a few credits away from a drama degree, Stallone returned to New York City with nothing to his name.
He rented a room so cramped that he later compared it to the minimum size recommended for a federal prison cell. He shared a bathroom with 10 other people.
Stallone also found work as an assistant at a movie theater, where he earned only $34 per week. He said the job has become an education in filmmaking. Keeping his dream alive, he spent night after night studying the films he watched.
Stallone said that he would shower with his clothes on to save money on laundry. If he was lucky enough to find a bar of soap that didn’t have any “strange hair” stuck to it, he would use it to lather up “my shirt, pants, underwear, socks – and myself.”
Stallone said, “I can never afford to go to a laundromat.” “My wife thinks it’s disgusting, ‘Why would you shower with your clothes on?’ I said, ‘That’s when it made sense to me instead of going to the laundromat. But it was a rented house. It was very bad. But you do whatever you can to survive.”
To stave off hunger, Stallone would first eat a spoonful of cheese, then three or four raw eggs. In the book, he later recalled treating himself to chicken breast and apple juice.
“It’s the only thing that makes sense numerically, economically,” he said. “Of course, it’s all wrong. It’s horrible. I’m surprised I didn’t actually get salmonella. It’s actually quite remarkable. But these two things at a certain time of year, because in the summer, the cheese will rot, and the eggs will go bad.
“But if you get it from around October, it’ll stay on your windowsill until March. So it became my refrigerator. And at the time, I thought it was so convenient. No dishes. You poach the egg, so you don’t have to wash anything. You don’t need a fork. And the cheese, it’s a spoon, and you throw away the cup.”
Stallone wrote in the book, “I wouldn’t recommend this diet to anyone. But if you’re young and poor, it will suffice, which is why I used eating raw eggs in ‘Rocky’ to give some insight into Rocky’s life.”
Stallone had one or two dollars a day for food. He needed a job, and fast.
One of Stallone’s early gigs was cleaning lion cages at the Central Park Zoo. The smell was quite bad – but that didn’t scare him.
“I even feared for my life,” he wrote. “The lions were always close to me, always watching. They looked through me. They were behind a set of bars, but that didn’t stop those great miserable creatures from putting their huge snouts between the bars to sniff me out.
“The way she inhaled and exhaled made horrible moaning sounds, as if she already knew what I was going to taste like.”
During that period, Stallone faced repeated rejections from agents, one of whom criticized his deep voice and odd mouth – two traits that later became signatures of his screen persona.
While driving home one day, he saw a “Help Wanted” sign at the Dover Delicatessen and took the 6 pm to 2 am shift. Although he was able to save enough money for a coat to survive the harsh winter of the city, it is a chore he does not want to give up.
Stallone said with a laugh, “Every customer gets irritated by, ‘Hey, there’s not enough coleslaw. This sandwich should weigh an ounce and a half more.'”
“You’d be shocked. I’ve learned to be a really good fish cutter, like for lox on bagels. I still hear, ‘I can’t see through salmon.’ They wanted the cut to be so thin that you could actually see the light. Hey friend! And you’re cutting your fingers too.”
Stallone continued, “And then the characters who come in at two in the morning, abusive drunks and gangsters, incredible.”
“You’d be surprised who walks into a place at two in the night and wants a sandwich. So it’s colorful. And sure, I ended up in jail, but that’s just because of stupid things.”
“I thought I was living an OK, decent life,” he said. “But by today’s standards, you were on the verge of oblivion.”
After an altercation at the deli, Stallone found himself handcuffed in the back of a police car, still wearing his apron and name tag. he was sent “The Tombs,” New York’s notoriously violent detention facility – Or, as Stallone said, “Nightmare place.”
He was put in a 20 feet by 20 feet cell along with at least 25 other men. One man was already banging the head of another into the small hole that the prisoners used as a toilet.
A criminal court judge eventually released Stallone.
“I took the apron, wrapped it up, and threw it in the trash on my way out the door,” he wrote.
Today, Stallone has no regrets.
“If you don’t give up completely and fail, you’ll suffer throughout your life, ‘Why didn’t I try harder? Why didn’t I use whatever God-given talent I had to become the best I could be?'” Stallone said.
“If you fail, you can say, ‘I tried.’ People can never point a finger in your face and say, ‘You didn’t try hard enough.’ But my biggest fear was that I would leave something on the table.”
Looking back, Stallone said those difficult years taught him a lesson that still resonates in “Rocky” decades later.
“‘Rocky’ still shows that if you’re willing to completely sacrifice a good time, fun and escapism for the goal, it really is possible,” he said. “There is no half way.”