Sylvester Stallone used to work as a cage cleaner in a zoo, hoped the lion would eat him: ‘I couldn’t take it anymore’

Actor Sylvester Stallone is almost synonymous with the action/sport genre in Hollywood. Movie franchises like Rambo and Rocky became cornerstones of their particular niches and elevated Stallone to global stardom. However, the actor didn’t have a very glamorous life before acting, and he talked about that stage of his life in a recent interview. Stallone mentioned the kind of jobs he had before acting and how each one was worse than the last.

While talking to Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show, Stallone recalled how he was struggling to make ends meet while living in New York. Although Stallone was a native, he too found it challenging to make it under the ever-present shadow of the bright lights and gigantic skyscrapers of the city. “Look, when you’re broke, you’ll take anything. So I was walking down the street, and it was 100 degrees in August, and I thought, ‘Why don’t I get a job cleaning the lion’s cages?’ Now let me tell you about his job. This is not cologne we’re talking about, right? This is something very pungent, and I worked at the zoo for about three and a half weeks, and I was hoping that this thing would eat me; I couldn’t take it anymore. Even when you get to bed at night, no shower helps, and the smell stays. I knew that I had to get rid of it, so I think I’ll get a job cutting meat at a delicatessen (deli),” said Stallone.

ALSO READ: Raised with a gun in his hand, this actor ‘constantly cheated death’ as a child, got his first major break after writing to Sylvester Stallone

Story continues below this ad

He added that his new job at the deli wasn’t much of an upgrade and said, “I worked with a brisk pastrami, and that’s even worse than the lion, I am telling you. I could cut a good slice of pastrami back in the day, and you could eat like 3 ounces of meat per day; that was your free lunch allowance. The problem lies in cleaning it. Guys, you have no idea. Don’t ever look at the bottom of a pastrami cooker because you will see hell.”

In the same interaction, he talked about his upcoming memoir ‘Steps’ and revealed an interesting detail about the iconic running up the steps scene from Rocky (1976). He said, “We got to Philadelphia, and we didn’t have any money to shoot there or any permission. So I told the crew that I am going to run up the stairs; let’s just get the shot and get out of here before the police come. At first I tried to do it while carrying my 130-pound-heavy dog, but then I dropped the idea, and of course it became a very famous scene.”