‘I Play Rocky’: Anthony Ippolito Details the Extreme Prep to Play Sylvester Stallone

After a recent test screening of I Play Rocky, audience members had a question. How often had director Peter Farrelly interspersed footage from the original 1976 Rocky with new scenes in this film? It was hard, someone said, to tell when you were watching Sylvester Stallone and when it was the actor portraying him, Anthony Ippolito, in the biographical drama. The answer: It’s all new.

None of the original film was used here. But for Farrelly, it wasn’t just a great compliment — it meant the movie had done exactly what he and the cast had set out to do.