Yes Virginia, We Can Still Dream!

 


In 1975, Sylvester Stallone wrote the screenplay for "Rocky."

He shopped the script to every producer and studio in Hollywood, but he was repeatedly rejected.

Eventually, one production company, Chartoff-Winkler Productions, expressed interest.

But there was one condition. They didn't want Stallone to play Rocky.

They wanted a "more marketable actor" for the leading role.

In fact, they were so desperate for Stallone to *not* play Rocky that they kept offering him increasingly large sums of money to go away.

"It went up to $360,000," Stallone said, "to go away, to 'get off my lawn boy.'"

Stallone didn't take the money for two reasons.

1) "I had about $106 in the bank," Stallone said. "But I had managed poverty very well. I had it down to a science. I really didn't need much to live on."

"But more than that..."

2) "There was something about the idea of unrealized dreams," Stallone said. "I knew that if I sold it—even for $500,000—I knew that after the money was gone, I would have become very bitter if I never realized my dream."

Takeaway 1:

Stallone turned down the huge sum of money because he feared the bitter person he would become if he never went for his dream.

The screenwriter Brian Koppelman talks about why, after many years of being afraid to, he finally started writing:

"What I finally realized was that if I allowed these creative impulses to die, it would be like a real death, and like any form of death, it would be toxic and this toxicity would ooze out of me onto everyone and everything."

Takeaway 2:

Stallone turned down the huge sum of money because he had "establish[ed] business relations with poverty," as the Stoic philosopher Seneca put it. 

"The trick is,” Tom Rothman (CEO of Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group) says, “to be fiscally responsible so you can be creatively reckless."


Written by David L. Burton

MORE INFORMATION

Take the Engaged Neighbor pledge and become part of a movement! The pledge outlines five categories and 20 principles to guide you toward becoming an engaged neighbor. Sign the pledge at https://nomoregoodneighbors.com. Individuals who take the pledge do get special invitations to future events online and in person. Contact the blog author, David L. Burton via email at dburton541@yahoo.com or visit his website at http://engagedneighbor.com.

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