Yo Adrian, Rocky did it … again!
Only this time, the famed character is at TIFF in biopic form, thanks to director Peter Farrelly, screenwriter Peter Gamble and a star-making turn from Anthony Ippolito, who portrays actor Sylvester Stallone in the story of his relentless determination to bring “Rocky” to the big screen. This has the DNA of a TIFF Audience winner through and through.
“I Play Rocky” held its world premiere Saturday night as part of the festival’s Special Presentations program at the Princess of Wales Theatre. It’s one of the very first movies that has played at the festival that has the potential to win TIFF’s highest honor — the People’s Choice Award. Multiple applauses rang throughout the film as the film recreates the highest points of the 1976 MGM flick that became the highest grossing movie of its respective year, went on to be nominated for 10 Oscars, and winning three including best picture. A post-screening Q&A with Farelly, Ipplolito, Stephan James, Jay Duplass and screenwriter Peter Gamble.
“I Play Rocky”
Courtesy of TIFF
There’s a certain symmetry in watching a movie about an unknown who bet everything on himself arrive at the very festival that once turned a modest crowd-pleaser into a best picture winner. Farrelly knows that route. Eight years ago, “Green Book” won the TIFF People’s Choice Award and marched all the way to a best picture statuette. Now the director returns to TIFF with “I Play Rocky,” the story of how a broke, stubborn Sylvester Stallone talked Hollywood into letting him write and star in “Rocky.”
If the casting feels like fate, that’s because it more or less is. Ippolito, a 27-year-old Long Island native who has been working since childhood, broke out as George Wright in the Netflix drama series “Grand Army” in 2020. He followed with a turn as a young Al Pacino in the Paramount+ limited series “The Offer,” about the making of “The Godfather.” That makes “I Play Rocky” the second time he has played a young Italian American icon at the dawn of a best picture winner — a coincidence too neat to ignore. Make no mistake: a star is born. Ippolito delivers the kind of breakout that turns a working actor into a name overnight, anchoring one of the truest underdog stories the business has ever told.
For Ippolito, stepping into the role meant a transformation that stretched across years, not months. “It took a lot of effort, upwards of a year and a half to two years,” the actor told the crowd, thanking Farrelly and the team for the gamble. “I’m just so grateful that they were willing to take a chance on me in this situation.” Then, taking in the room: “This is absolutely surreal.”
“I Play Rocky” premiered Sept. 12 at the Toronto International Film Festival. Amazon MGM Studios opens the film in limited release Nov. 6, expanding nationwide Nov. 20.
