Sylvester Stallone joined the growing list of celebrities releasing intimate documentaries about the highlights and lowlights of their life through his Netflix documentary Sly. Given Stallone's pedigree as a top-notch action hero, the Hollywood star was surprisingly candid about not only his career but also his past. Now, the documentary’s director has revealed how the Samaritan star used projects like the Rocky franchise to process his childhood trauma.
Sly director Thom Zimny opened up to Variety about the process of filming a vulnerable Stallone for the doc on Netflix's 2023 movie schedule. Zimny admitted that filming wasn’t the typical celeb-controlled shoot as the action movie icon gave “a confessional conversation about who he really was.” He tried “chasing after a narrative that was unfolding” in front of him. Of course, this meant diving into the physical and emotional abuse he suffered from his father Frank Stallone Sr. This little-known trauma led to the documentary filmmaker being questioned about focusing on the actor's career as well as his past trauma. Much like the viewers, the director was taken aback by how influential Stallone’s traumatic childhood was to his decades-long acting career. He said:
