Sylvester Stallone has revealed he was caught totally off-guard when Donald Trump named him as one of his three special ambassadors to Hollywood.
The “Rocky” star, in a lengthy interview with The Sunday Times to promote his autobiography, “The Steps,” said he only discovered his supposed new role while watching TV, and that he ended up telling Trump that the assignment would never work.
Trump announced in January 2025 that Stallone, Mel Gibson and Jon Voight would serve as his “Special Ambassadors” to Hollywood to fix what he described as a “great but very troubled place.”
What the role would entail was never clarified.
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Asked whether he had reservations about the appointment, Stallone told The Sunday Times: “Yes. Yes, because Hollywood, I guess it’s like feudal states. They have their little kingdoms. You don’t go in and tell six studios how to do things. And Mel Gibson and Jon Voight, we’re kind of do-our-own-thing people. No, it won’t work.”
Stallone said he told Trump his concerns: “Yes, and I said thank you and ciao, because it’s impossible. Hollywood works and it will evolve. It’s corporate and corporate people won’t want to hear me tell them about finance.”
The appointment “just happened,” he recalled. “I was watching TV one night and they go, ‘So Stallone and Mel Gibson and Jon Voight will be …’ And I went, ‘What?’ I said, ‘Excuse me? Really?’ Because if they had asked me in the beginning, I would have said, this is not possible.”
Stallone’s rejection of the role does not appear to signal a broader break with Trump, however.
In 2016, Stallone said he “loved” Trump and following Trump’s 2024 election victory, Stallone introduced him at a Mar-a-Lago gala as a “second George Washington” and “a really mythical character.”
Last year, Stallone was named a Kennedy Center honoree and was presented with a medal by Trump during an Oval Office ceremony.
Mel Gibson has also said he was surprised by Trump’s Hollywood announcement, but indicated at the time that he was willing to serve the president.