Sylvester Stallone & Martin Starr Answer The Web's Most Searched Questions

Hi, I am Martin Starr.

[group laughs]

And I'm Sylvester Stallone.

That's right.

And you're watching The Wired Incomplete Interview.

Hi, I'm Sylvester Stallone.

And I'm Martin Starr.

You're watching the Wired Auto Complete Interview.

[upbeat music]

Bravo, Bravo.

Hey, we did it.

[upbeat music]

Here we go.

Why is Sylvester Stallone?

Let me have it.

Hold on, there's more.

[paper rips]

Called Sly?

Okay.

Sylvester was a name I was given

because usually the Italian family,

the first born male is named

after the grandfather, luckily, Sylvestro.

But at that time there's a very famous cartoon character

named Sylvester and I had to live with that

so I changed it to Mike

and then I walked around in New York

for a couple years as a total unknown.

I said, well, I might as well be unknown Sylvester,

'cause at least you're gonna remember that name.

So we went back

and did Sly, juxtaposition, the LMY.

And luckily there was a great singer

named Sly and the Family Stone.

Yeah.

So I just borrowed that permanently.

Who does Sylvester Stallone support football?

Who does Sylvester Stallone support football?

The Philadelphia Eagles, of course.

That was my fantasy.

I, matter of fact, my favorite player wore 22

and I wore 22 in high school when I was made

the team captain.

And I had the dubious distinction

of having lost every game.

Oh, in 10.

They're good right now.

It's almost as good as 10

and oh, you know, it's pretty hard to do.

[Martin laughs]

It's pretty hard to do.

How much can,

Sylvester Stallone,

curl?

Right now, the most I can curl is my hair.

[group laughs]

But at one time, I guess, you know,

see Martin, there's a cheek curl and a strict curl.

Right, I know. Cheek curl.

Yeah, you know,

155,

160,

cheek curl.

And a strict curl, I don't know.

I didn't do it so much because it's a very danger.

You could tell your muscles that I have.

probably about 110.

Which one's a cheat curl?

Is that-

Cheat curls is when you use your body.

Swing wheel,

Swing.

It's a swing, yeah.

You do a lot more.

I can do plenty of cheat curls.

Can Sylvester Stallone [paper rips]

ride a horse?

Yeah, that's one thing I can do.

I started out riding very, very early in riding very

cantankerous horses

because my father used to buy horses like for $35, $40.

So I learned to ride on that.

At one time I wanted to be a professional equestrian.

That was my goal.

And I played amateur polo for until I was around 40.

And then had my last game at

the field in Wellington in Florida.

And I said, siyanara,

because you cannot trust anything that can gallop

and poop at the same time.

That is a, that is a good decision probably.

Thank you.

It seems hard with the polo stick,

like it's such a small ball, isn't it?

It literally like trying to hit a golf ball

during an earthquake with a blindfold.

Yeah. Yeah.

[card flops]

Wow.

These won't be as interesting.

This will be, how did Martin Star

get his start?

I got lucky.

That's how it happened.

I didn't hustle, probably as hard as you had to.

I got, I got real lucky.

I got a TV show at 16,

At 16?

And then at 16 off to the races.

Yeah.

Wow, very good.

How old was Martin Starr when

[paper rips]

In Freaks and Geeks,

15 years old.

Stop.

You were, when you did, Rocky?

How old were you?

I was right, like 29 and three quarters.

I was right at the quarter down.

You weren't even 30.

You were counting the quarters though.

Yeah, for sure.

I appreciate that.

Who did Martin Starr

[paper rips]

play in, Superbad?

One of the cokeheads.

Do you guys, you guys ever heard of cocaine?

I can see why they cast you because he speaks so quickly.

Mhm,

yeah.

Okay.

Martin Star.

[paper rips]

Hey, look at us, huh?

♪ Going to the chapel ♪

♪ And we're gonna get ♪

What does that mean?

People are Googling us.

[Crew] Really? Yeah.

Well we appreciate it.

We do.

And we have a big surprise coming your way September 21st.

Come and get it.

Here we go.

What is Tulsa King about

with Sylvester Stallone?

Do we have a week?

First of all, the first season was, I do a big favor.

I'm in prison for 25 years, expecting

to be rewarded when I get out.

Instead I'm banished to Tulsa,

which I have no idea who's there

and have to build a new life.

And I start to build it with very odd individual

like the man on my left here.

And it turns out to be a great gathering

of interesting characters.

Not to brag.

Why did Sylvester Stallone

write Rocky?

Because I was broke.

I was really busted.

[Martin laughs]

It was like the last shot, last moment.

This was it.

We're all in period.

So I wrote it

because I realized I wasn't getting the kind

of role I could really wrap my teeth around.

I was always like the third guy through the door

and I said, this is gonna be it.

I'm gonna be like thug number three.

So why don't I write a story about a thug with a good heart?

And actually he's a very interesting fellow

'cause he had the same problems as everybody.

So people identify with this

because it's more of a love story than a fight story.

So it had all the components,

but it was trillion to one shot.

It was a minor miracle.

Still totally, yeah.

Who did Sylvester Stallone base Rocky on?

Well, I'm glad you asked that.

A lot of people think it was based on a fellow named

Chuck Wepner, the Bayonne Bleeder.

And I'll tell you, it was really based on Rocky Marciana,

who he and I were literally almost the same size.

He didn't stop start fighting until he was around 24.

He stopped in the fifties.

So I didn't think any, the studios hardly anyone,

unless you were a boxing fan, would remember him.

And coincidentally, Ali, Muhammad Ali,

fought Chuck Wepner.

Chuck sort of stepped on his toe.

Ali got knocked down and it became a big deal.

So when I was trying to pitch the show to studios, I used

that as this is the possibility this could actually be quite

relevant and exciting.

Where this incredible underdog knocks down the ultimate.

Because everyone secretly wants to take one big shot at life

and see if they can knock it down.

So that was the identification.

What's the news on Sylvester Stallone?

What's the news?

What's the haps with Sylvester?

Well, you know, we're getting ready for the next season.

We're gonna start filming at the end of October.

We premiere September 21st.

So we're doing a lot of work with the writers.

Terence Winter, the original writer on it.

Yeah.

And we're coming up with a lot of surprises.

So that's pretty much it.

And I'm finishing writing this biography about the genesis

of Rocky, which is being done by Harpers and Collins.

And that'll be out, I guess, springtime.

Am I gonna get a free copy or?

Definitely.

[paper flops]

Martin.

Martin Starr,

Bodhi.

Yep, I got taken over by the mob.

But he is also a mad genius that takes us to a new level.

And next season we're really going places

with your AI brain.

So you heard it here first.

There you go.

I just made it up.

[Martin laughs]

Martin Starr on Silicon Valley.

That's it.

The good old days.

Gilfoyle, Dinesh, Mike Judge and Alec Berg.

That was a good run.

It's a different vibe than a comedy,

than on a drama.

I think there's, there's different focus.

Like we get to do more action stuff

and there's a lot more focus on making sure story beats

are all connected

and with comedy,

you're you kind of get to focus on

the play of it,

which I guess we get to do a lot too.

I know.

But this season you really get very dramatic.

You wound up in some scenes there

and I don't think people, they just, oh wow.

I thought he just does, you know, dry comedy?

No, no, no.

Not at all.

You run the gamut.

Congrats.

Martin Starr,

[paper rips]

MCU crossover.

I was in the Spider-Man

and then technically I was also in the Hulk.

Kevin Feige once said

that the two characters were connected,

but I don't necessarily understand how that is.

But I respect his overall view of the MCU world.

So I won't disagree with him,

but I played a Pizza man at Hulk and then played a teacher

and Mr. Harrington and Spider-Man.

That's the full spectrum man.

Hey, I've had a good run.

Martin Star,

glow up.

Glow up TBD.

We're still working on it.

It'll happen.

But you know, patience.

Appreciate your patience.

What is it?

Glow up is like when you go from being very

unattractive to then all of a sudden you're now attractive.

[laughs] Okay. So we're still working.

We're working our way there.

I think you're getting taller every episode, just saying.

Yeah, no, I'm working.

I'm adding vertebrae in.

All right, Sly, did you have fun?

I, yeah, I did.

Good hanging with you.

[upbeat music]