Sylvester Stallone has revealed that his pursuit of the muscular physiques seen in the Rocky and Rambo films developed into an eating disorder.

The actor said the obsession became one of the most damaging periods of his life and left him with bulimia.

Stallone, 80, spoke candidly about his relationship with his body during an interview with The New York Times.

When asked how that relationship had changed over the years, he initially replied: “Well, now you’re getting personal.”

His physique gradually became more than a requirement of his acting work. The body that audiences associated with his action roles became closely connected to his identity, exercise habits, diet and appearance.

Stallone created and began playing Rocky Balboa in 1976. He recalled that the character originally had a relatively ordinary physique, but his vision changed as the Rocky franchise continued and he imagined Balboa becoming more vain and physically imposing.

His thinking shifted again while playing the hardened former soldier in Rambo. Rather than simply trying to make himself as large as possible, Stallone wanted to appear lean, athletic, aggressive and animalistic.

“I started to think: Design your body like a jaguar, a cat,” he said. “Not big like Arnold, but more feral and aggressive and very limber and athletic.”

That pursuit eventually became dangerous. Stallone described the change bluntly, saying: “Then it became an obsession. Really bad. It got to the point where I became bulimic. You heard it here first.”

He identified the filming of Rocky III in 1982 as a personal low. His preoccupation with maintaining a particular level of fitness became so consuming that eating and keeping food down became difficult.

“I couldn’t hold anything down,” Stallone said. “Or I didn’t want to keep it down because I became so obsessed with staying at that point of fitness, literally an obsessive body-worship kind of thing.”

The actor also spoke openly about using steroids during that period. He argued that the physique he wanted was not realistically achievable while he was combining intense training with severe restrictions on his diet.

When asked directly whether he had taken steroids, Stallone answered: “Oh, my god, you have to.” His comments depicted a career in which physical appearance demanded increasingly extreme choices rather than conventional training alone.

The physical consequences have continued long after those films. Stallone said he has undergone nine back operations, two shoulder operations and three neck fusions following decades of physically demanding work.

“Everything is held together with baling wire, but I still want to stay in good shape,” he said. Although he remains committed to fitness, he now views the damage accumulated across his career as an enormous cost.

A different role offered him some relief from the image of the invulnerable action star. In James Mangold’s 1997 crime drama Cop Land, Stallone played Freddy Heflin, a partially deaf and overweight sheriff rather than a muscular fighter.

“It wasn’t until I did Cop Land, when I had to play the weakest guy in the room — partially deaf, overweight — that I felt somewhat liberated,” Stallone said. The performance gave him a break from always being presented as the powerful, muscle bound tough guy.

Asked whether he still considered his physique a form of armour, Stallone acknowledged the toll it had taken. “I’m sort of fit, but I take a lot of pills to keep going,” he said. “It’s come at a terrible price.”

Stallone also said he would make different decisions if he could revisit his career. “If I could do it over again, I would say, ‘Let someone else carry the banner and don’t do your own stunts,’” he said.

He described his past behaviour as “very masochistic” and reflected on the regrets that accompanied his success. “You don’t get to be your age in your career without a mountain of them,” he said, adding: “You denied people your love, but you also did worse to yourself.”

Looking back, Stallone no longer appears to regard his extreme physique simply as a badge of honour. “I’ve abused my body,” he admitted, describing a pursuit that helped define Rocky and Rambo while exacting a considerable personal price.

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