Veteran UFC commentator, Joe Rogan has once more donned his impersation cap this week trying his best to mimic Rocky actor, Sylvester Stallone after poking fun at his physique.
Rogan, himself an avid fitness freak and health guru of sorts, is a proponent for working out physically as often and as disciplined as one can in their everyday life. However, Rogan also understands that it is impossible to stay in shape all the time.
So, when From Dusk Till Dawn and Machete director, Robert Rodriguez, told him a story about how Stallone looked down at an actor from his high horse for not staying in shape to film The Expendables with him, Rogan wasn’t about to let it pass.
As Rodrigues tells the story, Stallone apparently asked him to ask one of his friends if he could join the cast of his action movie. This friend refused the offer and told Rodriguez that with a week to start principal shooting, he wouldn’t have enough time to work out to be able to act in a Stallone film, which annoyed the Rocky actor.
Chided, Stallone apparently told Rodriguez, “Get in shape? Get in shape? You don’t get in shape, you stay in shape.” And this was enough to grind Rogan’s goat.
Chuckling at the hypocrisy, Rogan said, “There’s a photo of (Sylvester) Stallone walking around Malibu looking like he’s nine months pregnant.”
“I don’t know if he did that for a movie.” Rogan added. Rodriguez refuted him and claimed that it was probably for Cop Land, but Rogan asserted, “No — it wasn’t for Cop Land — it was recent. It was within the last few years.“
The UFC commentator then whipped up a rather poor impression of the 78-year-old and quipped, “Hey, no excuses. Stay in shape“.
Jokes aside, having grown up on action movies himself, Rogan understands the importance of stars like Stallone to the genre. In fact, some time ago, he couldn’t help but gush about the actor’s presence in the Expendables movie series.
Rogan praises Stallone’s acting but calls out fake workouts
Despite being long-criticized for his over-the-top acting in the Rocky franchise, Stallone has also starred in notable movies such as Rambo, Cop Land, Demolition Man, and Antz.
But for Rogan, it’s the New Yorker’s ability to act “believably” as a tough front man in the franchise, The Expendables, that has caught his eye.
“How crazy is it that the guy (Stallone) is doing The Expendables as a f*cking action star?” Rogan asked Diamond Dallas Page on his show a few years ago.
“He’s in his 70s. Who the f*ck in their 70s is believable in an action role? The JRE host had argued that it simply wasn’t believable to see a visibly old man trying to do the things that the movie required of him.
Interestingly, The Expendables is a cult classic featuring action stars from the 80s and 90s like Jet Li, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dolph Lundgren, Bruce Willis, Wesley Snipes, Chuck Norris, WWE legend Stone Cold Steve Austin, and UFC Hall of Famer Ronda Rousey.
So, it doesn’t come as a surprise that, as someone who loves the old school action films, with choreographed hand-to-hand combat without CGI, Rogan was mesmerised.
“When you see him doing it, you’re like, ‘I kinda believe it,'” he said of Stallone’s performance. “He’s still jacked at 72 — 73 years old I think, whatever the f*ck he is? That’s f*cking insane“, the JRE host told DDP.
However, ages seem to have passed since then, because Rogan no longer gushes over the Rocky star. At the tail end of last year, the UFC color-caller ripped Stallone for allegedly using fake weight plates during a viral workout video.
Stalline was seen in a video struggling to lift 45-pound weight plates during a routine.. Responding to this, Rogan claimed that the weights — and the acting itself was “so fake“, before accusing the elderly actor of crying out for needless attention.
