JAPAN: Actor Sylvester Stallone makes first public appearance since illegal drug import charges, travelling to Tokyo to promote his new film Rocky Balboa

Record ID: 465207

  • Title: JAPAN: Actor Sylvester Stallone makes first public appearance since illegal drug import charges, travelling to Tokyo to promote his new film Rocky Balboa
  • Date: 28th March 2007
  • Summary: TOKYO, JAPAN (MARCH 26, 2007) (REUTERS) SYLVESTER STALLONE ARRIVING AT NEWS CONFERENCE STALLONE THANKING THE REPORTERS JAPANESE MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR SYLVESTER STALLONE SAYING: "I want to extend my sympathies and my good wishes for the people who went through that terrible earthquake up north and hope that they will come out of this strong as I know they will." STALLONE ADDRESSING THE MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR SYLVESTER STALLONE SAYING: "One is, I learned so much and this is, the first one and this one, are the best emotionally because they are the most biographical. The other ones were more just a sequel and more about the fighting, this one is an emotional journey. And the fighting in this one, like the man I am fighting, is the real light-heavy weight champion in the world. He, just right before our movie, knocked out the best fighter in the world, in the second round. I think he is a tough guy. Everything about this one is more real all the way." STALLONE LEAVING NEWS CONFERENCE
  • Embargoed: 12th April 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Reuters ID: LVADJOVSA7KRWLGWSB5GS469UNJ2
  • Story Text: Sylvester Stallone, in his first public appearance since being formally charged with importing banned human growth hormones in to Australia, arrived in Tokyo to promote his latest film 'Rocky Balboa'.
    The 60-year-old movie star, who has denied the charges, deftly skipped up a flight of red-carpetted stairs at the Japan premiere of the sixth, and final instalment of the long running sequel, as Japanese fans screamed "Rocky, Rocky".
    Sylvester Stallone was last week (March 13) formally charged in an Australian court with importing 48 vials of banned human growth hormone into Australia when he visited last month to promote his film Rocky Balboa. The actor faces a maximum fine of over 96,000 U.S. dollars (USD).
    Stallone has said the charges were a result of a misunderstanding.
    The actor defied critics by bringing his much-loved character Rocky Balboa out of retirement for a sixth Rocky movie, titled simply "Rocky Balboa," 30 years after the first Rocky film became an international hit.
    Stallone's original 1976 movie tells of a loveable small-time boxer in Philadelphia dubbed "The Italian Stallion" who, in one of Hollywood's favourite underdog stories, gets a once-in-a-lifetime chance to prove himself by fighting a heavyweight champ.
    It became a surprise smash hit, winning an Oscar for best film and making Stallone, who wrote the story and played the lead, a star. Four other Rocky movies followed before Stallone set aside the character for a spell.
    In the sixth film -- which uses a retired fighter as Rocky's young opponent and real fans for the crowd -- an ageing Rocky decides he has enough punch left for one last fight. He ends up in the ring with the reigning heavyweight champ.
    "One is I learned so much and this is, the first one and this one, are the best emotionally because they are the most biographical. The other ones were more just a sequel and more about the fighting," Sylvester Stallone said at a news conference in Tokyo, after offering condolences to people in central Japan, on Sunday (March 25) hit by a powerful earthquake.
    "I want to extend my sympathies and my good wishes for the people who went through that terrible earthquake up north and hope that they will come out of this strong as I know they will," he told his Japanese audience.
    One woman died and 200 were injured, among them 23 seriously, on Sunday after a 6.9 magnitude tremor struck off the coast of Noto peninsula, some 300 kilometres west of Tokyo.
    Stallone is also working on a comeback sequel of his other 1980s hulk-like character "Rambo".
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