Sylvester Stallone Says He ‘Became Bulimic’ After Transforming for ‘Rocky’ and Opens Up About the ‘Terrible Toll’ of Steroid Use: It Was An ‘Obsessive Body-Worship Kind of Thing’

Sylvester Stallone is opening up about the less glamorous side of fame, revealing that he’s struggled with a tumultuous relationship with his body ever since he physically transformed to play the titular boxer in “Rocky.”

In a recent interview with The New York Times, the famed actor delved into his “intimate” relationship with his body and how it’s changed over time. “It was my armor. I looked at Rocky: very smooth, very normal-looking guy. And then I said, I think the character would start to become a bit more vain. And then in ‘Rambo,’ you’re playing a warrior, so you’d be a little bit more animalistic. You wouldn’t be so smooth,” he said. “So I started to think: Design your body like a jaguar, a cat. Not big like Arnold, but more feral and aggressive and very limber and athletic.”

However, Stallone admitted that this type of thinking “became an obsession.” “It got to the point where I became bulimic,” he said. “I got down to 2.6 percent body fat when I was doing ‘Rocky III,’ and I couldn’t hold anything down. 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.”

Steroids played a role, also, he continued: “Nobody does it without additives and drugs, period. I don’t care what they say. It isn’t as though you’re a junkie, but if you’re going to work out and try to stay in shape for six months straight, and you’re eating yogurt and pudding, it’s not happening.” He noted that he’d use the drugs “in a sensitive way — six weeks on, six weeks off.” “People go, ‘Oh, you don’t get that way naturally.’ No, you don’t. But that also took a terrible toll.”

“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,” he said. “But yeah, I’ve abused my body.”

Today, Stallone said he no longer sees his body as his armor, but treating it in the “masochistic” ways he did came “at a terrible price.” “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.

Stallone’s forthcoming memoir, “The Steps,” is available on Sept. 29.