Sylvester Stallone has earned his second Academy Award nomination for reprising his role as Rocky Balboa in the box office hit Creed. Yet the seasoned actor wasn’t quite sure how to celebrate the accomplishment due to the backlash over the lack of diversity in this year’s nominations.
The 69-year-old Hollywood veteran received a nod in the Best Supporting Actor category and with many of Hollywood’s black actors and actresses boycotting this year’s ceremony, Stallone asked the film’s director, Ryan Coogler, what should be his course of action.
I said, ‘Ryan, how do you want to handle this? Because I really believe that you are responsible for me being here. Michael Jordan, every time I look in his eyes as an actor, he’s making me better. I think he should’ve been given a lot more respect, a lot more attention,’ ” Stallone said Monday (February 8) at the Oscar’s luncheon.
Stallone went onto say Coogler told him to attend the ceremony out of respect for the film. “He goes, ‘Sly, just go there. Try to represent the film.…We feel you deserve it.’”
After receiving Coogler’s blessing, Stallone also commented on this year’s nominees agreeing the lack of diversity is certainly an issue.
“Certainly, there’s the universal law of existence: You either adapt or cease to exist. So I think adaptation and evolving is definitely necessary. … I do believe that things will change in just a matter of time. Eventually, all talent will rise to the top, it’s just a matter of getting a new paradigm, a new way of thinking. It’s gonna happen, but I really do owe everything to these two young men, for sure.”