Sylvester Stallone
It’s easy to put labels on action actors such as Sylvester Stallone as brainless muscle men who can convincingly kick people’s asses without breaking a sweat and make a machine gun look like a third arm they acquired at birth. At age 67, instead of slumping and aging like a normal person, he seems to become even more bad-ass; in 2010 he reportedly broke his neck while shooting a scene for The Expendables with Steve “Stone Cold” Austin after insisting on doing his own stunts, and has over the last few years gotten a few tattoos to cover up his scars that he has collected filming action films throughout his life.
Stallone has always explored his talents besides acting: he wrote and was nominated for an Academy Award for the screenplay of Rocky, and is the co-writer, leading role and director of the first of the Expendables films. Stallone has now revealed a totally different, softer side to him. A collection of paintings created by the Hollywood star have gone on show at The Russian Museum in St. Petersburg. The exhibition titled: Sylvester Stallone. Painting. From 1975 Until Today, is a selection of works produced by Stallone over the past four decades. At the show’s opening, the star reportedly said that if he had the choice, he would spend his life drawing instead of acting. He said:
I think I’m a much better painter than an actor. It’s much more personal and I’m allowed to just do what I want to do. Quite often in acting you have to play a certain part, you cannot speak as much as you want to speak. I suppose the heroes don’t talk much, you have to be very stoic.”
Museum director Vladimir Gusev said Stallone’s paintings “show the character of a passionate man” and were not simply “the work of an amateur”. The exhibition will be on display until 13 January 2014.
The Finger 