If I just know in my gut that a film is going to work, I'll fight to the death over it, and I convince myself. When a movie is purely a money job, the film doesn't have the same sort of intensity, and the audience almost senses it, at least that's the way I perceive it. So, yeah, the idea is to do something that you truly, truly believe in.
Sometimes worst enemies like a Mohammed Ali and Joe Frazier that's what makes you fight so hard. Without them they never would have achieved greatness.
When boxers are in the ring, they're simple. It's when the fight is over, that's when the other fight, the real fight, begins. That's the problem.
The men in Vietnam weren't allowed to fight the war with any kind of concern to win by the government. It was like a war of attrition.
If you come into my house, I'm going to fight much more viciously to get you out than if we were on a neutral piece of land.
I've always boxed a certain way. But with Rocky, the character himself had to be kind of awkward. So I had to learn to fight that way.
I just fight in my movies, never in real life.
The idea that boxing lends itself to cinema so well is because it's usually a morality play - good against evil, insecurity and triumph, fear strikes out, so the audience can really get drawn into the drama of it. Also, it was sensual and very primal. I think subliminaly we do two things - life is a fight, life is a struggle and we understand that from our early, early, early ancestors, and life is a race.
