Sylvester Stallone recently revealed he underwent more than half a dozen back surgeries after a stunt on the set of the first “Expendables” film left him with injuries from which he “never recovered.”
In the newly released second season of his Paramount+ reality series, “The Family Stallone,” the 77-year-old “Rocky” star says he was forced to go under the knife seven different times after filming a fight scene that involved getting body-slammed by “Stone Cold” Steve Austin.
“I did stupid stuff. I was directing ‘Expendables’ and, like an idiot, I’m doing take 10, take whatever, and I remember one slam and I could actually feel one bang,” the New York native recalls in the show, which premiered Wednesday. “Steve knew.”
The three-time Oscar nominee — who also co-wrote the 2010 action film and its first two sequels — dislocated his shoulders and fractured his neck when the 59-year-old pro wrestler threw him against a stone wall. Stallone had to undergo multiple spinal fusions and now has a metal plate in his neck.
“I never recovered from [‘Expendables’],” says Stallone, who in the show is featured preparing for his last surgery. “After that film, it was never physically the same.”
Though he says he has gone on to “warn people, ‘Don’t do your own stunts,’” the experience didn’t scare Stallone off the franchise. He has starred in all of the film’s sequels, the latest of which hit theaters last year.
In the reality series, Stallone’s wife, Jennifer Flavin, reveals that the action star “doesn’t like people to know he’s had so many back surgeries.”
“It’s very scary for our family every time Sly has to go through surgery, because you never know,” says the 55-year-old former model, who filed for divorce from Stallone in August 2022 only to reconcile with him the following month.
“It’s really hard to see my father go through yet another painful operation,” says the couple’s 21-year-old daughter, Scarlet, adding that her dad was in pain for most of her entire childhood. “He did everything he could to push through the pain and be present, but I couldn’t imagine every waking moment you are just hurting.”
Flavin says she’s optimistic her husband’s latest operation will be the one to finally “help him live a more comfortable life.”
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