He would sometimes spend days at a boardinghouse where his parents would drop him off. He said that it was a ‘transient’ home run by an older woman. He felt isolated as a result.
As he continued to get older, he would be shaped into somebody who kept to himself. He didn’t connect with others well, and his mother spoke about the lack of love. She said: “The only reason you’re here is because the hanger didn’t work.’ And sometimes: “bouncing down those steps didn’t cause you to get lost.”
Eventually, he learned more about his mother’s past. She had been placed into an orphanage where she was tied to the bed, molested, and whipped. This made it impossible for her to show affection to her children.
When he grew up, he moved to New York City and had very little money. He couldn’t afford a place to stay so he slept in the bus station. He knew he wanted to be an actor, but he was afraid that he would just be a ‘professional extra’ since he wasn’t a traditionally handsome man.
He had plastic surgery to change this, but it went wrong and left his face partially paralyzed on the left side. He then had to have his face surgically lifted, and people often mistook the scar for him getting plastic surgery.
In case you haven’t figured it out, we are speaking about Sylvester Stallone. He went from rock-bottom at that point in his life to a life of extraordinary success.