Sylvester Stallone Gets Golden Globe Nomination For Best Supporting Actor

Sylvester Stallone has scored his first major acting victory after giving what many are calling the performance of a lifetime in Creed, with Thursday’s announcement that he will be up for Best Supporting Actor in the Golden Globe ceremonies.

That’s usually a good sign of placement on Academy Award ballots, as well, and in a weak year for movies, it’s hard to imagine any performances that would keep him from the larger nomination.

The seventh entry in the saga that tells the life of heavyweight prizefighter Rocky Balboa took a step away from having Sylvester Stallone as its main character, but it still left him plenty of screen time, and critics are in lockstep agreement that he made the most of it.

According to the current rating from critic aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the Ryan Coogler-directed drama is sitting on an impressive 92 percent “certified fresh” rating out of 173 official reviews counted.

Furthermore, the film has been a box office success, more than doubling its $35 million budget in only two and a half weeks, per Box Office Mojo.

Unlike many films, it has shown signs of longevity as well, only falling off 48 percent in its second weekend compared to average numbers of between 55 and 65 percent for most films.

With a body of work that includes critical duds like Tango & Cash, Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot!, Oscar, and Cobra, it’s surprising for some to see Sylvester Stallone as a serious Award-season contender, but Creed is not the first time the action star proved he could act.

In the 1976 original, he earned a Best Actor nomination, but ultimately lost out to Peter Finch of Network fame. Coincidentally, Stallone was also nominated for the Golden Globe Best Actor Award that same year, which Finch also won.

Stallone’s consolation prize for the loss was that the film he wrote and championed (and even directed a portion of in the climactic fight scene) earned $225 million on its global take — well over a half-billion dollars after accounting for inflation — on a budget of only $1 million (an 11,000 percent return).

It made his career, for better or worse, and it was a character he had no difficulty returning to whenever some of his other projects fell short.

In Creed, Sylvester Stallone is playing Rocky Balboa for the seventh time, and this incarnation of the character is a different interpretation than films past.

Congratulations @TheSlyStallone on a @goldenglobes nomination for @creedmovie. GP and @TonyBellew are his co-stars. pic.twitter.com/8DcxvWaHgi

— Everton (@Everton) December 10, 2015

In the first Rocky, he was the young, hungry, determined fighter. In Rocky II, it was a subtle but effective change as the character that once believed he was “just another bum from the neighborhood” started to believe in himself.

Post-Rocky II, the critical reception started to cool, but many still had good things to say about his work in Rocky III and Rocky Balboa and, to a lesser degree, the critically-maligned Rocky IV and Rocky V.

Most of the criticisms about Stallone in the “lesser films” of the series have included that he was a “two-dimensional action star” (IV) and an “over-the-top dumbbell” (V).

However, Sylvester Stallone largely remedied that with Rocky Balboa, the first time where it seems Rocky is a fully formed character, who has lived, lost, and learned.

Creed builds on that interpretation with a character, who is the film’s wise, moral heart and soul and the perfect foil to Michael B. Jordan’s protagonist, struggling to find his place in the world.

The film ultimately soars from the chemistry that Jordan and Stallone share, as well as Coogler’s direction. However, neither Jordan nor Coogler received recognition from Creed in this year’s Golden Globe Awards race.

What did you think of Sylvester Stallone in Creed? Is he deserving of this and the Academy Award? Sound off in the comments section.

[Image via Creed/Facebook]