Stories from the set

Sylvester Stallone sold the production rights to this film on the condition that he would play the lead role. The producers offered him $150,000 to let Ryan O'Neal take the role instead. The studio ultimately agreed to Stallone's condition, since the film's budget initially did not exceed one million dollars (the producers even had to mortgage their homes to finance the production).

The film was shot in 28 days.

Despite the producers' objections, Stallone insisted that a scene be shot in which Rocky, on the eve of the decisive fight, confesses his fears and doubts to Adrian (Talia Shire). In the end, Stallone was allowed only one take, and he was so nervous before filming that he got drunk.

The boxing match scene was filmed starting from the fifteenth round, since in this episode Stallone and his co-star Carl Weathers had to be heavily made up. The fight was shot in reverse chronological order, meaning the makeup on the actors' faces became less and less. For this technical achievement, the film was awarded an Oscar in the Best Editing category.

At that time, Stallone became the third actor in history to be nominated for an Oscar simultaneously for Best Actor and Best Screenplay. Previously, Charlie Chaplin and Orson Welles had received this honor.

The filmmakers planned for all former heavyweight champions of the world to appear on screen in the scene preceding the fight between Rocky and Apollo. However, on the appointed day, only one of them showed up for the shoot — Joe Frazier. This turned out to be very fortunate, since Frazier is a resident of Philadelphia, where the film's action takes place and where the shooting was done.

Bette Midler turned down the role of Adrian.

When the script reached the producers, they still did not know who Stallone was. Someone showed them a group photo from the film "The Lords of Flatbush" (1974), and they immediately became excited about the idea of making the movie. They just could not understand why a man with the surname Stallone was a blond with blue eyes. Later it turned out that they had confused Stallone with his co-star Perry King. When the producers were shown the real Stallone, they were ready to abandon the project right away.

During the filming, Stallone really pounded his fists on frozen meat. As a result, his knuckles became almost flat and have remained that way to this day.

The role of Rocky was offered to James Caan.