Sylvester Stallone Once Took A Gut-Busting Punch During The Casting Process For Rocky III

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

"Rocky III" is where Sylvester Stallone's series of famous boxing films start to change. True, it's not the fanciful Cold War parable of "Rocky IV," but the grounded tone of the first two films is traded in for something a bit more outlandish and larger than life. As an example to hit that point home, the film was originally conceived as having Rocky fight in the Roman Coliseum, though that idea was thankfully nixed. Instead, at the center of this new outlandishness isn't so much Sylvester Stallone as it is one Laurence Tureaud, better known by his famous moniker Mr. T, who played the outspoken and flashy challenger James "Clubber" Lang.

This was Mr. T's breakout role. The casting director of "Rocky III," Rhonda Young, asked him to audition after watching an NBC program called "The World's Toughest Bouncer," which pitted bouncers and bodyguards against each other in a series of challenges, including a boxing match. Tureaud, who was already going by Mr. T and was then working as a bodyguard to championship boxer Leon Spinks, won that program two years in a row.

Today, it's difficult to image "Rocky III" without Mr. T's portrayal, giving Rocky a flash opponent in the ring. The gold jewelry and feathered earrings, the mohawk, the cocky trash-talking, are basically synonymous with Mr. T, and by association, Clubber Lang. But Mr. T was not the first choice for Clubber. Initially, Stallone – who also wrote and directed the film – wanted to be up against a real-world heavyweight boxer. The initial choice was the great Joe Frazier. But after Frazier flubbed his line readings, production moved on to their second choice. And if Stallone is to be believed, it very nearly ended him.