Ryan Gosling says Sylvester Stallone is his favorite action movie star

Ryan Gosling is getting to flex his action movie muscles in The Gray Man, something he has always wanted to do, and now the actor is revealing which action movie star was his top choice growing up. His pick is one shared by many as he declares Sylvester Stallone is his favorite action movie star.

While chatting with MTV News, Gosling was asked who his favorite action star was while growing up. He is quick to say that it was none other than Sylvester Stallone. Even though he admits that Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Bloodsport was his first theatrical movie as a kid, the actor switched alliances when he first saw Stallone. He said not only was Stallone a good action star, but he was also a good actor. Gosling even admits that he misses the days when Stallone frequently topped the box office charts:

“I think, look, Stallone. Stallone. He’s such a good actor. So you got action, but you’ve got these, like, amazing characters at the center of it. It was just like, it was a beautiful marriage. I miss those days.”

This isn’t all surprising because Gosling’s generation will likely pick Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger as their top action movie star. If you grew up with the Rocky or Rambo films, Stallone was the epitome of what action was in the ’80s, and he carried that on into the ’90s with films like Demolition Man and Cliffhanger. Action stars of his era saw a slump in the early ‘2000s, but they also saw a resurgence in subsequent years, thanks to Stallone in many ways. The Expendables franchise proved successful as a fun throwback to the action films of the past, and he also returned to the Rocky universe in Creed and Creed II, the former scoring him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. Stallone is showing no signs of slowing down with Prime Video’s Samaritan on the horizon and his first ever TV role with Taylor Sheridan’s Tulsa King.

As for Gosling, he’s getting his chance to be an action movie star in Netflix’s The Gray Man. , Netflix describes the film by saying, “The Gray Man is CIA operative Court Gentry (Ryan Gosling), aka, Sierra Six. Plucked from a federal penitentiary and recruited by his handler, Donald Fitzroy (Billy Bob Thornton), Gentry was once a highly-skilled, Agency-sanctioned merchant of death. But now the tables have turned and Six is the target, hunted across the globe by Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans), a former cohort at the CIA, who will stop at nothing to take him out. Agent Dani Miranda (Ana de Armas) has his back. He’ll need it.” The film also stars Jessica Henwick, Wagner Moura, Dhanush, Alfre Woodard, Regé-Jean Page, Scott Haze, Julia Butters, and Eme Ikwuakor. The film hits Netflix on July 22, 2022.

Was Sylvester Stallone YOUR favorite action star growing up?