Why Sylvester Stallone Wants Ryan Gosling To Play One Of His Most Iconic Characters

It's hard to imagine anybody other than Sylvester Stallone playing Rocky Balboa or John Rambo, considering he not only created the characters but made them both cinematic icons.

That's not to say Stallone isn't willing to lend his very large shoes — at least the ones that belong to Rambo — to another actor. During an appearance on "The Tonight Show," he told host Jimmy Fallon that he had his revelation about Ryan Gosling playing Rambo after the two met for dinner.

Rambo, of course, was introduced in the 1982 hit action film "First Blood," where Stallone plays a Vietnam War veteran who relies on his lethal skills as a U.S. Special Forces soldier when he becomes the subject of a police manhunt. He reprised the character in the blockbuster sequel "Rambo: First Blood, Part II" in 1985, and was back for three more films in the franchise, ending with "Rambo: Last Blood" in 2019.

Recalling his and Gosling's dinner, Stallone told Fallon about how he arrived at the idea of the "Barbie" star taking over the legendary role. "[Ryan] goes, 'I was fascinated by Rambo and I used to go to school dressed as Rambo and people would chase me away and I still didn't stop. I'd vacation as Rambo,'" he recalled. "He just kept saying that he had a lot of affiliation with Rambo. And I thought, 'This is interesting. If I ever pass the baton, I'll pass it on to him because he loves the character.'"

Sylvester Stallone and Ryan Gosling were in each other's orbit because the huge action star almost played one of the Kens in "Barbie." Stallone told Fallon he couldn't because of his commitment to filming his hit Paramount+ series "Tulsa King." On top of that, he isn't quite convinced he's as much of a living doll as Gosling is. "Obviously, we are opposites," he said. "He's good-looking. I'm not. Seriously! Could you imagine me as Ken? It doesn't work at all."

On the flip side, Stallone said he's afraid that Gosling's Ken-like appearance might be a detriment if he were up for consideration to take over the classic role. "I would say yes but I don't know if anyone would say, 'Hey, he's too good-looking to be Rambo," the actor said.

As he apparently admitted to Stallone during their dinner, Gosling has had Rambo on the brain for a long time. "I even thought my face felt like Sylvester Stallone's and I put a bunch of steak knives in my Fisher-Price Houdini kit," he revealed to Jay Leno on "The Tonight Show" in 2011. "I took it to school the next day and I threw them at all the kids at recess."