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Sylvester Stallone is addressing President Donald Trump’s surprise decision to appoint him as a special ambassador to Hollywood.
“Well, it just happened. I was watching TV one night, and they go, ‘So Stallone and Mel Gibson and Jon Voight will be …’ And I went, ‘What?’” Stallone, 80, recalled to The Sunday Times in an interview published Sunday, September 20. “I said, ‘Excuse me? Really?’ Because if they had asked me in the beginning, I would have said, ‘This is not possible.’”
In January 2025, Trump, 80, named Stallone, Voight, 87, and Gibson, 70, as “Special Envoys to me for the purpose of bringing Hollywood, which has lost much business over the last four years to Foreign Countries, BACK — BIGGER, BETTER AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!”
At the time, the president said the three actors “will be my eyes and ears” in Hollywood and that he “will get done what they suggest.”
Stallone said he told Trump that the ambassadorship was “impossible” and that he would have rejected the title “if they had asked me in the beginning.”
“Hollywood, I guess it’s like feudal states. They have their little kingdoms,” the actor explained. “You don’t go in and tell six studios how to do things. And Mel Gibson and Jon Voight, we’re kind of do-our-own-thing people. No, it won’t work.”
Stallone continued, “I said, ‘Thank you and ciao’ because it’s impossible. Hollywood works and it will evolve. It’s corporate and corporate people won’t want to hear me tell them about finance.”
Sylvester Stallone Paul Morigi/Getty Images
Although Stallone has publicly supported Trump and previously introduced him at a Mar-a-Lago party following his 2024 re-election, The Steps author has endorsed politicians from multiple parties.
As he explained, “I am not a political animal. I’m almost a political atheist.”
Us has reached out to the White House for comment.
In a separate interview with The Hollywood Reporter earlier this month, Voight was asked if there will be another golden age in Hollywood.
The actor said he was working to improve the industry during Trump’s term.
“If we get on an even keel with the rest of the world’s tax benefits, if we get that break, there’s going to be an explosion of energy,” he shared. “It will be immediate. As someone mentioned, our business is a shovel-ready business. They will call people tomorrow, people will be getting ready immediately. [Then] it affects the communities they’re working in. Is it going to come back? Yes, I think it’s going to.”
