Sylvester Stallone is a Golden Globe winner.
If you're someone who's followed his career over the years — especially the terrible dry spells he went through in the 1990s and 2000s — that must seem incredibly strange. But if you've seen Creed, the Rocky spinoff where he's mesmerizing as boxing champ Rocky Balboa, it's much more understandable that he won the prize for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture.
If you're a movie fan at all — even one who doesn't much care for Stallone or Creed — then the moment when Stallone won, complete with shocked expression and a standing ovation from the crowd, was difficult not to enjoy at least a little bit, if only because Bill Conti's terrific main Rocky theme was playing throughout.
Stallone's speech was brief (perhaps too brief, as you'll see in a moment); he concluded by thanking his "imaginary best friend" Rocky Balboa himself — but the really tremendous moment came from just watching him take the stage.
Stallone thanked a bunch of people, yet he somehow managed to mention neither the film's star, Michael B. Jordan nor — most perplexingly — its director, Ryan Coogler, who elicited Stallone's best performance in decades from the normally mumble-mouthed star.
Well. I'm gonna go ahead and thank RYAN COOGLER + MICHAEL B. JORDAN since no one else is. Thank you, brothers. Good work. #smh #goldenglobes
— Ava DuVernay (@AVAETC) January 11, 2016
Stallone realized his error in the press room backstage (and maybe even onstage — as you can see in the video of the broadcast, he tried to go back to the microphone to say something else), but that's not something most viewers will ever hear about.
Sylvester Stallone realized he didn't thank #Creed's director Ryan Coogler: "You are a brilliant, brilliant filmmaker." #GoldenGlobes
— Adam B. Vary (@adambvary) January 11, 2016
Forgetting to thank your director is an awards speech no-no. If Sly wins the Oscar, he'll hopefully open with the guy who finally got him there.
