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Why Stallone Killed Off Adrian In Rocky Balboa (Was It A Mistake?)

Given how important she was to the main character and his franchise, many fans wonder what happened to Adrian in Rocky. Rocky (Sylvester Stallone) and Adrian’s (Talia Shire) characters both complement each other superbly throughout the series. Watching Adrian from Rocky slowly come out of her shell, assert herself more, and gain confidence mirrors Rocky’s own underdog journey. Unfortunately, due to a tragic death, her character isn’t present past a certain point in the franchise’s timeline. The franchise has carried on into the Creed movies and even lost Rocky himself along the way, but the questions remain why the movies killed off Adrian and if it was the right choice.
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Unfortunately, Adrian from Rocky is written to have lost a battle with cancer off-screen in the time between 1990’s Rocky V and Rocky Balboa. While promoting Rocky Balboa in a 2006 interview with Moviehole, Stallone explained that Adrian would’ve been much more one-dimensional in the movie’s original storyline (mostly advising Rocky in ways such as “don’t do that, don’t do that, don’t do that”) – which he didn’t want. He also preferred that the film had a “visceral, emotional journey” in lieu of its original plot, which was more focused on Rocky saving his gym. He eventually landed on Adrian’s character being cut from Rocky Balboa via an unseen yet gut-wrenching death as the vehicle to get to embed this “journey” within the movie because “there’s nothing more traumatic than taking Adrian out of his [Rocky’s] life.”

RELATED: Rocky Isn’t The Only Franchise Character Confusingly Left Out Of Creed 3

Writing Out Adrian Balboa Was A Risk Worth Taking

Bringing back Rocky in Rocky Balboa after 16 years was a daunting task, made harder without a key piece of the franchise returning. In a 2006 article from USA Today, Stallone also noted that, though it was hard to tell Shire about Adrian’s fate, she handled her character’s death and exit from the franchise “with such dignity.” In addition, Shire herself speaks positively about the creative call within the piece: “The film has great regard for the process of mourning. Sly utilizes mourning to empower Rocky, and Adrian is made very mythical.” This is true, as right from the film’s opening scenes, a weighty absence is felt. Though it’s the first entry without her in it, she’s still very much a part of it, and a propulsive force at that.

Choosing not to put Adrian in Rocky Balboa was a dicey venture to an extent, but it certainly paid off. Plus, her non-returning Rocky character wasn’t just telling the titular boxing star what not to do, as Stallone himself acknowledges had been planned. As any TV/movie lover knows, there are times when characters are sloppily written out of a series or even taken out of the equation in a bungled manner that had good intentions behind it regardless, but the real skill is in the execution. The opposite is the case for Adrian’s off-screen exit in Rocky Balboa. Actor Burt Young (who played Adrian’s brother, Paulie) summed it all up well in the USA Today piece: “Adrian’s probably more prevalent by not being in this movie than if she was.”

How Adrian’s Death In Rocky Balboa Improved Its Original Story

The original story of Rocky Balboa was supposed to see the main character fighting solely for his gym and his family. However, these factors alone might not have been able to drive Stallone’s character Rocky in an interesting way. Choosing to focus the film around the boxer’s grieving process after the death of his one true love – one of the few problems he can’t punch his way out of – made for a richer and more heart-wrenching narrative. Rocky Balboa was able to deliver as a direct result of the tragic but necessary absence of Adrian’s character. It gave Rocky a purpose outside himself and provided a plausible motivation for revisiting the main storyline. If Adrian were to have fulfilled her original role in the movie, it would’ve done an injustice to the character and could’ve subsequently thrown away her arc and Rocky’s resulting journey.

Talia Shire Knows How To Work Adrian Into The Creed Movies

Sylvester Stallone as Rocky in a leather jacket sitting on the bed confessing his fears to Talia Shire as Adrian, who lies in the bed looking up at Rocky with attention

What happened to Adrian in Rocky Balboa made sense for Rocky as a character, but there is still an unresolved feeling. Interestingly, Talia Shire has an idea of bringing Adrian into the Creed movies despite the character’s death. Shire mentioned (via: Cinema Blend) that she envisions a possibility of Adrian returning in a dream sequence allowing her to reunite with Rocky. She even suggested the image of Rocky carrying her as a bride as he did in Rocky II. Of course, with Sylvester Stallone not appearing in Creed III, this idea might never happen. However, it is a good idea for potentially the final Rocky movie, perhaps one where the boxer meets his end, as fans get to see him and Adrian happy together again.

MORE: Creed 3’s Other Rocky Change Was Bigger Than Stallone’s Absence

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‘I am officially off the market’: When Margot Robbie revealed she made the ‘conscious’ decision of not dating actors


Margot Robbie revealed her decision to not date actors because of the media scrutiny that came with a public relationship of two high-profile actors
Back in 2015, A-lister Margot Robbie made a declaration that she would not be dating any actors. The actress may have alluded to her fiance Tom Ackerley, who she married the following year in 2016. In an exclusive interview with Marie Claire, she revealed that being in a relationship as an actor herself came with its own set of challenges. She believed that dating someone who was popular would add on to the media scrutiny.

Margot Robbie opened up on why she made a conscious decision to not date actorsTalking to Marie Claire, she claimed, “I am officially off the market.” She then shared the reasoning behind her decision and added, “I made a conscious decision not to date actors.” She continued to explain, “But not because I hate actors. That’s a nasty generalization to make, and that’s not the case. People take such an interest in your love life when you have a profile, it puts a lot of stress on a relationship.”
The Barbie actress continued, “So two people with profiles, I figure it’s just double the amount of scrutiny, and I’d like to avoid that at all costs.” This came after reports of her locking lips with Tarzan co-star Alexander Skarsgard started making rounds. It was reported that she was caught kissing the actor during the Sundance Film Festival.

Margot Robbie revealed she opted for a minimal lifestyle even after becoming an actorIn the interview, Robbie also opened up about how she was adapting to fame. She shared, “I have a normal 24-year-old life. If I were a waitress, I’d probably have the exact same lifestyle. I’d go to the same clubs I go to already, live in the same house with the same housemates, hang out with the same people.”
However, Margot Robbie tied the knot with Tom Ackerley who is an English producer and actor. The duo met on the sets of 2013 movie Suite Francaise where Tom was working as an assistant director. Post marriage, both of them launched their production company LuckyChap Entertainment.

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Monica Bellucci and Tin Burton at lunch in the restaurant in Selci Lama


For All Saints’ Day, the Hollywood star from Tiferno returned to his native Umbria to enjoy a moment of relaxation and then visit his parentsOn the occasion of the All Saints’ Day celebrations, the Hollywood star of Tiferno origin, Monica Bellucci, returned to her native Umbria to enjoy a moment of relaxation and to visit her father Pasquale and her mother Brunella.Flanked by her current partner Tim Burton, she went to lunch, together with about twenty old friends, at the Osteria del Musicista, which has always been her favorite restaurant, in Selci Lama.Menu dedicated to typical dishes of the area, which includes an appetizer with breadsticks lined with coppa, duck in porchetta and grilled pork livers, polenta with wild boar sauce accompanied by the very typical cappelletti in broth.To conclude, a dessert based on fried “ciaccia” with Nutella and roasted chestnuts.
Having paid the bill and greeted the restaurant owner and lifelong friend, Roberto Polchi, Monica brought home cappelletti and broth for a family dinner.

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‘Rocky’ Was Quite Different In His Original Screenplay, Sylvester Stallone Claims


Sylvester Stallone took his friend’s advice on a rewrite of the original screenplay to Rocky. A few tweaks later, he was on his way to major success.
In the new Netflix documentary Sly, Stallone discussed how he initially conceived of the project, which had a much harder edge. In the early version, Rocky was depicted as a “thuggish” character, inspired by Martin Scorsese’s crime drama, Mean Streets.

But Stallone’s perspective changed when a friend read the script and thought the boxer was too cruel for audiences to actually care about him.
Stallone recalled her crying.

“She goes, ‘I hate Rocky. I hate him. He’s cruel. He hits people. He beats them up.’”
Stallone took it to heart, and asked what he could do to soften the character.

“I said, ‘what if you stop short of it?’ Like, maybe he almost did. He could have, that’s his job, but he doesn’t?’ ‘That’d be nice,’” he added. “I said, ‘What if he had a girlfriend or something?’ ‘Yeah, that’s nice.’ So I go back, start writing that: ‘Girlfriend. Nice.’”
$117 million in box office later, a franchise was born.

Stallone also revealed that actor Dolph Lundgren sent him to the hospital during one fight scene in Rocky IV.
“Dolph Lundgren… he pulverized me,” Stallone says in the documentary. “Later that night, my heart started to swell—which happens when the heart hits the chest—and then my blood pressure went up to 260, and they thought I was going to be talking to angels. Next thing I know, I’m in intensive care, where I’m surrounded by nuns, and I thought, ‘OK, that’s curtains.’”
Stallone was in the hospital for nine days following the incident, praying for “one more round.”
“For the first minute of the fight, it is going to be a free-for-all,” Stallone told Lundgren. The Swedish actor joked in a separate interview that all he did was “obey orders,” explaining, “[Stallone] was the boss. I did what he told me.”
Doctors allegedly told Stallone that he received a blow to the ribs that made his heart rattle around in his ribcage, a condition typically seen in head-on collisions. “I did hit a bus, of sorts,” Stallone joked.

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