Sylvester Stallone Defends AI and the Risk of a Half-Human Film

By Grace Kim

Sylvester Stallone defended an unnamed “half human, half AI” movie on The Overlap podcast, despite backlash from the creative community. The Oscar-winning actor said he did not care because he considers artificial intelligence (AI) unavoidable.

The unnamed film

Stallone did not identify the project, its cast, studio or release plan. He said he had tried to combine a human performance with AI, drawing an immediate response from other creators.

He argued that people were already selling their images and predicted “20 Elvis avatars,” meaning digital representations of the performer. His larger point was technological momentum, not a detailed production proposal.

“I get in trouble for this [but] AI is here to stay. I wanted to do half-human, half-AI and put it together, and of course everyone’s going nuts. I go, ‘That’s happening, guys. People are selling their images. There’s going to be 20 Elvis avatars … This is happening.’”

Stallone’s argument rests on inevitability rather than a technical defense of the proposed movie. The interview supplies no casting, financing or release information; the concept has no detail beyond its human-AI premise.

Stallone then said:

“I would take that risk, even though you get blasted bombastically from the creative community. And their [complaints are] right! They’re right. But we can’t stop this. It’s an avalanche. It’s just out of our control. If you don’t go with it, you will be trampled by it.”

His position is less a rebuttal of the creative community than an acceptance that its objections cannot stop AI. In his account, refusal offers no protection, making experimentation the safer choice.

A younger Rambo

The proposal extends a failed attempt Stallone described on the Bingeworthy podcast last year. He said he tried to make a young Rambo movie with himself in the role, using AI and de-aging VFX (visual effects that make an actor appear younger).

His proposed method could move through Saigon to show Rambo at 18 and reuse the same image. Stallone said people regarded him as crazy, but argued that the technology’s capability made the idea less of a stretch.

Variety reports that a “John Rambo” origin story is currently in the works, with Noah Centineo taking the title role. Centineo appeared in Street Fighter and To All the Boys I Loved Before, while Stallone is not involved in that project.

The distinction keeps Stallone’s own pitch separate from the film now developing. His proposal depended on AI so he could play a younger Rambo; Variety identifies Centineo as the separate film’s lead.

What does AI change for new actors?

For performers trying to break in, Stallone’s answer is blunt: AI will make the profession harder to enter. Addressing young performers, he called acting the most difficult profession in the world and said AI would make it more difficult still.

Stallone made the warning personal. His daughter, Scarlet Rose Stallone, is an actress, and he said he advised her to move into gaming or do something else.

His de-aging example implies a concrete mechanism for that pressure: one performer could cover a younger role without a separate younger actor playing it. The scale remains undefined, because Stallone offered no figures for jobs, wages or entry-level roles, and his advice to his daughter does not amount to a general career plan.

If the unnamed half-human film reaches production, its casting and effects will make his proposal concrete. Stallone’s larger forecast is more immediate: AI will remain beyond the creative community’s control, leaving participation rather than resistance as his preferred response.