Sylvester Stallone has shared that he would like Ryan Gosling to play the next Rambo.
Appearing on a recent episode of The Tonight Show, Stallone revealed that he would “pass” the “baton” to him if the franchise was to be revisited.
The Rocky actor said: “I met [Gosling] at a dinner. [Gosling] 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 just kept saying that he had a lot of affiliation with Rambo.”
“And I thought, you know, this is interesting. If I ever pass the baton, I’ll pass it on to him because he loves the character,” he added.
Stallone starred as John Rambo in the first four films of the franchise. The original movie, First Blood, was adapted from a novel of the same name and came out in 1982, and became the seventh highest grossing film worldwide.
He reiterated that he would approve of Gosling’s casting, saying: “I would say yes but I don’t know if anyone would say, ‘Hey, he’s too good-looking to be Rambo.’”
The actor also said upon their first meeting: “Obviously we were opposites. He’s good looking. I’m not. Seriously! Could you imagine me as Ken? It doesn’t work at all.”
Gosling has been nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Ken in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie.
According to Variety, Gosling has shared that Stallone’s 1980s wardrobe provided some of the inspiration behind Ken’s iconic mink coat in the movie.
Gosling shared that it helped distinguish between the multiple Ken characters: “We found out that Stallone wore a lot of minks. As long as Ken was wearing it, he was Ken with the mink – and that separated him from the other Kens.”
Earlier this month, Stallone paid tribute to his former Rocky co-star, Carl Weathers, who died on February 1, aged 76.