Sylvester Stallone says he turned down Trump’s Hollywood ‘ambassador’ role, but got the title anyway

Sylvester Stallone says he never agreed to be one of President Trump’s three special envoys to Hollywood — he says he found out about the job the same way everyone else did: watching television.

The 80-year-old “Rocky” star told an interviewer this week that he was blindsided when Mr. Trump announced in January 2025 that Mr. Stallone, Mel Gibson and Jon Voight would serve as special ambassadors tasked with bringing film and television production back to the United States.

“I was watching TV one night, and they go, ’So Stallone and Mel Gibson and Jon Voight will be …’ And I went, ’What?’ I said, ’Excuse me? Really?’ Because if they had asked me in the beginning, I would have said, ’This is not possible,’” Mr. Stallone said, according to Fox News.

Mr. Stallone said he was skeptical of the role from the start because he didn’t think it was workable.

“Yes, because Hollywood, I guess it’s like feudal states,” he said. “They have their little kingdoms. 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.”

He said he told Mr. Trump as much directly.

“I said thank you and ciao, because it’s impossible,” Mr. Stallone said. “Hollywood works, and it will evolve. It’s corporate, and corporate people won’t want to hear me tell them about finance.”

Mr. Trump named the trio days before his second inauguration, writing on Truth Social that they would serve as his “eyes and ears” in an industry he called “a great but very troubled place.” Mr. Gibson, for his part, said at the time he was caught off guard as well.

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“I got the tweet at the same time as all of you and was just as surprised,” he said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Nevertheless, I heed the call. My duty as a citizen is to give any help and insight I can.”

Despite his reservations about the ambassadorship, Mr. Stallone hasn’t distanced himself from Mr. Trump personally. He introduced Mr. Trump at a Mar-a-Lago gala after the 2024 election, calling him a “mythical character” and likening him to “the second George Washington.” Mr. Stallone was later selected as a 2025 Kennedy Center honoree, a group Mr. Trump personally announced.

Of the three envoys, Mr. Voight has been the most visibly active in the role. He has pushed the White House on a federal film-production tax incentive, and Mr. Trump threw his support behind such a measure after meeting with Mr. Voight last month, calling Hollywood a “Complete and Total Disaster” and urging Congress to act on a bipartisan basis.

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