Sylvester Stallone says he learned he’d been named a special ambassador to Hollywood the same way most people did: by watching it on television.
The 80-year-old actor told The Sunday Times he was caught off guard when President Donald Trump announced in a Truth Social post on Jan. 16, 2025, days before his second inauguration, that Stallone, Mel Gibson and Jon Voight would serve as “Special Envoys” tasked with being his “eyes and ears” in the entertainment industry and helping bring 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,'” Stallone said.
Stallone said he had doubts about whether the role could actually work, comparing Hollywood’s studio system to a patchwork of independent territories.
“Yes. 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.”
Stallone said he eventually told Trump directly that he didn’t think the arrangement could function as designed.
“I said thank you and ciao, because it’s impossible. Hollywood works, and it will evolve. It’s corporate, and corporate people won’t want to hear me tell them about finance,” Stallone said.
In his original announcement, Trump wrote that Hollywood was “a great but very troubled place” and said the trio would help restore business “lost … over the last four years to Foreign Countries.” He added: “These three very talented people will be my eyes and ears, and I will get done what they suggest. It will again be, like The United States of America itself, The Golden Age of Hollywood!”
Gibson, 70, said at the time he had no advance notice of the appointment either. “I got the tweet at the same time as all of you and was just as surprised,” he told Variety in January 2025. “Nevertheless, I heed the call. My duty as a citizen is to give any help and insight I can.” He also joked, “Any chance the position comes with an Ambassador’s residence?”
A Friendly, if Complicated, Relationship
Despite his skepticism about the ambassador role, Stallone has publicly praised Trump. Days after the November 2024 election, he introduced Trump at the America First Policy Institute Gala at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, calling him “a really mythical character” and comparing him to George Washington.
“Nobody in the world could have pulled off what he pulled off, so I’m in awe,” Stallone said at the event.
Stallone was later named a 2025 Kennedy Center honoree, with Trump personally selecting him alongside George Strait, KISS, Gloria Gaynor and Michael Crawford. Stallone’s political giving has not been strictly partisan; he has donated to Republicans including John McCain and Trump as well as Democrats, including Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee.
Voight, by contrast, has taken a more active role, meeting with the White House and pushing for a federal film tax incentive alongside his manager Steven Paul and associate Scott Karol. After meeting with all three actors last month, Trump endorsed a federal production incentive, writing on Truth Social on Aug. 31 that “Hollywood is a Complete and Total Disaster” with “no incentive” for productions to stay, and calling on Congress to “immediately craft Legislation to save the Movie, Television, and Entertainment Business in America.”
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Rep. Laura Friedman (D-Calif.) both voiced support for the proposal.
Asked by The Hollywood Reporter this month whether Stallone and Gibson had been involved in the push, Voight said, “They’ve been very busy, both of those guys actually have been extremely busy.” Paul, who joined the interview, added: “Sly’s been doing his TV show, but Sly’s been very involved and he signed our letter.”
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