Sylvester Stallone reveals how he pushed his body to extreme for 'Rocky III'

At the time of Rocky III, Rocky Balboa - the lead character - was already famous and well-known.

So, Sylvester Stallone, who portrayed the character, wanted him to become vain and obsessed with his appearance in the third installment of the franchise.

For that, the actor planned to build a massive physique, he revealed in his new memoir, Steps.

“By the time they did ‘Rocky III', you’ve lost the element of surprise. Everyone knows what this guy is all about,” he added.

“I wanted him to develop serious narcissism. I wanted him to get his scars removed and be a totally different guy," the star recalled.

And being overconfident, this became fatal for his boxing career – that is the plan, Stallone recalled.

"That would be a story point. He became protected; he’s shielded and vain. And when he finally met Mr T, or Clubber Lang, that’s where reality hit him."

However, to achieve such an extremely muscular body, he had to take a lot of protein, caffeine, and steroids.

"But to do that, I had to do a total body metamorphosis. So I went from like 50% body fat to 2.6%. I did it literally by eating tuna fish and [drinking] maybe 30 cups of coffee a day. And, of course, there are steroids.”

However, the extreme training and the use of steroids forced him to have a wake-up call after his heart valve was replaced.

Rocky III, meanwhile, was released in 1982.