Sylvester Stallone has a story about Al Gore, and it doesn’t make the former vice president look very good. Speaking in a recent interview, the action star said he came close to knocking Gore’s teeth out at a documentary premiere in the early 2000s. The reason, he said, was simple. Gore wouldn’t stop lecturing his teenage daughter.
Stallone said he had taken his daughter to the screening as a treat. She was 17, excited to be at a big Hollywood event, and dressed up for the night. Not long after they arrived, Gore walked over.
“He spent five minutes haranguing my 17-year-old daughter on her carbon footprint,” Stallone said.
According to Stallone, the conversation started out polite. Then Gore began asking her how she got there, how often she flew, and whether she understood what her generation was doing to the planet. Stallone said his daughter just stood there, nodding, clearly uncomfortable.
That’s when he stepped in. “I let him know that I’d knock his teeth out in front of everybody if he didn’t stop,” Stallone said. He said he didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t need to.
“He stopped right there and then,” Stallone said, grinning. “I haven’t been invited to his premieres since.”
The interviewer couldn’t stop laughing. Stallone admitted that it probably wasn’t his finest moment of diplomacy, but said he doesn’t regret it for a second.
“Any father would have done the same,” he said. “You don’t corner somebody’s kid at a party and make her feel like a criminal for being alive.”
At the time, Gore was in the middle of a worldwide push to raise awareness about climate change. His work would eventually earn him an Academy Award for “An Inconvenient Truth” and a share of the Nobel Peace Prize. But it also made him a lightning rod. Critics loved to point out his large homes and heavy travel schedule while he urged others to cut back.
Stallone hinted that he saw the same irony that night. “I’m not saying the man was wrong about everything,” he said. “I’m saying maybe start with yourself before you start on a teenager.”
The story took off online, with fans calling it a real-life Rocky moment. Plenty of parents said they related, and many joked that Gore got off easy.
Some critics weren’t laughing. A few climate activists said Stallone was using the story to mock serious concerns, and others said threats of violence shouldn’t be played for laughs.
Gore has not publicly responded to the story. Stallone said his daughter, now an adult, finds the whole thing hilarious today. He said she still teases him about it every time Gore shows up on the news.
As for whether Gore ever learned his lesson, Stallone wasn’t so sure. “Some people take longer to learn than others,” he said.
