Sylvester Stallone says he showered in clothes to save money while living in New York City

Sylvester Stallone says he showered with his clothes on to save money while living in New York City, a detail he recounts in his new memoir and in an interview with Fox News Digital.

According to Fox News Digital on Oct. 2, 2026, Stallone describes arriving in New York in 1969 with about $60 to his name — $43.60 of which he had already set aside for rent — and working low‑paid jobs while pursuing acting.

Stallone wrote in The Steps and told Fox News Digital that he would lather his shirt, pants, underwear and socks when he could not afford a laundromat. “I could never afford to go to a laundromat,” he said.

The article says he earned $34 a week as a movie‑theater usher, cleaned lion cages at the Central Park Zoo and took a 6 p.m.–2 a.m. shift at Dover Delicatessen. He described eating spoonfuls of cottage cheese and raw eggs to stretch food dollars and using a windowsill as a makeshift refrigerator in winter months.

Stallone also recounts repeated agent rejections, an arrest after an altercation at the deli, time in New York’s detention facility known as The Tombs, and later reflection that those hardships informed the themes of sacrifice in Rocky.

The memoir is titled The Steps and Stallone, now 80, discussed these details with Fox News Digital in the interview referenced above.

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