Cop Land Director Didn’t Want Stallone – At First

The director of Cop Land (1997), James Mangold, also wrote the movie.  In fact he pulled a stunt very similar to Stallone’s writing of Rocky (1976).  He wrote it in a very short period of time, fuelled by cigarettes and coffee then turned down big pay offers to sell the script, demanding that he be director.  He won out in the end, taking a reduced pay day.

When Mangold’s agent insisted on Stallone for the role of Freddy Heflin, which was turned down by Gary Sinise, Mangold flat out refused: “What?  No.  Sylvester Stallone is not a man.  Sylvester Stallone is a superhero”.

Eventually Mangold’s agent talked him into a meeting with Stallone at a restaurant, and he gave in immediately.

“The waiter led me around the corner to a table and I saw him sitting there., large and slump-shouldered, smiling a crooked smile, waving.  And I knew it was done.  Despite all my fears about Sly, I instantly liked him.”,  However the young director had some demands and he wouldn’t cast Sly unless they were met:

1) You must gain at least 40lbs
2) You will wear shitty, ill-fitting clothes
3) You can never change the script, never
4) You will never tell me how to shoot you and you will not look heroic
5) You will have no posse, no ‘people’ anywhere and no ‘Planet Hollywood’ ever, anywhere on the set
6) You will not leave the set early, even when you are off-camera for day players.  I will never revise my strategy or shooting schedule to reduce your workload
7) You will play a man who feels insignificant to the world

In the end, the movie was brilliant.  And when a man later asked Stallone why he’d gained 40lbs, he said matter-of-factly that it was the directors orders and he was obeying… something Mangold later heard of and considers it one of the greatest compliments.  Sly’s Cop Land story is a good one and for more on it, you should check out his book, Sly Moves, where he talks about it quite a bit… the change in diets etc.

Speaking of Cop Land, somewhere I have the workprint of this movie (not any of the director’s cuts/extended cuts), with some very rare footage.  Someday I’ll get around to uploading it to the YouTube Channel.

Stay tuned…

Source: [Empire Magazine – June 2014]