Sylvester Stallone declined Trump's "special ambassador" to Hollywood appointment

“Well, it just happened,” Stallone told The Sunday Times earlier this week. “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?'” Though Stallone remains “in awe” of President Trump, whom he likens to a “mythical character,” the Oscar-winner concedes, “If they had asked me in the beginning, I would have said, this is not possible.” Of course, Stallone wasn’t the only ambassador caught off guard. Gibson also found out through the media. “I got the tweet at the same time as all of you and was just as surprised,” Gibson said in a 2025 statement. “Nevertheless, I heed the call. My duty as a citizen is to give any help and insight I can. Any chance the position comes with an Ambassador’s residence?”

Trump appointed Stallone, Gibson, and Voight to the position in a Truth Social post, which may have some legal heft but still doesn’t grant him the authority to hire and fire in the way he might believe. Stallone’s disinterest in the job comes down to how Hollywood is run, which is “like feudal states. 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.” Still, this is nothing Stallone is afraid to tell the president to his face. In the interview, the actor recalls telling Trump “it won’t work” in a later meeting. “I said ‘thank you’ and ‘ciao,’ because it’s impossible,” he continued. “Hollywood works, and it will evolve. It’s corporate, and corporate people won’t want to hear me tell them about finance.”