John G. Avildsen
American film directorWikipedia
40
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20
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Search complete. 40 mentions across 20 episodes found for "John G. Avildsen".
Oct 13, 2026
Sylvester StalloneGUEST
And I didn't direct that one.
Sylvester StalloneGUEST
And the great John Avildsen directed that one from the first one, but it was just different.
Sylvester StalloneGUEST
I don't think I had my heart and soul in it.
Sylvester StalloneGUEST
It was just ...
Frank StalloneGUEST
It was a cheap hotel.
Frank StalloneGUEST
And I remember John Avildsen, the director, was there, and my brother and a few other people, and they're looking at dailies.
Frank StalloneGUEST
I said, "Man, this is really cool." There's a feeling I had about it.
Frank StalloneGUEST
Even when they were shooting it on the street, there was a feeling I had about it.
Sharon ShawHOST
Indeed.
Alex ShawHOST
This was directed, by the way, by John G. Avildsen, who most people wouldn't know the name of immediately.
Alex ShawHOST
Avildsen directed Rockies 1 and 5, many people's favourite and many people's least favourite.
Alex ShawHOST
And Stallone directed all the rest before the Creed series.
35 MINS LATER
Alex ShawHOST
And then there was Paradise Alley, in which three Italian brothers in the 1940s discover professional wrestling.
Alex ShawHOST
He co-wrote and wrote these two films respectively, and directed the latter.
Alex ShawHOST
So, when the original Rocky director John G. Avildsen was unavailable because he was filming Saturday Night Fever, Later uncredited and replaced by Jon Badham, Stallone was able to dangle the script for Rocky II before the wary studio execs and not only get to star in it, but direct it this time.
Alex ShawHOST
However, producers Erwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff understood how much of the success of the first Rocky had come from Stallone's enormous input and lobbied hard to get in the job.
Logan MiddletonHOST
Yeah.
Logan MiddletonHOST
Chardoff and Winkler, and, uh, uh, our, uh, Jay Duplass as John G. Avildsen.
Logan MiddletonHOST
He's a character in there.
Ty JordanHOST
And I thought Jay Duplass was lovely, but I also don't know much about John G. Avildsen around that time.
Logan MiddletonHOST
Yeah.
Ty JordanHOST
Most of the interviews I've seen doing this podcast have been John G. Avildsen very much later in life.
Logan MiddletonHOST
So I do have to wonder if, you know, are we looking at this through rose-colored glasses, as two guys who have done a Rocky podcast?
Ty JordanHOST
Absolutely.
ErisHOST
Iron King made a good point.
ErisHOST
Um, John Avildsen, who directed Rocky, Academy Award Rocky did this film, and that's-
DHOST
Yes, he did
ErisHOST
... that's crazy.
Mark JosephHOST
So a couple of things I wanted to ask you about that you've told me in the past as we've done research for the film.
Mark JosephHOST
As a speechwriter, I know just having written things for different people that I work with in the film, as a director, producer, you try to find their voice, obviously.
Mark JosephHOST
What were some of the principles as you try to find Reagan's voice? What are the things you don't say, the things you say? Oh, we were
Dana RohrabacherGUEST
not writing for ourselves.
22 MINS LATER
Dana RohrabacherGUEST
And so I had very little money, but I was able to win that race because the American people, especially in California, loved Ronald Reagan.
Mark JosephHOST
Well, as we wrap up, what do you think are the lessons that we can learn today from his life? What does he leave behind? What's his legacy beyond this? Tear down this wall or Soviet Union as a person, as a man.
Mark JosephHOST
And I ask that because one of our before our wonderful director, Sean McNamara, took over before I brought the project to him.
Mark JosephHOST
Our director was the director of Rocky, John Avildsen, who died, unfortunately, very quickly of cancer.
Ryan RebalkinHOST
And it's amazing how these little choices that we make bounce us around in life.
Ryan RebalkinHOST
And now you're in LA, and this film editor approached you who worked with Paul Mazursky, and he's like, "Hey, I'm working with this guy named John G. Avildsen.
Ryan RebalkinHOST
Gee, I wonder who he is, and do you wanna give him some music?" Studio didn't like what they heard, but we're not done with John not yet, are we?
Bill ContiGUEST
No.
Ryan RebalkinHOST
[laughs] Well, I broke down your credits.
Ryan RebalkinHOST
It's, uh, very interesting how many directors you have worked with.
Ryan RebalkinHOST
Of course, John G. Avildsen is the big one.
Ryan RebalkinHOST
You did, and I've got to count here, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, about 14 films with John.
Justin DeclouxHOST
Yeah.
Justin DeclouxHOST
I believe it was John Avildsen's either like assistant or he famously got the turtle in the film.
Justin DeclouxHOST
But then Sylvester Stallone.
Justin DeclouxHOST
Really?
Will SloanHOST
I do not recall that.
Will SloanHOST
And I play Rocky.
Will SloanHOST
John Avildsen is a character played by Jay Duplass.
Will SloanHOST
OK.
Andrew RihnGUEST
Yeah, this one, I think one of the things the movie struggles with is it almost consciously has too many themes that it's trying to address.
Andrew RihnGUEST
And what I like in the side of me that wants to defend the movie, I like the themes and I like the choices that Stallone and Avildsen, the director, were making, but it's like they couldn't say no to anything.
Andrew RihnGUEST
And so instead of building on each other, the themes kind of are in competition, like a zero-sum competition where they don't help but they hinder each other but the main theme I think the main main theme is dealing with the past there's this wonderful line maybe it's the best line in the movie for me Adrian says that you can't live backwards and it's this wonderful tension where they do have to go back they are broke again, they are going backwards, but you also can't let yourself be drawn into that.
Andrew RihnGUEST
There's this wonderful tension, but then they skip over it for other things.
24 MINS LATER
Andrew RihnGUEST
There's no real structure.
Andrew RihnGUEST
It's just, again, him walking around the streets, him meeting characters and exploring him.
Andrew RihnGUEST
And I think if they had used that structure again, bringing back the original director, John Avildsen, if they had brought back that structure, let's just take one full hour with no real plot structure, just explore the characters.
Andrew RihnGUEST
you could have had this really fascinating, probably Oscar-nominated performances from Talia Shire and from, now his name escapes me, he plays Paul Lee.
Ryan RebalkinHOST
Right.
Ruben RebalkinHOST
Of course, John G. Avildsen, that's, that's how it's in the same Rocky universe.
Ryan RebalkinHOST
Right.
Ryan RebalkinHOST
Yeah, John G. Avildsen-
Ruben RebalkinHOST
Anyways
Ryan RebalkinHOST
... is the, uh, director of The Karate Kid films, parts one, two, and three.
Ryan RebalkinHOST
No, you, John-
Ruben RebalkinHOST
John G. Avi-
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