Sylvester Stallone, Star of ‘Tulsa King,’ Steals the Show at Paramount+ U.K. Launch

variety.com:

Manori Ravindran International EditorWhatever you do, don’t ask Sylvester Stallone — Mr. Stallone to journalists everywhere — to read off a teleprompter.Stallone stole the show at the Paramount+ U.K.

launch on Monday, where the star of mob drama “Tulsa King,” faced with a teleprompter like his fellow actors in attendance, went dramatically off-piste and opted to “speak from the heart” for 10 minutes, delightfully throwing a wrench in an otherwise perfectly curated showcase.“I’m not going to read that.

I’m not,” boomed Stallone to cheers from the audience of around 200. “I’m going to read from the heart!”In a rambling speech that touched on his love of franchises — “When I first started a franchise, they said, ‘Oh very careerist.

You’re going to make the same movie three, four times?’ It’s like, ‘Yeah'” — through to riding horses, his own early career, and ultimately “putting together this new gang of misfits.” “I’d like to say I did it all on my own,” joked Stallone, before thanking Paramount boss Bob Bakish; Chris McCarthy, president of Paramount Media Networks; as well as Tom Ryan, president and CEO of streaming.Stallone was the final act in an hour-long presentation that dazzled the audience at Outernet, a new media space on Charing Cross Road in central London, whose massive screens for walls were put to good use by Paramount.