Anyone meeting former heavyweight contender Chuck Wepner comes away feeling as if they have been friends with him for a very long time?
Anyone meeting former heavyweight contender Chuck Wepner, the prototype for the real-life ?Rocky? character created by Sylvester Stallone, comes away feeling as if they have been friends with him for a very long time.
Despite being physically imposing, the 78-year-old lifelong resident of Bayonne, New Jersey, is charming, warm and welcoming, garrulous, friendly, articulate, and a world-rated raconteur. To know him is to love him, although Wepner will be the first to admit he has not always been as endearing as he is now.
In the just released theatrical film ?Chuck,? actor Liev Schreiber portrays Wepner to near perfection. Set in the 1970s, the film captures Wepner?s less than meteoric rise to celebrity after nearly extending the legendary Muhammad Ali the distance in a March 1975 title bout in Cleveland.
The heaviest of underdogs, Wepner was expected to be dispatched in short order. However, because the then 35-year-old journeyman was able to train full-time for the first time in his career, he fought the fight of his life against the man many believe was the greatest heavyweight in history.
Wepner?s courageous performance against Ali was viewed by Stallone, who was then a struggling unknown actor and screenwriter. Stallone was so inspired and transfixed by Wepner?s performance, he raced home to his cold-water flat and churned out the ?Rocky? screenplay in a matter of days.
The legend of Rocky Balboa was born, eventually becoming a franchise that generated billions of dollars in revenue, as well as international superstardom for Stallone and local idolatry for Wepner.
It would have been easy for the producers of ?Chuck? to portray Wepner as the troubled but well-meaning and likeable rascal that most people saw him as. He was a womanizing liquor salesman who liked nothing better than having a good time, even if it was at the expense of his family.
But Wepner, who is as open and honest as any professional athlete you will ever meet, wouldn?t hear of it. He rejected scores of screenplays that rejuvenated false myths and wanted his true story to be told ? especially the parts that were not pretty and many athletes or celebrities would have rather left unsaid.
?I was a tough guy in the ring, but I was tough on friends and family,? Wepner told a sellout audience during the post-screening Q & A at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York on April 28.
?I never realized what a real bastard I was. If my story was going to be told, it had to be the truth.?
?Chuck is a magnetic force and personality, but what really grabbed me about him was the pitfall of celebrity and fame,? added Schreiber.
?His was a kind of cautionary tale about the dangers of that particular kind of narcissism ? the desire to be loved by the anonymous mob and not the individuals to whom we are truly connected ? which is something I think a lot of people can relate to.
?The minute we start to believe that lie that we?re the most interesting person in the room, we?re done for. Chuck finds that out in a really painful way.?
Director Philippe Falardeau is not a big boxing fan, but could not believe what he was reading when he reviewed one of the original scripts.
?Chuck has a huge appetite for life, and life threw plenty of challenges at him,? he said. ?As I read the script, I was turning the pages, saying, ?Really? Wow? He did that? He did what?? I couldn?t believe what I was reading. The man really inspired me.?
Among the incidents covered in the film are the memorable fight with Ali, in which Wepner deposited The Greatest on the canvas, his battle against a 1,250 pound bear, as well as with gargantuan wrestler Andre the Giant in front of 42,000 people at New York?s Shea Stadium.
It also chronicles Wepner?s fierce alcohol and cocaine habit that precluded him from landing a role in a ?Rocky? sequel despite Stallone?s noble efforts to include him in the film.
?I had been partying for two days before the audition ? drinking, doing coke, not sleeping,? said Wepner. ?Sly saw me and said, ?Champ, you look a little tired.? I read but did not do well. I failed to make it.?
In the film, Wepner is seen driving back to Bayonne after the Philadelphia audition with two women and his best friend in the car. He pulls over on a New Jersey highway to bash his head against the steering wheel for blowing such a potentially momentous career opportunity.
Wepner?s difficult relationships with his first wife and daughter, brilliantly portrayed by Elizabeth Moss and Melo Ludwig and Sadie Sink (at different ages), as well as his brother Don, played by the quintessential New York actor Michael Rapaport, show the flip side of a self-absorbed local icon.
The bottom fell out for Wepner in 1985 when he was arrested for delivering a large quantity of cocaine in a sting operation. When his attorney suggested he become a snitch, Wepner fired him, pled guilty and served three years in the maximum security Northern State Prison in Newark.
Wepner was able to get his life in order after being released from jail. Perhaps his greatest source of strength, and greatest inspiration, is his third wife Linda, to whom he has been married for 22 years. The two are never apart, and the love and bond between them is unwavering and clearly identifiable in every gesture, word and nod that is shared by them.
Linda is played by the gorgeous and talented Naomi Watts, who manages to catch all of Linda?s nuanced strength, resolve, intelligence and ability to love passionately but not recklessly in a cinematic tour-de-force.
She sees in the troubled Wepner a remarkable but emotionally underachieving man. She recognizes the depth of his character and the enormity of his wounded heart. She gets him out of his own way and helps him find redemption.
?It hurt to see the movie, to see how I was then,? said Chuck Wepner, who battled the likes of Ali, Sonny Liston, George Foreman and Ernie Terrell in compiling a record of 35-14-2 (17 KOs) between 1964 and 1978.
?But I like who I am now, and I owe so much of that to Linda, who I love more than anything.?
That special bond was not lost on Schreiber, who recalled going to Madison Square Garden with Wepner for the Gennady Golovkin-David Lemieux fight in October 2015.
?Everyone was calling him Champ and wanted to say hello to him,? said Schreiber. ?As he watched the fights, I could sense his natural competitive spirit, but his eyes kept darting childlike toward Linda. Something about that captured my imagination.?
Four decades after battling Ali, Wepner is enjoying the fruits of his labors for all that it is worth.
A few years ago he explained, ?I?m a guy everybody can relate to. Everybody gets in trouble at one time or another. I was a working stiff who finally got a break and took advantage of it. I outgutted and outballed my way through a boxing career and a prison sentence. I got everything I have on endurance and perseverance. And when I screwed up, I owned up to it.?
On the night of the movie premiere, Wepner was equally reflective and refreshingly honest, candid and humble.
?Everyone knows the ?Rocky? story is about one guy?s big chance, but this movie is about second chances, which is what America is all about,? Wepner said.
?I never realized what a bastard I was, how selfish I could be. But 30 (actually 40) years later, I?m standing here and I can?t thank you all enough for coming.?
