Sylvester Stallone is still putting himself back together following stunts on 2010’s Expendables. The movie star said on his family’s reality show this week that he recently underwent his seventh back surgery stemming from injuries sustained on the film’s set.
“There’s something romantic about doing your own stunts,” Stallone shared in the fourth episode of The Family Stallone season two, which aired Wednesday. “There’s something very unromantic about after doing your own stunts.”
In the episode, Stallone said his pain emanates from an incident in which he was body-slammed by his co-star, WWE legend Steve Austin, during a fight scene in the first Expendables movie. “I remember one slam, and I could actually feel one bang,” he said.
“I never recovered from Expendables 1,” Stallone continued. “After that film, it was literally physically never the same. So I warn people, don’t do your own stunts.”
Later in the episode, Stallone heads to his seventh back surgery, where a doctor explains his team will clean a large herniated disc in his back.
“Sly tries to mask the pain, pretend like it didn’t happen,” Stallone’s wife, Jennifer Flavin, says. “He doesn’t like people to know he’s had so many surgeries.”
Stallone’s daughter, Sistine, adds that “I think my whole childhood he was in pain. He did everything he could to push through the pain and be present.”
Flavin adds that she’s “never seen [Stallone] not in good spirits” ahead of an operation. “He has a great attitude,” she says, but “it’s very scary for our family”
The episode ends with a successful operation. “I’m hoping this is the one to make him live a more comfortable life,” Flavin says.