Sylvester Stallone was so broke in New York that he had nothing to eat. He lived in Hell’s Kitchen, slept wherever he could, and there came a point when he could no longer feed his dog, Butkus.
He sold him for just 40 dollars in front of a 7-Eleven. According to Stallone himself, it was one of the hardest moments of his life. That was the turning point that pushed him forward. Everything changed when he managed to sell the script for Rocky.
With money in his pocket, Stallone returned to the same place and waited outside that store for days until he found the buyer. When the man saw how desperate Stallone was to get him back, he charged him 15.000 dollars.
Stallone paid without hesitation. Years later, in 2017, he told the whole story and summed it up with a phrase that says it all: “it was worth every cent”. Butkus ended up acting alongside him in Rocky and Rocky II.