Sylvester Stallone has admitted he considered boycotting this year’s Academy Awards because of the #OscarsSoWhite controversy. The Creed star is nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category, but his co-star Michael B. Jordan and the film’s director Ryan Coogler both missed out on nominations.

Sylvester Stallone CreedSylvester Stallone with Michael B. Jordan in Creed.

“Certainly, there is a universal law of existence. You either adapt or cease to exist. Adaptation and evolving were definitely necessary,” Stallone said when asked about the Academy’s new measures to diversify their membership (via Entertainment Weekly).

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“I remember I spoke with Ryan Coogler when this [#OscarsSoWhite controversy] happened. I said, ‘Ryan how do you want to handle this? Because I really believe you are responsible for me being here,” Stallone continued.

“Michael Jordan, every time I looked in his eyes as an actor, I said, he was making me better. I think he should’ve been given a lot more respect and attention. [Coogler] goes, ‘Sly, just go there, try to represent the film, and we feel you deserve it. Eventually things will change.’”

“I said, ‘If you want me to go I’ll go, if you don’t, I won’t.’ He said, ‘No I want you to go,’” Stallone added. “That’s the kind of guy he is. He wants us to go and represent the film.” The 69-year-old then added that he is optimistic that things will get better.

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“Eventually all talent will rise to the top. It’s just a matter of, I guess, a new paradigm and a new way of thinking. I really owe everything to these two young men, for sure,” he added. This is Stallone’s third Academy Award nomination of his career. In 1977 he was nominated for Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay for Rocky.