Sylvester Stallone has opened up about his long-running rivalry with fellow action star Arnold Schwarzenegger, describing their feud as intense enough to feel like “life and death”. The ‘Rocky’ star said the two actors were once “at each other’s throats” as they competed for major action-film roles during Hollywood’s 1980s heyday.In an interview with The Sunday Times Magazine, Stallone drew a comparison between his rivalry with Schwarzenegger and Elon Musk’s legal battle with Tesla.Discussing Musk’s approach to conflict, Stallone said the entrepreneur had “an impureness to him” and described a “ferocity” he associated with a “mortal enemy”.Stallone then reflected on his own relationship with Schwarzenegger.“I was the same with [Arnold] Schwarzenegger. We were at each other’s throats, big time. It wasn’t a joke. It was like life and death. We should have been together in the Roman Colosseum,” Stallone said.He added that their intense competition ultimately benefited both of them.“It’s like when one fighter insults the other, he’s going to train so much to put a beating on the other. We needed each other, absolutely,” he said.
How the Stallone-Schwarzenegger feud began
The rivalry between Stallone and Schwarzenegger intensified in the mid-1980s, when both actors were among Hollywood’s biggest action stars. Schwarzenegger had established himself with films including ‘The Terminator’ and ‘Commando’, while Stallone was riding the success of the ‘Rocky’ franchise and ‘Rambo: First Blood Part II’.Stallone has previously recalled how the two competed for roles and even attempted to outmanoeuvre each other over potential projects.In 2022, Stallone revealed that Schwarzenegger would sometimes pretend to be interested in certain films, prompting Stallone to pursue the same projects through his agent.“He’s quite clever. He goes around town saying, ‘I can’t wait to do this film…’ I go to my agent, ‘Get that thing away from him. Get people options on me,’” Stallone recalled on ‘The Jonathan Ross Show’.He said he would eventually discover that Schwarzenegger had deliberately encouraged him to take the role.“I got it and I said, ‘What a piece of s*** this is.’ [Schwarzenegger] goes, ‘Ha ha ha!’” Stallone recalled.
Stallone once said they ‘truly loathed’ each other
Stallone has been candid about the extent of their rivalry over the years. During another appearance on ‘The Jonathan Ross Show’ in 2022, he recalled that there was a period when the two “couldn’t stand to be in the same galaxy together”.“We truly loathed each other,” Stallone said at the time.Their feud eventually lasted around two decades before the two actors reconciled and became friends.
Stallone and Schwarzenegger eventually worked together
After putting their rivalry behind them, Stallone and Schwarzenegger shared the screen in several action films. They appeared together in ‘The Expendables’, ‘The Expendables 2’, ‘The Expendables 3’ and ‘Escape Plan’.Stallone also appeared in the 2023 Netflix documentary about Schwarzenegger’s life, where he reflected on their competition during the height of their careers.Speaking about Schwarzenegger’s advantages as an action star, Stallone acknowledged that his rival had an edge in certain areas.“He was superior. He just had all the answers,” Stallone said. “He had the body. He had the strength. That was his character.”The two stars have since maintained a friendship, with their once-famous rivalry becoming one of Hollywood’s most well-known examples of competing action stars eventually becoming collaborators.
