LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: The battle for box office and genre supremacy between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone was much heated to put it lightly, with the two bulky behemoths holding a palpable disdain for each other as they set about trying to outdo the other at every turn. Things got so heated at one point that the aging icons are happy to admit they hated each other’s guts for a while, but those fences have long since been mended after they ended up becoming close pals. Time appears to have mellowed Stallone even further, after he reflected on their rivalry in the Netflix documentary 'Arnold' and conceded to his co-star, going so far as to say, “I got my a** kicked constantly."
A Driving Motivator
“We were incredibly antagonistic," Stallone recalled. "We couldn’t even stand to be in the same room. People had to separate us.” It did act as a great motivator, though, with Schwarzenegger revealing that it ended up driving him to new heights. “We were competing about everything," he said. "The body being ripped and oiled up. Who is more vicious? Who is more tough? Who uses bigger knives? Who uses bigger guns? Sly and I were at war. Without Stallone, I maybe wouldn’t have been as motivated during the ‘80s to do the kind of movies I did and work as hard as I did.”
The debate about who can be deemed the king of action cinema will likely continue forever, but it appears as though Stallone has come to terms with being second best at long last. In the second episode of Schwarzenegger’s series, the former Mr Olympia described how he rose to fame and continued to achieve success, insisting that he “always needed an enemy” to drive himself to new heights, which he found in Stallone.
Recollections of the Competitive Era
Recalling when he and the 'Terminator' star became competitive about everything in their careers, Stallone shared, “In ’77, Arnold won Best Newcomer. I go, 'Really?'" he said. “The ’80s; was an interesting time because the definitive 'action guy' had not really been formed yet. Up until that time, the action was a car chase, like Bullitt or French connection, and a film all about 'intellect' and innuendo and 'verbal' this and 'verbal' that," the 'Rocky' star continued.
The 'Lords of Flatbush' movie star further shared that his 1982 American action film 'First Blood' was about action, and the whole narrative of the story relied upon his body, claiming he was the only star able to perform in such genre films. But then Schwarzenegger catapulted to fame and became his greatest rival in the film industry.
In 'Arnold' episode two, Stallone claims how his now friend Arnold Schwarzenegger outperformed him at the box office. He claimed they were trying to beat and outdo each other throughout the 1980s. Stallone recalls, “With First Blood, it was about action. You actually relied upon your body to tell the story. Dialogues were not necessary. I saw that it; was an opportunity because no one else was doing this, except some other guy from Austria, who doesn’t need to say much,” he quipped.
A War of Hollywood Titans
The 'Rambo' star claimed that Schwarzenegger started to “come on strong.” They became incredibly competitive, like Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier or “great warriors that traveled the same course.” Stallone said he became furious as the 'Predator' movie star became more “superior.” Schwarzenegger added that he and Stallone were at “war,” yet it was because of him he pushed himself to work hard and scaled the height of success.
Sylvester Stallone admitted that the 'True Lies' star won their rivalry at the box office by delivering back-to-back hit blockbusters while both were steadily competing in the film industry. Nevertheless, they are now good friends and have shared the silver screen together on projects such as 'The Expendables' and 'Escape Plan'.
'Arnold' is available to stream on Netflix.
