Before becoming close friends, Hollywood action legends Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger were bitter enemies.

Sylvester Stallone (74 years old) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (73 years old) are both legends of muscular action movies in Hollywood.

Stallone made his mark in the hearts of audiences with his leading roles in two movie series Rambo and Rocky .

Meanwhile, Schwarzenegger’s image is associated with the T-800 robot of the Terminator franchise .

In 2010, Sylvester Stallone invited Arnold Schwarzenegger and many names associated with action movies such as Chuck Norris, Jason Statham, Antonio Banderas, Jet Li… to appear in the series The Expendables .

Not only are they famous faces of Hollywood, Stallone and Schwarzenegger have also been close friends for decades.

The two actors both own a huge film fortune and a name that reaches far around the world.

However, before that friendship was a long period of time when both of them swore they could never be together.

Rivalry between new stars

Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger first met at the Golden Globe Awards held in 1977.
At that time, Stallone, already famous after the success of Rocky , was not very interested in meeting Schwarzenegger.

The 74-year-old actor remembers that he was greeting everyone when Arnie walked up and introduced himself. 

Arnold Schwarzenegger was a bodybuilder when he was still young

“Hello! I’m Arnold Schwarzenegger – the new talent of the year!”, the actor of the Terminator movie series later said. The greeting made Sly feel quite annoyed.

According to Stallone, Arnie always acts very upset every time he misses a nomination. The incident ended with Stallone throwing a bouquet of flowers at his muscular colleague.

The conflict between the two actors increased after their careers flourished in the 1980s, auditioning for many movies together and aiming to be known as the greatest action stars.

Sly “has no relationship” with Arnie

Sylvester Stallone revealed his conflict with Schwarzenegger when he was a guest on a talk show with David Letterman.

Through Stallone’s story, the relationship between the two screen legends was at one time extremely tense.

“We swore we would never be together,” Stallone said. “Have you ever heard that story?

It’s a competition when you find a worthy opponent. As Arnold likes to say, the fight drives you forward.” 

Sylvester Stallone once swore an oath to his colleagues

The relationship between Stallone and Schwarzenegger was once so contradictory that actor Rambo felt: “As long as he’s alive, I still feel bothered.”
However, Sly also admitted that he used the competition between the two as motivation to move forward.

“After a while, I started to like that feeling of competition. It was a kind of confrontation between two men. He carries bigger guns than on screen. I take down more bad guys.

He went on to take down more bad guys than that. But then Arnold tried his hand at science fiction films.

That made me feel left behind,” Stallone confided.

The competition became even more fierce when both actors began to use the movies they participated in as an excuse to confront the other.

“His character starts using heavy weapons,” Schwarzenegger said.

So we started racing to see who could show off the biggest gun or knife on screen.”

“And then things continued in that direction. Who has a more satisfying takedown of enemies?

Who defeats more bad guys? Whose movie has higher revenue? Whose body fat percentage is lower when filming for a new movie begins?

All those childish things started happening and there was no sign of stopping! It’s unbelievable,” the former California governor confessed.

“Hollywood class” prankster

Arnold Schwarzenegger once revealed during an interaction with fans at Beyond Fest that he hoped to steal the glory of Sylvester Stallone’s career by winning this competition.

According to Daily Star, Schwarzenegger tricked Stallone into accepting a part in a ridiculous action comedy called Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992) . “I read the script. It’s terribly bad.

In fact, I’ve done a few movies that were worth throwing in the trash. Those movies were bad, but this movie’s script is even worse,” the actor recalled. 

The two typical images of Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger on screen

Arnie continued: “So I did it. I told myself this was a war. I’ll spread the word that I crave this role, because I know how news travels in Hollywood.

After that, I shouted a salary to the sky. Then they said, ‘Well, let’s give that role to Sly.

Maybe we can convince him of a lower fee.’ They went to Sly and said, ‘This is a project that Schwarzenegger really liked.

If you want to take his food, this is your chance.’”

“People said, ‘Sly has signed on to do that movie,’ and I almost shouted, ‘That’s it!’” Arnie recalls.

Good friends

Also at Beyond Fest, Schwarzenegger shared about the current friendship between the two, as well as how they overcame the hatred of their youth. According to SlashFilm , the 73-year-old actor felt happy that the confrontation between the two had ended.

“I am very happy that the two have worked together to resolve the accumulated conflicts.

In fact, that competition embarrassed both of them.

We were constantly attacking each other in the press… Then it became so silly that the confrontation between us became a competition to see who had the better physique,” Schwarzenegger recounted.

“So I said: ‘Sly, put the past aside. Because there is only one person who has ever won Mr. Olympia 7 times. And that’s you!’” the Terminator actor said. 

After many years of confrontation, the two stars have become close friends

Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger eventually became close friends after sharing the role of co-owner of the Planet Hollywood restaurant chain in Las Vegas, USA with colleague Bruce Willis in the 1990s.

Not only stopping at The Expendables series , in 2013, Stallone and Schwarzenegger continued to co-star in the action-thriller film The Escape Plan .
In that movie, their two characters were initially tense, then gradually became two like-minded people in the prison escape mission. The work seems to reflect the real-life friendship of the two veteran stars.