Arnold Schwarzenegger opened up Friday on the intense rivalry which once existed between him and fellow action superstar Sylvester Stallone during the 1980s and 1990s.
Schwarzenegger shed light on his rivalry with Stallone during an appearance on “The Graham Norton Show,” per Variety. “We were movie rivals, but we took the competitiveness to the extreme – we each had to have the best body, we had to kill more people in our films, and we had to have the biggest guns,” he said.
The rivalry reached such an extreme that they would actively try to outdo each other, both on and off-screen, per the outlet. “It got out of control and we tried to derail each other,” he added.
Arnold Schwarzenegger admits rivalry with Sylvester Stallone got ‘out of control’ https://t.co/pykKbKRAd0 pic.twitter.com/cHpVcLUsiH
— New York Post (@nypost) October 28, 2023
The bravado, however, took a turn when Schwarzenegger and Stallone, joining other partners, invested in the Planet Hollywood restaurant chain. Their shared business venture led to a friendship as they traveled across the globe together to promote the brand, according to Variety. In Schwarzenegger’s own words, he described the “Rocky” star as “a great human being.” They have been inseparable since, per the outlet. (RELATED: ‘Want To F*ck Up Every City In America’: Arnold Schwarzenegger Speaks The Absolute Truth About Democrats)
The friendship later developed into on-screen collaborations. Stallone and Schwarzenegger starred alongside each other in the first two “Expendables” movies and the 2013 action film “Escape Plan,” which boasted a global box office haul of $137 million. The success of “Escape Plan” spawned two sequels, further solidifying their on-screen chemistry, per Variety.