Los Angeles: Action stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone have opened up on an old feud which they had back in their early days, which led to massive rivalry and even hatred between the two, with Stallone saying that even their DNA hated each other.
The ‘Rocky’ and ‘Terminator’ stars are close friends today, but back in the 1980s when the two were dishing out their most iconic action films such as ‘Rambo’ and ‘Predator’, they were excessively hostile against one another taking pot shots at each other in press meetings, and insulting each other on a personal level.
All of that, however, ended in the late 1990’s as both the action stars having both in the Planet Hollywood restaurant chain, found themselves travelling together to various openings.
This ended up bringing the two closer, and soon their hatred dissipated and they became fast friends leading them to collaborate with each other in various projects such as ‘The Expendables’.
Speaking at ‘The Graham Norton Show’, the ‘True Lies’ actor said: “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. It got out of control, and we tried to derail each other,” as reported by Deadline.
This feud dates back to the 1977 Golden Globes, where they were seated at the same table. Stallone lost in five of six nominated categories, while Schwarzenegger won the New Star award.
Stallone claimed that Schwarzenegger laughed at his losses, leading Stallone to throw a bowl of flowers at him when ‘Rocky’ eventually won for Best Motion Picture – Drama.
After that, the two constantly sniped at each other in heated press meetings. They’d get bigger guns, shoot more people, and generally try to out-macho the other guy in their roles.
Schwarzenegger then struck a nerve with his rival when he alleged that Stallone had used body doubles in a number of his films. That led many to assume that in 1985’s ‘Rocky IV’, the character of Ivan Drago was a subtle dig at Schwarzenegger given the foreign European accent, tall height, and muscular build.
The Planet Hollywood bonding changed that, and the two embarked on a series of buddy movies, with Schwarzenegger joining Stallone’s 2013 action thriller ‘Escape Plan’, and even doing a free special appearance in the first film of the ‘Expendables’ franchise. “He is a great human being, and we are now inseparable,” Schwarzenegger said.
In a June interview, Stallone also praised Schwarzenegger and said: “He just had all the answers. He had the body. He had the strength. That was his character.”
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