Arnold Scwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, two of the biggest action heroes in movies, apparently hated each other at the height of their popularity.
Even though their names are not as big as they were in the 1980s, their reputations precede them.
Sylvester Stallone said in a recent interview that he and Arnold Schwarzenegger were each other’s least favorite person – in a good way.
Both mega stars used the personal negative feelings towards each other as an incentive to do better movies. Stallone starred in the Rocky and Rambo films, and Schwarzenegger brought us the Terminator , Commando , and Predator franchises.
Stallone said his rivalry with Arnold Schwarzenegger was a key factor in the success of his career:
“We just basically hated each other, but in a good way. It’s like Muhammad Ali, you want to look for an adversary that makes you get up in the morning and give it all and leave nothing on the table. If the director says we need to do an extra three hours and it’s a 15-hour day you go, ‘OK, if it’s going to turn out better than his.’ We both agree it’s sensational, otherwise you don’t push as hard. It’s like two soccer rivals.”
But things have changed for Sylvester Stallone, 67, and Schwarzenegger, 66, and they have become good friends in recent years after things on the big screen slowed down a bit for both.
Arnold Schwarzenegger also took a break from acting when he was elected Governor of California in 2003. Perhaps that helped their relationship as well.
This is apparent after Stallone gave Arnold a role in the upcoming installment of his film The Expendables , set to be released on August 15.
Speaking of how proud he is of this movie franchise at the London Palladium this past weekend, Sylvester Stallone said:
“Your career has a shelf-life and this genre is pretty much done but I was watching musical revivals where you have (…) five, six or seven actors so if one bombs you’ve got the other five to cover for him. I thought I could do this with actors who haven’t done their own films for a while. I started thinking this is going to work really good (…) I thought there’s strength in numbers, the audience may not want to see you alone but they definitely want to see 10 guys.”
Currently, Arnold Schwarzenegger and his ex-wife Maria Shriver are embroiled in a nasty divorce battle over their $400 million fortune — which includes several homes. They do not have a prenuptial agreement. The couple separated after 25 years of marriage following the announcement that he had fathered a child with another woman.