There are no bigger action movie icons than Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, and it seems that their movies were only made better by a motivational rivalry that drove each star to go bigger and bolder. But while these two titans of cinema were very serious about beating each other at the box office, the “feud” amounted to nothing more than child’s play says Schwarzenegger, as he recollected all of the insanity during an appearance on the 2 Bears, 1 Cave podcast.
“I think the whole thing was my fault,” said Arnold in a recent conversation with Tom Segura and Bert Kreischer. As the story goes, both men wanted to be viewed as king of the action movie genre, and were hellbent on ascending the throne, even if that meant tripping each other up to get there.
While Stallone was wowing audiences with his physique in the Rocky movies and shooting everything in sight as Rambo, Arnold was more than keeping up with his rival, flexing his prowess in action classics like Commando and Predator. The former seven-time Mr Olympia even duped Stallone into taking a movie that he knew would bomb (anyone remember Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot?), but the competition would bring out the best in both actors. “… it was actually pretty healthy,” said The Terminator star.
Competition breeds creativity, and Arnold feels that both actors benefitted from the intense rivalry. “I mean the guy is really ripped,” continued Arnold, recalling Sly’s incredible physique. “That motivated me, then when I did my next movie Commando, I have to go and look like that too,” said the star. These actors no doubt set a standard for being buff. “And then that pushed him for his next movie when he did Rocky (IV)”
Indeed, Stallone is said to have plummeted below three-percent bodyfat for his battle with Dolph Lundgren’s “Ivan Drago,” but while the two rivals were deadly serious about crushing each other’s on-screen kill count, it was basically child’s play joked Arnold. “It was like unbelievable for mature, supposedly grownup guys,” he reflects. “Who has the bigger knife?”
Apparently, both men went to great lengths to out-do the other, and Arnold reveals that they would even go as far as measuring the blades. “Who kills more creatively, with that knife?” would be another crucial subject pondered on set. “All of this was very, very important,” hilariously recollected Arnold. “Then, it was like analyzing each other’s guns,” he continued. “Sly’s gun in normally used, you know, on the helicopter. Since I was a tank driver in the army, ‘why don’t we get a machine gun from a tank!?”
Now 77, Arnold is able to look back fondly on his movie madness with Stallone, 78. “It’s stupid stuff life that … he was like killing 46 people, so I had to kill 64 people.” Of course, the two icons joined forces, along with Bruce Willis, to launch Planet Hollywood in 1991, and have since appeared in several movies together, including The Expendables franchise, and Escape Plan. The kill count continues for these two action heroes, and we are here for it!
