Sylvester Stallone has broken his silence on the full intensity of his two-decade war with Arnold Schwarzenegger, insisting it was never a publicity stunt.
Stallone, 78, told the Sunday Times the rivalry was genuine and brutal, using language that left no room for doubt about how deep the hostility ran. The actor, who shot to fame with 1976’s Rocky, traced the origins of their conflict to the 1977 Golden Globes ceremony, where Rocky won Best Picture while Stallone lost individual acting categories. He claimed Schwarzenegger, then early in his own rise, was openly gloating about his losses.
That night, Stallone said he grabbed a large flower arrangement and hurled it in Schwarzenegger’s direction. What followed was what he described as a “10-year battle royal” as the two biggest action stars of their era fought for the same roles at the peak of 1980s Hollywood.
Stallone drew a direct parallel between their dynamic and modern corporate warfare. “You see that when he was going against Tesla, there’s a ferocity there. A mortal enemy,” he said, referring to Elon Musk’s documented disputes during his Tesla leadership. “I was the same with [Arnold] Schwarzenegger. We were at each other’s throats, big time.”
The Rambo star continued in the same interview, driving home that the animosity was not performative. “It wasn’t a joke. It was like life and death. We should have been together in the Roman Colosseum,” he said. “It’s like when one fighter insults the other, he’s going to train so much to put a beating on the other. We needed each other, absolutely.”
This is not the first time Stallone has addressed the feud’s severity. Back in 2022, he admitted the pair “couldn’t stand to be in the same galaxy” as each other during their worst years.
Schwarzenegger, 77, has been equally blunt about their history. During a 2023 appearance on Andy Cohen’s SiriusXM radio show, the Terminator star confirmed they “really hated each other.” He elaborated: “We were kind of attacking each other and doing nasty things and saying nasty things about each other and all these stupid things.”
The Austrian-born actor added that by the time Planet Hollywood emerged as a concept, he had “grown out of my craziness” and saw potential in their unlikely partnership. Joint lawyers for both stars had proposed the restaurant venture, which also brought in fellow A-listers Bruce Willis and Demi Moore as original celebrity investors when the chain debuted in 1991. Schwarzenegger ultimately sold his ownership stake in 2000.
The restaurant chain became the unexpected bridge that transformed their relationship. From that thaw, the pair eventually co-starred in four films from The Expendables franchise, with Stallone also making an appearance in Schwarzenegger’s 2023 Netflix documentary Arnold. In that project, Stallone praised his former rival as “superior,” adding that he “had all the answers.”
Stallone’s 1977 Golden Globes outburst came at a pivotal moment for both men. Rocky had made him an overnight sensation, while Schwarzenegger was transitioning from bodybuilding dominance into acting. Their competition would define an era of action cinema as each man became synonymous with a different strain of the genre—Stallone with the underdog warrior, Schwarzenegger with the superhuman machine.