Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone followed similar career paths, and that led to fierce competition among the men.
While Schwarzenegger moved from bodybuilding to Hollywood, Stallone had to train like a bodybuilder to prepare for his roles, and had to switch up his diets to become absolutely shredded for roles such as ‘Rocky’.
Schwarzenegger and Stallone were working in Hollywood under the same genre - action thrillers.
Both of them wanted to be the best in that, especially because it wasn’t quite explored previously. Obviously, this led to serious rivalry between them, and this rivalry didn’t end on-screen.
During an interview with Forbes, Stallone opened up about his unhealthy rivalry with Schwarzenegger.
"We really disliked each other immensely because we were... this may sound a little vain, but I think we were pioneering a kind of genre at that time and it hasn't been seen since really.”
In fact, Stallone revealed that neither of them would end the competition where it mattered, and took it to a different level. It wasn’t just rivalry between two actors working on similar movies, it was pure dislike for each other.
“The competition, because it's his nature, he is very competitive and so am I... and I just thought it actually helped, but off-screen we were still competitive and that was not a healthy thing at all, but we've become really good friends."
It so happens that Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone met at the 1977 Golden Globes. At the ceremony, Schwarzenegger was nominated for the category of New Star of the Year and Stallone was nominated for the Best Actor category.
Apparently, Schwarzenegger laughed at Stallone when the latter lost the award. As a reaction, Stallone threw a bowl of flowers at The Austrian Oak. This sparked a rivalry that would go on for 20 years.
While Schwarzenegger and Stallone started off as rivals in the industry, they became friends over time. As a result, the duo have worked together in films such as Escape Plan (the first time they worked together as co-leads), and three movies from The Expendables franchise.
Apart from that, Schwarzenegger has invited Stallone to several inaugurations as Governor of California, and Sylvestor Stallone generously made a hefty donation of 15,000 to Schwarzenegger’s 2005 re-election campaign.
