Sylvester Stallone Vs. Arnold Schwarzenegger: Inside One Of Hollywood's Longest Celebrity Feuds
When it comes to super-swole A-list action heroes of the 1980s, there are only two names that need be mentioned: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. From "Rocky" and "Rambo" to "Conan the Barbarian" and "The Terminator," these two cultural icons stand head and totally shredded shoulders above the rest. But at the peak of their respective fame, were they best buds palling around Hollywood and spotting each other at the gym? Most certainly not. In fact, there was almost instant antipathy and competitiveness between the two. Their rivalry played out both personally and on the big screen, with Sly and Arnie sniping at each other with obvious back-and-forth jabs in their respective projects.
But Schwarzenegger and Stallone's unpleasant real-life rivalry also yielded some artistic advantages, as each man inspired and pushed the other to work harder in order to try and top the other on screen, much to the ultimate benefit of action movie fans the world over. Despite their past personal animosity, these two action heroes have since developed a friendship based on mutual admiration for each other.
Let's take a journey inside Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger's relationship to find out how it became one of Hollywood's longest celebrity feuds.
Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger had the same childhood idol
Today, Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger might be global stars, but both started their celebrity journeys from humble beginnings. According to "Sylvester Stallone: The Rocky Road to the Top," Stallone grew up modestly middle class in the United States, but "Binky" — as he was known to his friends and family — was a shy kid. Schwarzenegger, who was raised in working-class rural Austria, lived in a house with minimal modern amenities, per his "Total Recall" memoir. They both dreamed of escaping their hum-drum lives. Little Sly daydreamed of being Superboy, so much so that he actually jumped off a building while trying to fly. Kid Arnie's ambitions regarding leaving Europe for America, however, were slightly more pragmatic.
Coincidentally, Arnie and Sly both had the same childhood hero: Hercules. When Stallone watched bodybuilder Steve Reeves (pictured) play the hero on the big screen, he was immediately inspired to build up his own muscles. On Instagram in 2020, Stallone wrote in the caption for his painting "Hercules O'Clock," "I think I was 12 years old — 'Hercules,' with Steve Reeves. All of a sudden I saw something that ended up changing my entire life. I said, 'That is the male image I want to be.'"
Across the pond, Schwarzenegger decorated his walls not only with posters of Reeves, but with another Mr. Universe-turned-Hercules, Reg Park. Arnie modeled his youthful ambitions around Park, and not only would he eventually meet his hero, but Park became a decades-long friend and mentor to the ambitious Austrian.
The Golden Globes show that set their relationship tenor
One would think when Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone had a chance to get to know each other early in their careers they would have become fast friends. However, one of their first encounters in the 1970s set up a competitive rivalry that would last for decades. Although Sly and Arnie had briefly met once before, the two rising stars met again at the 34th Golden Globe Awards in 1977. It was an important night in both their careers: Schwarzenegger was nominated for new star of the year for his performance in "Stay Hungry," and Sly had multiple nominations for his breakout movie "Rocky." Arnie later reflected on how he'd faced much rejection while transitioning from bodybuilding to movie stardom, and Stallone, who spent years as a struggling actor, finally grabbed Hollywood's attention with "Rocky." At the time, a Golden Globe win would certainly have been a boon to their burgeoning careers.
When Schwarzenegger secured his statuette, Stallone was admittedly not impressed with his rival's win. As he recounted to Variety in 2019, Stallone sensed the growing competition between himself and Schwarzenegger, and as Sly wracked up Golden Globe losses, Arnie apparently bumped up the gloating about his win. But when "Rocky" won the award for best picture – drama, Stallone was more than ready to celebrate, and he did so by throwing a giant display of flowers in Schwarzenegger's direction. From Sly's bombastic victory celebration blossomed a feud that would partly shape Hollywood cinema in the decade to come.
The battle of the buffest at the box office
In the 1980s, Hollywood was looking for a different kind of movie star. The Reagan-era belonged to the muscle-bound action hero, the archetype of which was defined by Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Their box office competition kicked into high gear in 1982, with the release of Stallone's first Rambo movie "First Blood" and Schwarzenegger's "Conan the Barbarian." As the decade moved on, Schwarzenegger later shared at a press junket for "The Expendables 3," "The competition developed kind of organically. And then all of a sudden it was the competition, 'Who has bigger muscles? And who is using bigger guns? Who is killing people in the most efficient way?'"
And so, the creative competition between Arnie and Sly had a direct impact on their films. For example, the ending of Schwarzenegger's "Commando" was changed so that the movie could surpass the body count of Stallone's "Rambo II." During a June 2023 discussion with the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, Arnie revealed he was initially upset that his character in "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" would not be a killing machine like he was in "The Terminator."
In his mind, Arnie still needed to beat Sly's body count. In the 2023 Netflix docuseries "Arnold," Schwarzenegger reflected on their competition: "Without Stallone, I maybe wouldn't have been as motivated in the '80s to do the kind of movies that I did and to work as hard as I did."
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone's romances with Brigitte Nielsen
Both Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger had relationships with Danish actor and model Brigitte Nielsen. During the making of 1985's "Red Sonja," Schwarzenegger and Nielsen had an intense on-set affair. In 2011, she told the Daily Mail that both understood their tryst was temporary, saying, "We wanted to try everything and so we did. There were no restrictions, no promises, nothing, and it was a great time in my life." However, Schwarzenegger was in a long-term relationship with journalist Maria Shriver, something which Nielsen said he didn't openly talk about during their time together. He publicly admitted to their affair in his 2012 "Total Recall" book, and told "60 Minutes" of his infidelity, "I did feel bad about it."
Stallone's relationship with Nielsen was more than just an affair, however. The two left their respective marriages in order to be together, and they got married in 1985. But the truth about Sylvester Stallone and Brigitte Nielsen's relationship is that it quickly soured. Nicknamed "Beefcake and Cheesecake" by the media, Nielsen bluntly told The Guardian in 2019, "It was a horrible marriage." Stallone allegedly brought his entourage with him on their honeymoon and filled their home with bizarre devotional art of Nielsen. Less than two years later, their marriage was over.
On "Where Are They Now" in 2014, Nielsen confessed, "If I would go back in time, I shouldn't have married him, and he shouldn't have married me. ... But it really just wasn't for me, and it became very ugly like some divorces do."
Arnie and Sly's years-long in-joke fest at the movies
Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger took their rivalry to the next level with a years-long back and forth reference battle in their movies. Arnie kicked things off in his hit 1988 comedy "Twins," when his character dismisses Sly's musculature in a "Rambo" poster. Not to be outdone, Stallone clapped back the following year in "Tango & Cash," when Sly's Tango sarcastically observes that he'd previously seen a cartoonishly chiseled prison inmate in "Conan the Barbarian." Tango also makes a self-deprecating joke about "Rambo" in the movie that's not quite fit to print.
Arnie and Sly kept up their in-joke battle during the '90s. In Stallone's 1992 flick "Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot," Estelle Getty — who played the film's titular mom — references "The Terminator." Meanwhile, in Schwarzenegger's 1993 movie "Last Action Hero," his character Jack Slater exists in a world where Sly — not Arnie — stars in "Terminator 2: Judgement Day." In what turned out to be a rather fortuitous joke, Stallone's "Demolition Man" takes place in a world where, through a Constitutional amendment, Schwarzenegger becomes President of the United States. And in Schwarzenegger's 1994 action-comedy caper "True Lies," Jamie Lee Curtis' character, who after finding out her mild-mannered husband is actually a secret agent, quips that she married Rambo.
For years, these action stars truly couldn't stand each other
While Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger's rivalry might have had a light touch on-screen, there was a time when the two legitimately couldn't stand each other. Stallone shared with Forbes in 2022, "We really disliked each other immensely," adding about their rivalry, "I just thought it actually helped, but off-screen we were still competitive and that was not a healthy thing at all." In his own sit-down with Forbes the following year, Schwarzenegger said, "He just saw me as the enemy just in his own little vision and I saw him as the enemy and I had to get rid of him and he had to get rid of me and that was it."
At one time, things were so heated between Arnie and Sly that even being in the same room together was a problem. The rival action stars also didn't hesitate to sling mud at each other in the media. Schwarzenegger revealed at Beyond Fest 2017 (via SlashFilm), "We were attacking each other in the press relentlessly. We called each other names and called out our weak points, and it was so competitive." Their press rivalry might have peaked with Arnie's infamous January 1998 Playboy interview, in which he ripped into Sly's public image. He even dismissed Stallone's penchant for fur coats. (Somebody call the Fashion Police to break up this fight!)
The box office bomb role Arnie tricked Sly into taking
In the late '80s, Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, having both dominated the action-movie genre, flexed their talents by becoming comedy stars. Arnie scored a big hit in 1988, co-starring with Danny DeVito in "Twins," which grossed over $111 million at the box office. Stallone had already traversed the comedy waters with Dolly Parton in 1984's "Rhinestone," but in 1989, he gave the genre another try with the action-comedy buddy flick "Tango & Cash." The movie didn't make nearly as much as "Twins," but the comedy gauntlet had been thrown down. Soon, Arnie and Sly were starring in more comedies, including Schwarzenegger's "Kindergarten Cop" and Stallone's "Oscar."
The actors' competitiveness went next-level when Stallone was duped by Schwarzenegger into taking one of the worst projects of his career. On "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" in 2019, Arnie shared that, in pursuit of expanding his comedy resume, he was offered a role in 1992's "Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot." He thought the script was horrible, so he passed. But when Sly asked him about the script, Schwarzenegger fibbed and said he loved it. Wanting to snag the role out from underneath his rival, Stallone snatched up the part, not knowing he was just tricked into the doomed project.
Reviewed by Roger Ebert as "one of those movies so dimwitted, so utterly lacking in even the smallest morsel of redeeming value, that you stare at the screen in stunned disbelief," this ill-fated flick definitely put the breaks on Sly's comedy career.
The feuding movie rivals became business partners
Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger might have been rivals at the box office, but in the 1990s, they actually became business partners in the restaurant franchise Planet Hollywood. Arnie and Sly, along with fellow action hero Bruce Willis, were asked to become part-owners of the eatery. For a stake in the company, they were tasked with showing up at restaurant openings and flexing their star power. The first Planet Hollywood opened in 1991 and was a rousing success. Soon, the restaurant chain was popping up all over the world, and Arnie and Sly were making bank. At one point, as reported by Los Angeles Magazine, Stallone's stake in the company amounted to $65 million.
When it became a publicly traded company in 1996, Planet Hollywood was briefly valued at $3.5 billion, but the good times wouldn't last long. For starters, Planet Hollywood was previously sued by Hard Rock Cafe owner Peter Morton for supposedly ripping off his proven restaurant formula in 1993, per Entertainment Weekly. Also, there was the fact that the food had a poor reputation. Eventually, Planet Hollywood filed for bankruptcy in 1999, but the brand survived ... just not with Arnie and Sly.
Schwarzenegger divested himself from the company in 2000, and Stallone eventually did the same. While Planet Hollywood turned out to be a business blunder for both stars, it served as a cooling-off period for Arnie and Sly's heated rivalry. One hopes they smoothed things out over a plate of Cap'n Crunch chicken fingers.
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone's divergence on politics
Even in the 1980s, Arnold Schwarzenegger wasn't shy about his political ambitions. Brigitte Nielsen later shared with the Daily Mail, "He told me at the beginning of shooting 'Red Sonja,' 'One day, I will become Governor of California,' and we were all laughing, but I had a feeling he would do it one day." In 2015, Schwarzenegger, who became an American citizen in 1983, described to Fox News how he'd met his hero, then-President Ronald Reagan, the following year at the Republican National Convention. He also considered former President George H.W. Bush a mentor, and admired his father-in-law, civic leader Sargent Shriver. So unsurprisingly, Schwarzenegger indeed entered politics himself when he was elected Governor of California in 2003.
Because their lives and careers parallel each other so much, it was only natural that speculation surrounded Sylvester Stallone's potential entrance into the political arena. But unlike the politically ambitious Governator, Sly told The Sunday Times, "I didn't even know what a Republican or a Democrat was until I was 30 years old," adding, "I really didn't until I went to Hollywood." While a political late-bloomer, Stallone actually considered taking on a role in public life in the mid-'00s, at the same time Arnie was serving as California's governor, but he quickly dismissed the idea.
Even an appointed federal agency role didn't appeal to Stallone. In 2016, the Daily Mail reported that then-President-elect Donald Trump had approached Stallone to chair the National Endowment for the Arts — however, Stallone issued a statement to Variety denying the speculation.
After decades of rivalry, the two finally worked as co-stars
As the relationship between Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger moved from straight-up antagonism to mutual respect, the idea of co-starring together became more and more of a reality. In 2005, Ain't It Cool News ran with the rumor that director Quentin Tarantino wanted Arnie and Sly for "Inglourious Basterds." That didn't happen — Brad Pitt ended up starring in the 2009 film — but it wasn't a far-fetched idea, considering how Tarantino's 1995 film "Pulp Fiction" resuscitated John Travolta's career. And it's not that Stallone and Schwarzenegger didn't try to work together so much as the timing wasn't right. On the delay in collaborating with Sly, Arnie once said during a Television Critics Association panel (via Reuters), "There was always something off. The script was not right, or the studio was not as much interested in it as we were. ... It just didn't happen."
But in 2009, the stars aligned when Arnie was cast in Sly's movie "The Expendables." At the time, Schwarzenegger was still serving as Governor of California, and he reflected on filming his brief uncredited role to Parade in May 2023. "I did it as a favor to Sly," Arnie said. "I shot it on a Saturday for two hours quickly in a church with Bruce Willis." The movie dropped in 2010, and Schwarzenegger went on to appear in second and third installments of the action franchise. In 2013, the two stars finally co-starred together in "Escape Plan."
Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger were hospitalized at the same time
As indestructible as Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger may seem on the big screen, in real life, they're mere mortals who need to visit the doctor just like everybody else. Over the years, both Sly and Arnie have had their share of injuries and ailments.
For example, while making "Rocky IV," Stallone was put in the ICU for days after his co-star, Dolph Lundgren, punched him during a fight scene. Among his other injuries, Stallone has damaged his shoulders, rotator cuff, knees, and has gotten stitches on his hand and under his arm. He also suffered a hairline fracture in his neck during the making of "The Expendables." Meanwhile, Schwarzenegger has had his share of bodily damage, including a hip replacement, rotator cuff surgery, and broken bones. Schwarzenegger has also dealt with some major heart issues. He underwent a pulmonary valve replacement in 1997, had update on that surgery in 2018, and had an aortic valve replacement in 2020.
Perhaps it was inevitable, then, that Arnie and Sly would find themselves getting surgery at the same time. In 2012, in a strange twist of fate, both men were in the same hospital at the same time, and both were going under the knife for shoulder surgery. Unbeknownst to either of them, their surgeries were scheduled back-to-back. For an added surprise, sources cited by Yahoo! News claimed that Sly waited his turn until Arnie woke up from his operation. Just another casual meet-up for these action stars.
After all these years, Arnie and Sly have become friends
A lot has changed in the decades since Arnie and Sly were bitter rivals both on screen and off, and the question must be asked: Are Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger friends today? The answer is yes. With age has come a softening and even a mutual admiration between the two global superstars. Instead of exchanging barbs with each other in the press, you'll see Sly and Arnie being silly together on Instagram nowadays, doing things like holding movie props, carving Halloween pumpkins, and supporting charitable endeavors by wearing festive cowboy hats.
These days, Schwarzenegger and Stallone don't waste an opportunity to praise each other, albeit in a way that only people who've known each other for decades can do. In June 2023, Stallone told The Wall Street Journal, "It's like with me and Arnold. We have this caustic sense of humor, and we go at each other nonstop. I almost covet a good enemy. He really brings out the best of you."
And so, after all the drama, these two superstars with super-egos are sticking together. Stallone explained to The Hollywood Reporter that he and Schwarzenegger's muscle-bound celebrity might now be an anomaly in Hollywood. He said, "I told him, 'We are the last two tyrannosaurus.' We're the last two meat eaters, and there's not much beef left out there. So we better enjoy each other."