Sylvester Stallone Reveals When He Realized Former Nemesis Arnold Schwarzenegger Was ‘a Problem’

Sylvester Stallone knew early on that fellow action star Arnold Schwarzenegger would become a formidable rival in Hollywood.

During the Thursday, November 5, episode of The Rest Is Entertainment podcast, the 80-year-old Rambo star reflected on his long-standing rivalry with the 79-year-old Commando actor.

“I see this guy, and I could tell right away he’s going to be a problem,” Stallone shared. “You know, we were at the Golden Globe Awards and he’s sitting there, and he’s eyeballing me.”

Stallone explained that Schwarzenegger had won the Best Newcomer award at the time for Pumping Iron. “He’s looking at me, and I throw flowers on him, like a bowl of flowers,” the actor explained. “I made, like, I was celebrating like, ‘Yay!’ And the gauntlet was thrown, and it was on.”

When asked how the rivalry developed, Stallone explained that both he and Schwarzenegger wanted to be the leader in the action genre.

“Well, it developed because right then you knew we were both gonna be antagonistic because that’s who he is,” he added. “You know, he likes to challenge, I like to challenge, and we’re both physical, and now who’s going to be like the vanguard, the leader in that genre?”

“It was very contentious, trust me, which I enjoyed,” Stallone continued.  “Because the madder I made him, the madder he made me, the more we fought to make the next action film — bigger knife, louder gun, more body count, this and that, better location. It just kept elevating.”

The Rocky star also revealed that their longstanding rivalry “wasn’t put to bed until like 20 years later,” noting it only ended when Schwarzenegger decided to run for governor in 2003.

“We’re always going to be competitive,” he added. “That’s the nature of the beast and I enjoy it. We’re not as financially competitive anymore … that’s long gone.”

Stallone and Schwarzenegger have costarred in a few major action projects since then, most notably the 2013 prison-break thriller Escape Plan and The Expendables franchise.