Arnold Schwarzenegger almost delivered a knockout punch to Sylvester Stallone‘s career in the early ’90s, according to the Rocky actor.
The 76-year-old star of the upcoming Paramount+ mafia drama Tulsa King has elaborated on the former Hollywood rivals’ years-long feud in the industry, which came to a head after Stallone accused Schwarzenegger of tricking him into starring alongside Estelle Getty in the critically derided 1992 comedy Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot.
“We couldn’t stand to be in the same galaxy together for a while,” Stallone said while appearing on Friday’s episode of the U.K.’s long-running ITV talk series The Jonathan Ross Show. “We truly, truly loathed each other.”
He continued, “He’s quite clever. He goes around town saying, ‘I can’t wait to do this film.’ I go to my agent, ‘Get that thing away from him. Get people options on me.’ I got it and I said, ‘What a piece of s— this is.’ He goes, ‘Ha ha ha!’ At least I wasn’t pregnant in a film, Arnold. We’re even.”
Todd Williamson/Getty Images Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, former Hollywood rivals
In a separate interview on Fox & Friends, Stallone further explained the situation.
“Schwarzenegger tricked me to do that piece of junk,” Stallone said of the movie, in which he played a police sergeant whose overbearing mother (Getty) meddles in his professional endeavors. “That’s one of those things that you go, ‘Why am I in this?’ There’s a scene they say, ‘Would you mind wearing diapers?’ I’m going to kill Arnold. I am going to find him and track him.”
He went on to call Schwarzenegger “a prankster” who made him believe he “desperately” wanted to make Stop!
“And I go, ‘Well, I’m not going to let that happen,'” Stallone said. “So, I snatch it. I said, ‘I want this film desperately.’ And once I got it, I realized, ‘I’m in such a turkey and it’s not even Thanksgiving — it’s not even Thanksgiving, folks.'”
A representative for Schwarzenegger did not immediately respond to EW’s request for comment.
Though the movie earned scathing reviews from critics, things worked out for both Stallone and Schwarzenegger: Stallone received his third Oscar nomination 24 years later for his work in the 2015 drama Creed, while the latter became the 38th governor of California in 2003.
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