In the late 1970s and 1980s, two names towered over the action movie genre – Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. Their rivalry helped define a generation of blockbuster films and transformed both actors into global superstars. In this article we talk about Schwarzenegger vs. Sylvester Stallone- A Hollywood Rivalry That Changed Their Careers.
Schwarzenegger first made a splash with his role in Stay Hungry in 1976, which earned him a Golden Globe for Best Newcomer. However, it was his iconic role as the cyborg assassin in 1984’s The Terminator that cemented his place in Hollywood. With his hulking physique, Austrian accent and stoic one-liners, Schwarzenegger presented an entirely new kind of action hero to audiences.
Meanwhile, Sylvester Stallone had skyrocketed to fame in 1976 with Rocky, the underdog boxing story that was made on a shoestring budget and went on to win three Oscars including Best Picture. With the film’s massive success, Stallone had carved his own niche playing gritty, working-class heroes who triumphed against the odds.
Schwarzenegger and Stallone were clearly the two biggest rising stars in action cinema. And a rivalry was inevitable.
The Competitive Spark
By their own admission, Schwarzenegger and Stallone continually pushed each other to succeed through healthy competition. They were both incredibly ambitious and the era’s most bankable stars in the ultra-machismo arena of guns-blazing blockbusters.
As Schwarzenegger put it recently: “There’s no two ways about that: He [Stallone] was very helpful in my career because I had something that I could chase.”
Stallone agrees that having an arch-rival was motivating: “As soon as I saw him it was like bang, two alphas hitting… If we walked into a party we’d be staring at each other for a few seconds and then ‘I gotta get that guy.'”
In the late 1970s, this competitive tension brought about some legendary face-offs…
The Golden Globes Flower Fight
At the 1977 Golden Globes, both Schwarzenegger and Stallone were nominated for major awards. Schwarzenegger was up for Best Newcomer for Stay Hungry. Meanwhile, Stallone’s Rocky earned multiple nominations including Best Picture, Actor and Screenplay.
In the end, both actors were victorious. Schwarzenegger won the Best Newcomer award, while Rocky took home Best Picture.
However, Stallone wasn’t happy that his rival had won an award too. In a spontaneous act of competitiveness, Stallone picked up a bouquet of flowers and threw them across the room towards Schwarzenegger’s table!
As Stallone recalls: “He was sitting across from me, and I’m going, ‘He won best newcomer?’ No offense, but Rocky was a pretty good debut…We win [Best Picture], and I lost it. I literally went and picked up this entire bouquet of flowers and tossed them straight up in the air, sort of aiming towards his side of the table.”
It was a rambunctious display that kicked their rivalry into high gear. From here on, the two mega-stars would continue trying to outdo each other movie after movie…
The Action Arms Race
Spurred by competition, both Schwarzenegger and Stallone started pushing their film projects towards crazy new heights of excess.
In 1985, Schwarzenegger starred in Commando – which featured him single-handedly mowing down an army of bad guys with a vast arsenal of weaponry. That same year saw Stallone direct and star in Rocky IV, in which his character triumphed over a chemically-enhanced Soviet boxer. The film upped the spectacle with montages of Stallone training by punching meat in a Siberian cabin, and a climactic fight staged inside a Las Vegas arena.
The one-upmanship continued with Schwarzenegger in 1987’s Predator – facing off against an alien hunter armed with powerful plasma weapons. That year also saw Stallone return as John Rambo in Rambo III – destroying entire villages and tanks with explosive arrows and heavy machine guns.
Both stars were now integral to the concept of the “blockbuster” – action spectacles where creating a visual feast took priority over plot or character development.
As the arms race escalated, each actor’s movies became increasingly bombastic. By the early 1990s Schwarzenegger was battling killer cyborgs from the future (Terminator 2), while Stallone was demolishing a tropical island (Cliffhanger) all in the pursuit of box office glory.
Off-Screen Rivalry
The rivalry between the two extended beyond just their movie projects. Especially in the 1980s, Schwarzenegger and Stallone were constantly vying for supremacy in the public eye and media.
According to reports, Stallone became resentful of Schwarzenegger’s meteoric rise, as he had paved the way with Rocky but was now being overshadowed. At one point, he even lobbied producers to replace Schwarzenegger on sequels to The Terminator and Predator.
Meanwhile, Schwarzenegger loved to recount his triumphant moments over Stallone – like beating him for a role in 1987’s The Running Man. He also made sure to remind people that his films like The Terminator and Predator were far more commercially successful than Stallone’s offerings.
The rivalry defined almost all their major career moves and decisions in the 80s action era. But eventually, both stars mellowed out…
Becoming The Last Action Heroes
By the early 1990s, both Schwarzenegger vs. Sylvester Stallone box office dominance began to slip, as a new wave of action stars like Bruce Willis and Jean Claude Van Damme arrived on the scene.
It was during this period that the old rivals finally buried the hatchet.
At the height of their success, they were too fiercely competitive to collaborate or even co-star in a scene together. But with their glory days fading, the two aging titans started to develop an unexpected friendship.
In 1993, Schwarzenegger made an uncredited cameo appearance in Stallone’s disastrous comedy Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot. They began hanging out socially, with Schwarzenegger even painting a portrait of Stallone to celebrate his wedding.
The once-bitter rivals were now the last remnants of 80s hard body action cinema – a bygone era that that suddenly seemed nostalgic. They were now elder statesmen and close confidants as the industry moved past them.
This friendship endures to the present day, with both Schwarzenegger and Stallone continuing to work regularly despite being in their mid-70s. They are the last larger-than-life icons that recall the testosterone-filled days when brawn, bullets and biceps were all that mattered on the big screen.
And though the glory days of their bitter rivalry are over, that competitive spark undoubtedly fueled them both to achieve more than they dreamed. It propelled their meteoric rise and immortalized them as the biggest action movie stars of all time. I sincerely hope you find this “Schwarzenegger vs. Sylvester Stallone- A Hollywood Rivalry That Changed Their Careers” article helpful.
