Stallone frames the rivalry as a healthy competitive fire that elevated Hollywood action cinema, insisting they are now best friends.
The 'bowl of flowers' incident at the Golden Globes proves this wasn't just professional jealousy; it was personal, physical, and petty.
Stallone, 80, appeared on 'The Rest Is Entertainment' Nov. 5, 2026. He admits to throwing a bowl of flowers at Schwarzenegger, 79, and cites 9 back operations from 'Expendables'.
Two egos, one genre, and a lot of flowers. The feud was real, the damage is permanent, and the friendship is finally official.
Sylvester Stallone is finally opening the vault on his legendary rivalry with Arnold Schwarzenegger, and letโs just say the receipts are floral. During a candid appearance on Thursdayโs episode of "The Rest Is Entertainment" podcast, the 80-year-old action icon admitted that he and the 79-year-old "Terminator" star were "antagonistic" towards each other from the very beginning. It wasnโt just a case of two guys wanting the same paycheck; it was a war for the soul of the action genre.
Stallone recalled the moment he knew Schwarzenegger was "going to be a problem": a series of dirty looks exchanged at the Golden Globes. Stalloneโs response? He threw a bowl of flowers at him.
"I made like I was celebrating, like, 'yay,'" Stallone recounted. "And the gauntlet was thrown, and it was on." This wasnโt just bad blood; it was a productive toxicity that drove the box office. Stallone confessed that he actually enjoyed the contention.
"The madder I made him, the madder he made me, the more we fought to make the next action film โ bigger knife, louder gun, more body count, this and that, better location. It just kept elevating," he said. As they battled it out on screen with hits like "Rambo" and "Commando," the off-screen drama was just as intense.
The source of the tension was simple: both men were physical, competitive, and determined to be the undisputed king of muscle-bound cinema. The rivalry reached such absurd heights that when they co-founded Planet Hollywood in 1991, they reportedly couldnโt stand to be on the same stage for promotions. It took a major life shift to cool the temperature.
The feud was effectively squashed 20 years later, when Schwarzenegger pivoted to politics and won the race for Governor of California in 2003. Stallone described their reconciliation as happening in a cigar shop, where they realized they were no longer direct competitors in the movie business. "Weโre always going to be competitive...
Thatโs the nature of the beast and I enjoy it," Stallone noted, adding that the financial competitiveness is "long gone." While the beef is buried, the physical toll remains. Stallone, who recently promoted the fourth season of "Tulsa King," revealed the brutal cost of his career. Speaking to Fox News Digital, he admitted that his work on 2010โs "The Expendables" left him with nine back operations, three neck fusions, and both shoulders ripped out.
"I think Iโm an idiot for doing that," he said of his stunt-heavy history. "Iโm proud that I broke myself in pieces? Like, duh, no." The two are now good friends, but as Stallone puts it, this kind of two-headed monster in the same genre will "never happen again."
