Arnold Schwarzenegger Admits He Took a Role He Hated for $30M, Outearning Stallone

On the 2 Bears, 1 Cave podcast, Arnold Schwarzenegger said he only agreed to suit up as Mr. Freeze in 1997’s Batman & Robin — opposite George Clooney — after the studio hiked the offer to $30 million. He’d initially turned it down because he didn’t want to play the villain, but the paycheck — and a chance to leapfrog Sylvester Stallone — changed his mind.

“I’m like, Jesus Christ, I can’t catch up, there was always some number bigger than mine,” he said. “Then I did Batman and Robin where I got $30 million, they really wanted me for the movie but I didn’t want to play the villain. They said, ‘$25 million is petty cash, what’s the matter with you guys?’”

Schwarzenegger called the move a little payback in their longtime game of one‑upmanship.

“This was kind of my way to pay back for all the tortures over the years that he got more than I did,”

he said.

• Early on, Schwarzenegger earned about $1 million for the second Conan film while Stallone pulled in $5 million on another project.
• Schwarzenegger later hit $10 million for Total Recall, only to see Stallone top it with a reported $15 million deal.

Stallone’s side of the rivalry

Stallone has been just as blunt about how intense it got — saying the two “loathed” each other at the height of it — and he’s accused Schwarzenegger of baiting him into a dud. On ITV’s The Jonathan Ross Show, Stallone said he got hustled into making Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot after hearing Schwarzenegger was eager to do it.

“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.’”

The 1992 comedy was a critical and commercial flop. Decades later, the two action stars say the feud is long over — they’re friends now, and they tend to laugh about the tricks they pulled trying to beat each other.