Two-decade feud over: Sylvester Stallone makes peace with Arnold Schwarzenegger

On the latest episode of The Rest Is Entertainment podcast, Sylvester Stallone said the ice finally cracked with Arnold Schwarzenegger when Arnold left acting to run for governor of California in 2003. Until then, Stallone said, the rivalry was so fierce they wouldn’t even appear on the same stage to present together.

“I said, enough of this. We’re not in competition. He was not doing movies anymore. All right. Thank you very much for waking me up, lighting a fire under me. And he felt the same way.”

Stallone looked back on the ‘80s and ‘90s as a two-decade arms race — bigger box-office, bigger muscles, even bigger on-screen body counts — that hardened into a real rift. Schwarzenegger’s pivot to politics, he said, made the feud feel pointless and opened the door to a truce.

From rivals to co-stars

Once Schwarzenegger’s time in office ended, the détente moved from talk to action. He returned to the big screen with Stallone, and the pair kept teaming up through the mid-2010s.

• The Expendables (2010)
• The Expendables 2 (2012)
• Escape Plan (2013)
• The Expendables 3 (2014)

A viral show of support

The friendship was on full display after Stallone’s unexpected Best Supporting Actor loss at the 2016 Academy Awards, when Schwarzenegger posted a video to lift him up.

“Sly, just remember: No matter what they say, to me, you are the best. You were the winner. I’m proud of you.”

Stallone has been just as vocal in return, often calling Schwarzenegger a strategic “genius” who cracked three industries — bodybuilding, movies and politics — and crediting Arnold’s drive with pushing him to raise his own game.