When you think of Hollywood’s biggest action stars, two names that surely come to mind are Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
These two led many of the biggest blockbuster hits of the ’80s and ’90s, with a star power that no one has really matched since.
They’re a unique breed, and their status as two of Hollywood’s biggest tough-guy stars has led them to form a friendship over their decades-long careers.
In a recent interview, Stallone opened up about his friendship with Schwarzenegger, comparing them to “last two tyrannosaurus.”
“The last two tyrannosaurus”
In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Stallone said he still keeps in touch with his Expendables co-star Arnold Schwarzenegger. While fans might associate the Austrian-born Terminator star with his movie catchphrases and one-liners, Sly says Arnie is wise with words.
“Arnold’s very wise and he loves to talk about philosophies which have got him to where he is,” Stallone told the Hollywood Reporter. “It’s good to talk to a man who actually has put his money where his mouth is, and he’s achieved that.”
Stallone says that when they’re not talking philosophy, they’re “goofing around and being crazy,” and “laughing at the old times.”
Stallone, 76, says he called himself and Schwarzenegger, 75, “the last two tyrannosaurus.”
“We’re the last two meat eaters, and there’s not much beef left out there. So we better enjoy each other,” Stallone said.
While both men continue to act in blockbusters, they’re both past their days as Hollywood’s biggest draws. The industry has also moved past the kinds of star-driven action vehicles Sly and Arnie used to star in, in favor of superhero franchises.
While Stallone has appeared in comic book movies like The Suicide Squad and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, he said the genre never suited him: “I don’t look like any comic book character,” he said.
It is beginning to feel like Stallone and Schwarzenegger are the last veterans of a different era of Hollywood — especially after the news that Die Hard icon Bruce Willis was retiring after being diagnosed with aphasia.
“Bruce is going through some really, really difficult times,” Stallone told the Hollywood Reporter. “So he’s been sort of incommunicado. That kills me. It’s so sad.”
Former Hollywood rivals
So it’s not surprising that Stallone and Schwarzenegger have formed a camaraderie in recent years — even though they used to be bitter rivals.
Stallone once said the two had a “violent hatred” towards each other dating back to the 1970s: “even our DNA hated each other.”
“After a while, I started to like this competition, this one-upmanship,” Stallone said in an interview with David Letterman, per ScreenRant. “He’d get a bigger gun. I’d shoot more people. He’d shoot more people.”
Recently, the stars confirmed one long-standing rumor about their rivalry — how Arnie tricked him into starring in one of his most notorious flops, the comedy Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot.
While both were mainly action stars, Schwarzenegger began having success in comedy films like Twins. When he was offered Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot!, he wasn’t at all impressed with the script — but tricked his rival Stallone into signing on by pretending to be interested.
“I had heard Schwarzenegger was going to do that movie and I said, ‘I’m going to beat him to it,'” Stallone told the Hollywood Reporter. “I think he set me up.”
“It’s 100 percent true,” Schwarzenegger confirmed in an email. “In those days we did all kinds of crazy things to get ahead in our rivalry.”
But in later years, as their star power cooled down, so did their rivalry. The two are now friends, and co-starred in films like The Expendables and Escape Plan.
“Luckily for us and everyone else, today, we root for each other,” Schwarzenegger said. “Thank God, because we sure don’t ever need another Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot.”
Sly and Arnie: careers today
While they’re no longer Hollywood’s most bankable A-list stars, Stallone and Schwarzenegger are both still hard at work.
Schwarzenegger’s Hollywood career famously took a backseat to politics: he was Governor of California from 2003 to 2011. His films since returning to show biz include the Expendables series, Escape Plan (co-starring Stallone), and two sequels in the Terminator franchise: Terminator Genisys and Terminator: Dark Fate.
Stallone has also continued working in Hollywood. He returned to the role of John Rambo in 2008’s Rambo and 2019’s Rambo: Last Blood. He also reprised the role of Rocky Balboa in the Rocky spin-off franchise Creed, receiving an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor in the first film.
However, he will not be involved with the upcoming Creed III, which is being helmed by series star Michael B. Jordan.
“That’s a regretful situation because I know what it could have been,” Stallone told the Hollywood Reporter. “It was taken in a direction that is quite different than I would’ve taken it.”
Still, Stallone has plenty on his plate. He will appear in next year’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, reprising his role from Vol. 2, and will also star in the upcoming Expendables 4.
He’s had quite a long and successful career, and holds the distinction as the only actor in the history of American cinema to have starred in a box office number one film across six consecutive decades, ranging from the original Rocky to last year’s The Suicide Squad.
He’s also starring in the new series Tulsa King, starring as a mob boss. The show premieres on Paramount+ on November 13.
He might be one of “the last tyrannosaurus,” but he’s not a fossil yet.
Stallone and Schwarzenegger are two of the biggest stars in Hollywood history, and there’s never been anyone quite like them.
We’re glad to see these former rivals are such good friends, and are still going strong all these decades later.
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