Sylvester Stallone reflects on his 20-year feud with Arnold Schwarzenegger and says 'we were at each other's throats big time'

Sylvester Stallone says his 20-year feud with Arnold Schwarzenegger 'wasn't a joke. It was like life and death.'

The big screen action men were rivals for years as they competed for roles, awards and Hollywood status.

The pair eventually made amends in the nineties, and are now close friends and co-stars in the hit Expendables franchise.

But Sylvester, 80, has reflected on their feud, insisting that it wasn't exaggerated for cameras.  

'We were at each other's throats, big time. It wasn't a joke. It was like life and death,' the actor has admitted. 'We should have been together in the Roman Colosseum.'

Sylvester added though that he and Arnie, 79, quickly worked out they could use the feud to their advantage as they climbed the ranks in Hollywood.

'It's like when one fighter insults the other, he's going to train so much to put a beating on the other. We needed each other, absolutely,' he told The Sunday Times Magazine.

The pair's rivalry went all the way back to January 1977, when Arnie and Sly were both seated at the same table during the Golden Globe Awards.

Arnold was awarded Best Acting Debut for his 1976 film Stay Hungry, which he was 'gloating' about, while Sylvester was up for several awards for Rocky.

Sylvester revealed in a 2017 interview with Variety that he saw Arnie laughing when he lost Best Actor, but Sly got the last laugh when Rocky won Best Picture.

'Finally it was Rocky, Best Picture, I managed to grab this giant bowl of flowers and heave it in his direction, and I went, OK, the gauntlet is down,' he said.

He added: 'This began a 10-year battle royale. I mean, we couldn't stand to be in the same galaxy.'

Appearing in Sylvester's 2023 Netflix documentary, Arnie laughed about how he and his fellow buff movie star 'were like little kids' with beef.

He recalled on camera: 'We were like little kids. Who uses bigger knives? Who uses the biggest guns and holds them in one arm? Who has more muscles, who has more muscle definition, who has less body fat?'

'All of a sudden he was ripped with muscles and everyone [was] talking about his body,' Arnold added. 'And so that created competition of course.' 

Last year Arnie revealed how the feud came to an end. Speaking on Radio Andy, he told host Andy Cohen that it was their partnership in the restaurant chain Planet Hollywood that truly brought them together.

When host Cohen asked how they buried the proverbial hatchet, Schwarzenegger said: 'It was Planet Hollywood. It was actually Planet Hollywood.'

'We were kind of like attacking each other, doing nasty things, saying nasty things about each other and all these stupid things,' the former California governor admitted.

'And then all of a sudden, I started working with Robert Earl and Keith Barish to create the Planet Hollywood franchise, and the next thing I know, I get a call from my lawyer, who was also Sly's lawyer, and he said, "Arnold, is there any kind of room for Sly on Planet Hollywood?" he recalled.

The actor added, 'I said, "That's actually a good idea,"  because that could bring us together, and I wanted that. At that point I had grown out of my crazyness. So, sure enough, we made it work.'