Sylvester Stallone reflects on ‘very contentious’ Arnold Schwarzenegger feud: ‘The gauntlet was thrown’

Sylvester Stallone candidly discussed the origins of his decades-long feud with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Stallone 80, said he and Schwarzenegger, 79, were “antagonistic” towards one another from the start during his appearance on Thursday’s episode of “The Rest Is Entertainment” podcast. Their beef stemmed from them both wanting to be the leader in the action genre.

He recalled knowing that Schwarzenegger was “going to be a problem” when he said the “Terminator” star gave him dirty looks when they saw each other at the Golden Globes one year. At their next meeting, Stallone boldly threw a bowl of flowers at him.

“I made like I was celebrating, like, ‘yay,” he explained. “And the gauntlet was thrown, and it was on.”

Stallone said his rival was naturally antagonistic, and that both were physical and liked to challenge one another. As they battled at the box office with hits like “Rambo” and “Commando,” they also had bad blood off-screen as well.

“It was very contentious, trust me, which I enjoyed,” Stallone stressed. “Because the madder i made him, the madder he made me, the more we fought to make the next action film — bigger knife, louder gun, more body count, this and that, better location. It just kept elevating.”

The father of five said their competitiveness was so intense that when they were part of the group of celebrity founders and investors to launch the restaurant chain Planet Hollywood in 1991, they couldn’t stand to be on the same stage as one another to do promotion.

Their feud was only squashed 20 years later, when Schwarzenegger entered politics and ran for Governor of California in 2003 — which he won.

He recalled running into Schwarzenegger at a cigar shop and said he buried the hatchet between the two, noting they were no longer competitors in the movie business. He said they had a cigar together, and to this day, remain very good friends.

“We’re always going to be competitive,” he said. “That’s the nature of the beast and I enjoy it.”

He added, “We’re not as financially competitive anymore … that’s long gone.”

“It’s something that’ll never happen again, where you have two actors in the same genre, literally going for it – on-screen, off-screen,” he concluded.

Meanwhile, the actor also recently opened up about the physical toll of his decades-long Hollywood career while promoting the fourth season of “Tulsa King.”

In a interview with Fox News Digital, Stallone revealed that his work on 2010’s “The Expendables” left him with serious injuries to his back, neck and shoulders.

“I have been injured many, many times, but after ‘Expendables,’ I ended up with nine back operations, three neck fusions. Both shoulders ripped out. It’s been brutal,” he said.

“I think I’m an idiot for doing that,” he admitted, of his long history of doing stunts in movies. “I’m proud that I broke myself in pieces? Like, duh, no.”