Actor Sylvester Stallone reflects on his friendship with Arnold Schwarzenegger and how their previous rivalry helped to motivate him to do more.

Sylvester Stallone has opened up about his former feud and current friendship with fellow action star Arnold Schwarzenegger, and how their rivalry acts as a motivation.

Stallone and Schwarzenegger first met at the 1977 Golden Globe ceremony, the catalyst for a 20-year rivalry that involved attacking one another in the press and trying to one-up each other’s action movies.

In recent times, however, Stallone and Schwarzenegger have put the past behind them, even starring in The Expendables 2 and The Expendables 3 together.

Speaking with Entertainment Tonight, Stallone reflected on his prior feud and newfound friendship with Schwarzenegger.

He talked about how their rivalry helped motivate him to work harder, saying he appreciates having had Schwarzenegger as an enemy. Check out what Stallone had to say below:

“I try to find laughs when they’re not in abundance. Sometimes it gets a little irritating and people tell me, shut up.

It’s like with me and Arnold. We have this caustic sense of humor, and we go at each other nonstop. I almost covet a good enemy. He really brings out the best of you.

[Back in the day], we couldn’t breathe the same air. But that made us work harder. And then we eventually realized we’re pretty much cut from the same cloth — even though his cloth is more like itchy wool. I’m like silk.”

Sylvester Stallone & Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Feud-Turned-Friendship Explained

During the decades Stallone and Schwarzenegger were feuding, the pair would continuously mock one another in the media, lie about each other, and insult each other within the films they made.

This included Stallone writing in a rival for Rocky in Rocky IV that was reminiscent of Schwarzenegger and Schwarzenegger mocking Rambo in the film Twins. However, their strife ended in the ’90s after the star power of both actors began to fade.

Stallone and Schwarzenegger later starred together in The Expendables films and 2013’s Escape Plan.

Their acting careers have also taken similar paths as of late, with both seasoned action stars now leading TV series for different streaming platforms.

Stallone currently stars as Dwight Manfredi in Tulsa King, a crime drama on Paramount+ about Dwight’s criminal operations for the New York Mafia in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Schwarzenegger leads FUBAR, a Netflix action comedy about CIA operative Luke Brunner trying to better connect with his daughter. Both series have been renewed for season 2.

Stallone’s comments about his former feud with Schwarzenegger underscore how it’s become a thing of the past for him, even exhibiting some appreciation for it.

Because the duo was able to put the past behind them, it helped shape The Expendables franchise while also opening the door for other possibilities in the future.

It seems that with the pair’s new trajectory in TV thanks to Tulsa King and FUBAR, Stallone and Schwarzenegger’s career paths are still similar all these years later.