At the Terminator star’s special event promoting his new book at the Royal Albert Hall, Arnold Schwarzenegger talked about how he and Sylvester Stallone went from having a “insane feud” to becoming “best friends”. The 76-year-old former California governor, bodybuilding champion, and Hollywood icon is in the UK to promote his new book, Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life. Additionally, Express.co.uk was present at London’s Royal Albert Hall last night for An Evening with Arnold Schwarzenegger. In front of an audience of over 5,000 people, the legendary actor from Terminator revealed stunning and frequently humorous experiences from his incredible life and career during a Q&A. The story of how Sylvester Stallone and the Austrian Oak transformed from competitive action movie stars in the 1980s to the closest of friends was especially fascinating.
Arnie, pulling off an over-the-top Sly imitation, reminisced about the Rocky and Rambo film releases, acknowledging that “Stallone was always kind of ahead of me” and how the two would compete over box office receipts and toned bodies. Following Stallone’s triumph, Arnold fully committed to the thriller Commando (1985). “Even though I was out of competition at this point, I was training as though I was in a bodybuilding competition because I wanted people to see a real body,” he revealed. Who has the least amount of body fat has become a contest. Who appears to have more muscle on screen? Who takes more lives? Who wins more money in ticket sales? Who’s holding the larger gun? I received a machine gun that I can only use on tanks and helicopters when he got a machine gun! “After that, it turned into a contest to see who could kill the most people on screen.
I had to kill about 70 guys in Commando since he killed about 50. Who then killed with greater creativity and ferocity? And thus the completion proceeded. It was crazy! It became so intensely competitive that we began to plot ways to pull each other off course. Arnie received a “sh***y” screenplay for the film Stop! Or my Mom Will Shoot in the early 1990s. He was informed by the people behind the film that Sly would do it if he didn’t want to, since it seemed like he wanted to. Arnold was hatching a plan when he stated, “Tell them I’m really interested in it,” which got Stallone really interested in it even if he wasn’t. The star of Terminator grinned broadly and said, “I was thrilled that Sly completed the movie, even though it ended up in the toilet!” However, Arnie was given the chance to finally put the hatchet to rest at this time, when he was considering partnering on the new Planet Hollywood restaurants.
