Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone didn’t see eye to eye in their initial days in the entertainment industry.

Both great action stars have impacted cinema in their own ways and are now the best of friends.

Stallone and Schwarzenegger have shared the screen in films like The Expandables and Escape Plan. 

But their friendship did not start out strong. Theirs is a classic tale of friends to foes.

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone Hated One Another
Sylvester Stallone
Two greats seldom agree. The legendary action heroes of Hollywood, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone are no exception.

The two were each other’s biggest rivals back in the day. Their battles at the box office were heated and Schwarzenegger and Stallone couldn’t stand each other.

They were fighting for the crown of the best in their genre. Butting heads to prove their superiority over the other. All to become the best there in the world.

They were too similar in ways that they didn’t particularly like the other. Stallone spoke of their feuds from back in the 90s. In an interview with Forbes saying:

 “We despised each other tremendously. We were… this may sound a little vain, but I believe we were pioneering a kind of genre at the time that hasn’t really been seen since.

So, because it’s in his character, he’s highly competitive, as am I… and I simply felt that helped, but off-screen we were still competing, which was not healthy.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger
Schwarzenegger and Stallone were kind of like the same poles in their initial days. Similar to the extent of repulsion. As the Rocky star explained on The Jonathan Ross Show:

“We couldn’t stand to be in the same galaxy together for a while. We absolutely despised each other.”

Interestingly, the pair didn’t take long for the nemesis to turn into the best of pals.

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone’s Friendship
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone
With time, Schwarzenegger and Stallone had immense success, and their feud subsided. In other words, their hatred for the other was changed into friendly affection.

They starred in multiple movies and seeing them together on the silver screen was a delight for the viewers.

However, it is not hard to imagine that if the stars had not gotten along so well, their lack of chemistry would not have been missed by keen-eyed audiences and ultimately affected the film.

Good thing that didn’t happen. Stallone and Schwarzenegger became best buddies. They eventually got along really well.

Sharing a sense of humor, working in the same industry, hating each other’s guts for years only to discover your archnemesis is not all that bad is a great recipe to have a friendship like Stallone and Schwarzenegger.