Sylvester Stallone Admits He 'Hated' Arnold Schwarzenegger Back in the 1980s: 'I Think Hate's a Good Word'

Nowadays, Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger might be on more cordial terms with one another. But back in the 1980s, the two actors were embroiled in one of the most epic and storied feuds in the entire entertainment industry at the time.

Appearing in a 2014 interview with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show, Stallone was asked point blank about his feelings for the Terminator star, especially when compared to the bitter outlook each celebrity had for one another in the '80s.

"And Schwarzenegger, I read that you guys actually hated each other for a little while," Fallon remarked.

"Well, we were very competitive. Yeah, I think hate's a good word," Stallone explained, triggering audience laughter. "Did you ever hate someone so much you go, 'I got to [beat] them.' A musician will go, 'Oh, I hate this guy. I'm going to blow him away at the next audition.'"

After Fallon compared their relationship to the Beatles and Rolling Stones, Stallone commented that their feud was a bit more intense, in spite of his unwavering appreciation for Schwarzenegger's professional accomplishments.

"I really respect this guy. I think he's brilliant," Stallone said of the Conan the Barbarian actor. "What he's done, what he's accomplished, he's had three different careers. But I want to strangle him. I did."

On that same thread, Fallon made the observation that the two action heavyweights seemed to hand in similarly-veined movies around the same time as one another, using Stallone's Rambo and Schwarzenegger's follow-up Commando as an example.

Humorously, Stallone also admitted that Schwarzenegger sometimes tricked him into taking movies he knew would bomb at the box office, including the critically panned 1992 action comedy, Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot.

"Here's the thing. People play on your insecurities, [like] when your agent goes, 'Psst, you got to do this movie, you got to do this movie, Arnold's going to do it,'" the Rocky star said. "'I'm telling you, if you don't do this thing, Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, he's in.'"

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This story was originally published May 21, 2026 at 6:20 AM.