Young Sylvester Stallone Idolized the Same “Ridiculously Handsome” Character That Inspired Arnold Schwarzenegger to Pursue Bodybuilding

Once the biggest rivals of their time, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone became the best of friends. The tale of the seven-times Mr. Olympia and the iconic action hero is quite interesting and fun. In the early days of their careers, both legends used to hate each other. Schwarzenegger transitioned from being a star bodybuilder to an actor after the release of the “Pumping Iron” documentary, landing the lead role in, “Conan the Barbarian.” He gained impeccable popularity after the release of “The Terminator.”

However, just like in bodybuilding contests, Arnie had to face tough competition in showbiz. Alongside Arnold, another star was rising in the Hollywood industry, and he also had a passion for action-oriented films- it’s none other than Sylvester Stallone. The rivalry between these two legends is still at the top of the charts.

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone were inspired by the same iconic character

Their competition was evident, they even used to compete against each other on how many people they had killed in their movies. Moreover, besides competition, there’s one thing that was similar to them, and that was their role model while growing up who inspired them to become the people they are. As many individuals know, Arnold Schwarzenegger was inspired by Hercules (Reg Park); similarly, Stallone was also inspired by the Hercules (Steeve Reeves) character and idolized him to become a movie star himself.

In his recently released documentary “Sly,” Stallone opened up about his childhood and mentioned that he used to watch movies a lot in the theatre, no matter what movie but he watched them all. Stallone mentioned in the doc film, “I would sit there and do things all day in the mirror, whether it be imitation.. while someone is singing, I’m lip-syncing. or go see a movie like Hercules, and I’d come back and try to imitate Steve Reeves.”

“The moment in Hercules unchained when he steps up, and he pulls the temples down, and this.. ridiculously handsome, well-built, perfect male role model.. that did it. I go, there it is, that’s the road.” Cause I finally had a role model that I Idolized,” said Rambo. He admired the hard work and the triumph of good over evil. Arnie was motivated to build his body like the Reg Park’s; he was also Mr. Universe before becoming an actor, which influenced Arnold to pursue his career in bodybuilding and then acting. However, the story of their rivalry is interesting, but their friendship is also an intriguing event.

An investment led to a thaw in their relationship

In the late 1990s, the feud between the two action stars was at its peak. They both invested in the restaurant chain Planet Hollywood and because of this investment, they had to travel together for the openings. This situation sparked a friendship between them.

Moving forward, earlier, during Stallone’s documentary, talking about that time, Arnold mentioned, “Sly all of a sudden, with Rambo, he stepped into my arena. All of a sudden he was ripped, and muscles, and everyone was talking about his body. And so that created competition, of course.”

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Schwarzenegger reminisced about the height of their rivalry and said,

“We were movie rivals, but we took the competitiveness to the extreme – we each had to have the best body, we had to kill more people in our films, and we had to have the biggest guns. It got out of control, and we tried to derail each other.”  What do you think of these iconic actors and their feud? Share your thoughts.

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