Sylvester Stallone used his old rivalry with Arnold Schwarzenegger to explain the uneasy alliance between two mob bosses on Tulsa King.
“We’re good friends now. We’ve gotten mellow,” the 80-year-old said at PaleyFest NY on Oct. 10, according to PEOPLE.
Frank Grillo had been discussing the mistrust between his Bill Bevilaqua and Stallone’s Dwight Manfredi. Stallone said adversaries can still respect one another and push each other to improve.
The Paley Museum event featured an advance screening of the fourth-season premiere and a cast discussion. Stallone and executive producer Terence Winter also accepted a PaleyFest Award for the series.
Their Competition Reached From the Golden Globes to Casting
During their 2024 joint interview for TMZ Presents: Arnold & Sly: Rivals, Friends, Icons, the actors revisited the 1977 Golden Globes. Stallone acknowledged throwing a bouquet toward Schwarzenegger’s side of the table when Rocky won best picture. Schwarzenegger, who won a newcomer award for Stay Hungry, recalled their competition intensifying afterward.
Schwarzenegger also described manipulating Stallone’s interest in the 1992 comedy Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot. He said he and his agent pretended to be enthusiastic about the script, expecting the possibility of losing the role to him to make Stallone more interested.
He even contacted director Roger Spottiswoode. “You talked to my director?” Stallone asked when Schwarzenegger disclosed that call, according to PEOPLE’s coverage of the special. Stallone ultimately starred opposite Estelle Getty as a police officer whose visiting mother becomes involved in his work.
A Shared Lawyer Helped Bring Them Together at Planet Hollywood
Schwarzenegger traced their reconciliation to a proposal from a lawyer they both used. In a June 2025 interview with Andy Cohen on SiriusXM’s Radio Andy, he recalled the lawyer asking whether Stallone could join the Planet Hollywood restaurant venture.
He welcomed the idea as a way to move past their hostility. “At that point I had grown out of my craziness,” Schwarzenegger said, according to PEOPLE.
Planet Hollywood was established in 1991. Schwarzenegger later recalled on The Graham Norton Show that traveling together to promote the restaurants helped the two get to know one another, away from competing movie releases.
Schwarzenegger Made His First ‘Expendables’ Appearance as a Favor
Schwarzenegger was still governor of California when he filmed his cameo in Stallone’s 2010 movie The Expendables. “I did it as a favor to Sly,” he told Parade in a May 2023 interview.
He said the scene took two hours to shoot on a Saturday, inside a church with Bruce Willis. Schwarzenegger returned for a weekend of filming on the 2012 sequel, then took an expanded role in the third installment in 2014.
Between those sequels, he and Stallone shared leading roles in 2013’s Escape Plan. Stallone played Ray Breslin, a prison-security specialist trapped inside a secret facility, while Schwarzenegger’s fellow inmate Emil Rottmayer helped him attempt a breakout.
When Schwarzenegger decided against returning for the fourth Expendables, released in 2023, he told Stallone before production began. He said his friend understood the decision.
For Stallone’s 78th birthday on July 6, 2024, Schwarzenegger shared photographs that included the pair carving pumpkins and attending a Planet Hollywood event. In the accompanying message, also published on his official website, he wrote, “You are a champion and a legend. You inspire me and billions of people around the world.”