Arnold Schwarzenegger lured Sylvester Stallone into making a box office flop
Good actors always rely on their judgement to lure them to important roles. As much as some people might like to come to a film strictly to cash a paycheck, it takes an auteur to look at a script, story, and message before committing to the role. When Sylvester Stallone was starting out, though, his intuition began to lead him astray.
After making hits like Rocky and Rambo, Stallone was also raking in a fair bit of negative press, including holding the record for being nominated for 13 Razzie Awards. When talking to The Hollywood Reporter, Stallone mentioned that he tried to give the critics a taste of their own medicine back in the day. He explained: “I said things about critics like, ‘Let them try to do it.’ I said I love critiques, but now tell me how to make it better in the same paragraph. ‘That’s not our job.’ Well, that’s like going up to a child and going, ‘You’re a horrible child!’ and then you walk out of the room”.
As Stallone gained more experience, he started to understand when some of his projects were beginning to go south. When his movie failed out of the gate during opening weekend, Stallone mentioned understanding that the line of questions would be different. For instance, if all the press wanted to talk about on the red carpet was what his next project was, that meant that things weren’t looking too great for the current effort he was promoting.
In an era filled with men of his physique, Stallone did admit to seeing some roles as a challenge for himself, wanting to beat some of his fellow muscular counterparts to the punch on huge roles. While the method had briefly worked, Stallone got outsmarted by the Terminator when looking at his next big role.
Upon being offered the script for Stop! Or Mom Will Shoot, Stallone didn’t do the same prepping as his colleagues. Instead of looking through the script, Stallone took the project on because he thought Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted the role as well, remembering: “I had heard Schwarzenegger was going to do that movie, and I said, ‘I’m going to beat him to it.’ I think he set me up”.
Looking back, Stallone does even attempt to defend the movie. While the synopsis may have landed fine, he thought the casting was all wrong. He said: “[That] was supposed to be like Throw Momma From the Train with the mom as this really nasty piece of work. Instead, you hire the nicest woman in Hollywood, Estelle Getty, who you wish was your mother. That’s the end of that!”.
Years later, Schwarzenegger admitted that ‘The Italian Stallion’ may have had a point about him setting Stallone up. After reaching out, Schwarzenegger endorsed setting Stallone up, recalling, “It’s 100% true. In those days, we did all kinds of crazy things to get ahead in our rivalry. Luckily for us and everyone else, today, we root for each other. Thank God, because we sure don’t ever need another Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot”.
Despite Stallone being side-swiped by Schwarzenegger, he always had the utmost respect for him, saying that he could have never done justice to The Terminator franchise as he could. These days, Stallone almost sees his former rival as a friend, often getting together to talk about life: “Arnold’s very wise, and he loves to talk about philosophies which have got him to where he is. It’s good to talk to a man who has put his money where his mouth is, and he’s achieved that”.
