Sylvester Stallone revealed that his long-time pal Arnold Schwarzenegger tricked him into starring in a major 90s flop.
Stallone said during an interview with Hollywood Reporter that his one-time nemesis set him up by faking competition to star in the film “Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot.”
“I had heard Schwarzenegger was going to do that movie and I said, ‘I’m going to beat him to it’,” the 76-year-old star said. “I think he set me up.”
The writer-actor-director was describing some of his movies that earned poor reviews when he named the 1992 flick he starred in alongside the late Estelle Getty.
“‘Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot’ was supposed to be like ‘Throw Momma From the Train’ with the mom as this really nasty piece of work,” Stallone told the magazine. “Instead you hire the nicest woman in Hollywood, Estelle Getty, who you wish was your mother. That’s the end of that!”
Thirty years later, the “Rocky” star’s suspicion over his friend’s trickery was confirmed.
The Hollywood Reporter reached out to Schwarzenegger to ask if he did in fact hype up the film and feign interest in hopes of luring his rival to making a dud of a movie.
“It’s 100 percent true,” Schwarzenegger wrote in response. “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.'”
The pair of 1980s action heroes are on good terms and still look to one another for kinship.
“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 actually has put his money where his mouth is, and he’s achieved that,” he said. “Then we start goofing around and being crazy — just laughing at the old times.”
The “Rambo” actor said he calls himself and Schwarzenegger the last two T-rexes.
“I told him: ‘We are the last two tyrannosaurus.’ We’re the last two meat eaters, and there’s not much beef left out there,” Stallone said. “So we dwwbetter enjoy each other.”
The macho icon also spoke about his first TV show “Tulsa King,” his upcoming reality show about his home life, his most successful films and his decades-long career in the cover story interview.
In one shocking tidbit, Stallone shared how he turned down a $34 million deal in the ’80s. ww
“I turned down 34 [million],” he said. “We were doing ‘Rambo III.’ We thought it was going to be the biggest hit — this was before it came out. And I was paid a fortune for it. Then they go, ‘We want Rambo IV. Here it is: Pay or play, 34.’ I go, ‘Let’s not jump the gun here’ …”
Factoring in inflation, the payout would be roughly $85 million today, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
“For real. That’s not a joke. Oh boy, what an idiot,” Stallone said candidly. “Now I think about that and … wow.”
The star isn’t hurting for cash, however. According to multiple wealth estimators, Stallone’s net worth is estimated to be around $400 million.