Sylvester Stallone Still Refuses To Work With One Actor After Their Brawl
Sylvester Stallone still refuses to work with Richard Gere after brawling during pre-production on The Lords of Flatbush.
Sylvester Stallone and Richard Gere are two of the biggest stars in all of Hollywood, with one of them anchoring two of the most successful franchises of the last forty years in Rocky and Rambo, and the other becoming one of the top heartthrobs of the nineties. While they are two of the biggest stars and seem to be perfect to co-star in a film together, they refuse to star in a movie together due to multiple altercations. According to The Things, their feud is still running strong today, and Stallone still refuses to work with the actor.
According to legend, Sylvester Stallone and Richard Gere were to star in a film in 1973 called The Lords of Flatbush, with Gere signed on as the protagonist. During a lunch break in the back of a Toyota, Stallone was eating a corndog when Gere entered the car with a half chicken, which dripped on the Expendables actor’s thigh. Stallone struck Gere and threw him out of the vehicle, causing the studio to have to decide on one of the actors to stay and the other to go.
Sylvester Stalone eventually stayed on the film while Richard Gere was sent packing, causing the rivalry to begin. The next step in their adversarial relationship consisted of a rumor that the An Officer and a Gentleman actor was rushed to a hospital to have an emergency procedure to remove a gerbil from his rectum. While Stallone denies his involvement, Gere believes it was him that started the rumor that caused him to stop reading the news.
The rivalry continued following a very public breakup between none other than Princess Diana and Prince Charles when Sylvester Stallone and Richard Gere both chased after the newly single royal. During a party for Elton John, Stallone found Gere getting chummy with the royal and takes exception to the interference with his plans to woo Diana. The two eventually were found outside by Elton John about to come to blows, and the singer had to break them up before Stallone left.
Decades later, the two have followed very different career paths while becoming equally iconic in their own ways, with Sylvester Stallone becoming one of the most popular action stars of all time alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Chuck Norris. Richard Gere went a different direction by becoming known for his heartthrob appearances in romcoms like An Officer and a Gentleman and Pretty Woman. Now that they have established two of the most iconic careers, it has been fortunate that they appear primarily in separate genres, so crossing paths have been easily avoidable.
While Sylvester Stallone has a franchise that would be perfect for Richard Gere as one of the many retro appearances in The Expendables, it seems the two are dedicated to keeping their distance. Hollywood is a place where personalities run free, and creative people are known for their personalities; because of that, it is only natural that some won’t gel. And out of all rivalries in Tinsletown, the one between these two is one of the strongest and longest-running.
