Sylvester Stallone has discussed his historic rivalry with Arnold Schwarzenegger, saying that they used to “dislike each other immensely”.

The two actors were box office titans in the 1980s and 1990s through various action franchises, including Rambo, Rocky, Conan The Barbarian, Predator and The Terminator.

In an interview with Forbes, Stallone explained their shared experience as action stars however is the reason they weren’t friends off-screen at the time, before they came together on films like The Expendables and 2013’s Escape Plan.

“We really disliked each other immensely because we were… this may sound a little vain, but I think we were pioneering a kind of genre at that time and it hasn’t been since really,” Stallone said.

“So the competition, because it’s his nature, he is very competitive and so am I… and I just thought it actually helped, but off-screen we were still competitive and that was not a healthy thing at all, but we’ve become really good friends.”

Stallone recently debuted his new Paramount+ series Tulsa King, a crime drama created by Taylor Sheridan (Yellowstone). He’ll also reprise his role as Stakar Ogord in Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3, set to be released on May 5, 2023.

Schwarzenegger is set to make his first scripted TV series in upcoming Netflix drama Utap, which started filming earlier this year. His next film role is martial arts comedy sequel Kung Fury 2, where he stars alongside Michael Fassbender and director David Sandberg.

Earlier this year, Schwarzenegger appeared as Zeus in a SuperBowl advert for BMW alongside Salma Hayek.