Arnold Schwarzenegger Admits He Once Tricked Sylvester Stallone Into Doing Movie That Would Flop Amidst Their Bitter Rivalry

Throughout the 1980s, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone engaged in an intense rivalry as they battled it out to be the top action star in Hollywood. The rivalry escalated as they fought for the best scripts, the best body, the biggest guns and the most kills per movie.

In a new interview, Schwarzenegger is admitting that he once tricked Stallone into doing a movie that he knew would be a flop, just to gain the upper hand over him in their Hollywood war.

In the upcoming special  “TMZ Presents Arnold & Sly: Rivals, Friends, Icons,” Schwarzenegger and Stallone open up about their rivalry-turned-friendship like never before. Daily Mail reported that it’s in this special that Schwarzenegger, 76, revealed how he managed to trick Stallone, 77, into starring in the 1992 critical disaster buddy cop action comedy Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, costarring Estelle Getty of “Golden Girls” fame.

After realizing that the movie would be a flop, Scharzenegger and his agent hatched a plan to dupe Stallone into starring in it. The plan involved Schwarnegger’s agent calling up Stallone’s and lying to him that the Terminator star was eager to play the lead in the upcoming film, even going on to talk to the movie’s director Roger Spottiswoode.

“So my agent [told Stallone’s agent], “Arnold is talking to Roger Spottiswoode. And he’s really into it. I think we’re going to take the project,”‘ Schwarzenegger recalled.

“And, then of course, his agent, knowing he’s competitive with me — he can’t let that happen,” he continued. “And so he then called the studio right away, ‘Look, you’ve got to give this to Sly! Don’t give it to Schwarzenegger. Give it to Sly.'”

“And they said, ‘Fine,'” he added. “Sly got it and then he got the movie so I was, of course, in absolute heaven because I felt like the only way I could catch up with him is if he has a stumble.”

Stallone was visibly shocked by this revelation.

“Oh my God, oh my God,” he said repeatedly throughout the story, questioning at the end of it, “Can you get more Machiavellian?”

Check out this full exchange in the video below.

Related: Arnold Schwarzenegger ‘Very, Very Proud’ Of Son-In-Law Chris Pratt

Stallone Slams Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot!

Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot was widely eviscerated by critics, and Stallone ultimately received the worst actor trophy at the Golden Raspberry Awards for his role as Sergeant Joseph Andrew Bomowski. Stallone has been open in the past about how much he despises the film, previously describing it as “the worst film I’ve ever made by far”.

“I made some truly awful movies,” Stallone once said, according to Far Out Magazine. “Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot was the worst. If you ever want someone to confess to murder, just make him or her sit through that film. They will confess to anything after 15 minutes.”

“Maybe one of the worst films in the entire solar system, including alien productions we’ve never seen… A flatworm could write a better script than Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot,” he added. “In some countries — China, I believe — running Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot once a week on government television has lowered the birth rate to zero.”

Related: Sylvester Stallone’s Daughters Say He Makes It ‘Nearly Impossible’ For Them To Date

Schwarzenegger And Stallone Become Friends

Thankfully, Schwarzenegger and Stallone were able to mend their rivalry in the early 1990s, when they joined Bruce Willis in becoming investors in the themed restaurant chain Planet Hollywood.

“When we both invested in Planet Hollywood, we started flying around the world together to promote it and we became fantastic friends,” Schwarzenegger gushed. “He is a great human being and we are now inseparable.”

To find out more about their bond, tune in to “TMZ Presents Arnold & Sly: Rivals, Friends, Icons” at 8pm tonight on Fox. It will then stream on Hulu starting on Wednesday.