Before Sylvester Stallone played an underdog boxer in Rocky, he wanted to take down Richard Gere.
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As Page Six reports, the argument took place on the set of the 1974 movie The Lords of Flatbush. The film, starring Stallone and Henry Winkler, follows a group of leather-clad teenagers in Brooklyn.
Sylvester Stallone and Richard Gere Did Not Get Along
In his new book, The Steps, the 80-year-old Stallone details what happened between him and Gere.
Stallone wrote that their resentment began during the audition process. The Rocky star alleged that Gere grabbed his T-shirt and his fingernails dug into his skin.
"I told him to back off, but he did it again on the second take. He couldn't have known, but Gere had begun to stir the emotional cauldron inside me," Stallone wrote.
Afterward, Stallone asked the film's director, Stephen F. Verona, if he could ad-lib and "react the way [he] would actually react if someone did that to [him] in real life." He said he would have knocked Gere's teeth out.
"Please don't," Verona replied.
Things Got Worse Between the Two Actors
When filming began, Stallone said that during a lunch break Gere spilled chicken grease onto his leg. That set Stallone off.
"I elbowed him across the chest, got out of the car, came around to his side, and pulled him out of the back seat," the actor wrote.
Gere replied in what Stallone describes as a "thin voice," "Hey, man, I don't want to get physical."
Verona broke things up, placing himself in front of Gere.
"It was clear to everyone that this wasn't working," Stallone wrote. "One of us had to go." Actor Perry King replaced Gere.
Everything worked out for the two actors. Gere would go on to star in films like American Gigolo and Pretty Woman. Stallone wrote and starred in Rocky, which launched him into international superstardom.
