Stallone just told the NYT podcast he almost fought Schwarzenegger back in the day — best way to get the full rivalry story?
Caught the clips from Sylvester Stallones new interview on the NYT The Interview podcast — he says he and Arnold almost came to blows a few times in the 80s because they could not stand each other. Then today Dolph Lundgren is telling the story about hospitalizing Stallone with one punch on the Rocky IV set. Is there one good documentary or interview that covers the whole Stallone-Schwarzenegger rivalry era? I do not want to piece it together from random YouTube clips.
2 answers
- The free option is the whole answer
The free option is the whole answer here. The NYT Interview podcast episode is free on every podcast app — that is the primary source, not some documentary retelling it. And the Lundgren hospitalizing-Stallone story comes straight from Lundgrens own interviews, which are all over YouTube for free. Do not buy a documentary or sign up for another streaming service for this. Start with the actual podcast episode, then watch the Lundgren interviews if you want the Rocky IV set stories. Total cost: zero dollars and about two hours.
- The NYT Interview episode itself
Honestly the best source is the episode itself — it is a long-form sit-down, about an hour, and the rivalry stuff is not a throwaway clip, it is a whole segment where he talks about how threatened he felt by Arnold in the 80s. The podcast feed is free on every app. Pair it with the ESPN 30 for 30-style oral history articles about Rocky IV (Dolph has retold the hospital story a few times now, and the details line up across tellings). The docs about 80s action cinema tend to skim the rivalry in five minutes; the podcast gives you the actual psychology.