Gere dug his fingernails through Stallone’s shirt.
That’s how the feud between Sylvester Stallone and Richard Gere began in 1974, as Stallone himself recounts in his autobiography, ‘The Steps’. They were improvising scenes during the audition for ‘The Lords of Flatbush’ when, according to Stallone, Gere grabbed him by the shirt and dug his fingernails into his skin. Stallone asked him to stop. In the second take, Gere did it again.
Stallone then asked the director, Stephen Verona, if he could react as he would in real life. “What would you do?” the director asked. Stallone replied: “I’d knock his teeth out.” The director could only manage to answer: “Please don’t”.
The tension didn’t end there. During lunch in a car parked on the set, Gere allegedly spilled chicken grease on Stallone’s leg, and Stallone responded with an elbow to his chest and pulled him out of the back seat. “I don’t want to get physical”, Gere said. “Too late”, Stallone replied. It all ended when Gere was replaced in the movie. But apparently, this feud continued for many years.
