Monday, October 5, 2026 - Sylvester Stallone has opened up about the clash with Richard Gere that he says sparked their decades-long feud. In his new memoir, The Steps, Stallone recalls that tensions began during auditions for the 1974 film The Lords of Flatbush, when an improvisation with Gere went badly.
Stallone said Gere grabbed his T-shirt during the scene, leaving him increasingly frustrated and prompting him to ask director Stephen Verona whether he could respond realistically.
The situation later exploded during a lunch break on set. Stallone says Gere was eating chicken in a parked car when grease spilled onto his leg despite a warning.
According to Stallone’s account, he elbowed Gere, pulled him from the car and confronted him before Verona stepped between them. The director ultimately decided that one of the actors had to leave, and Gere was fired from the production and replaced by Perry King.
The fallout reportedly lasted long after the film was completed. Stallone’s memoir revisits the bitterness between the two actors, while a separate account from Elton John has described another confrontation involving Stallone and Gere years later at a party connected to Princess Diana.
The renewed attention comes as Stallone’s memoir brings fresh details about one of Hollywood’s most enduring celebrity disputes back into the spotlight.
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