Arnold confirms he tricked Stallone into Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot

It stands as one of the funniest urban legends in Hollywood casting history: that Arnold Schwarzenegger pretended to be interested in Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot so then-rival Sylvester Stallone would sign on for the sure-to-be dud. And now, Schwarzenegger is confirming that, yes, he did play a potentially career-ending prank on Stallone.

“It’s 100 percent true,” Schwarzenegger told The Hollywood Reporter. “In those days we did all kinds of crazy things to get ahead in our rivalry. Luckily for us and everyone else, today, we root for each other. Thank God, because we sure don’t ever need another Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot.”

In an extensive profile of and interview with Sylvester Stallone, the topic of the movie–one of the biggest duds in Sly’s career–was brought up. “Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot was supposed to be like Throw Momma From the Train with the mom as this really nasty piece of work. Instead you hire the nicest woman in Hollywood, Estelle Getty, who you wish was your mother. That’s the end of that! Also, I had heard Schwarzenegger was going to do that movie and I said, ‘I’m going to beat him to it.’ I think he set me up.” He sure did–and he also set you up for your 7th Razzie Award. Meanwhile, Schwarzenegger was between the groundbreaking T2 and the criminally underrated Last Action Hero.

The Schwarzenegger-Stallone rivalry goes back to the 1970s, when both men were climbing their way into the Hollywood elite. With all that muscle, there was only room for one of them–or so they thought. In 1991, the two served as financial backers for Planet Hollywood, putting their beef to the side so they wouldn’t end up as waiters there. The two would later go on to co-star in the first three Expendables movies, as well as 2013’s Escape Plan.

What do you think of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot power move over Sylvester Stallone? Who do you really prefer? Let us know in the comments below!