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Sylvester Stallone Reveals Physical Fight With Richard Gere Led to Decades-Long Feud

Stallone says the audition turned physical after Gere grabbed his shirt, and the director removed Gere from the film, ending with Stallone cast instead.

  • In his new memoir The Steps, Sylvester Stallone revealed his decades-long feud with Richard Gere began during a 1974 audition for The Lords of Flatbush, more than 50 years ago.
  • While improvisations with Robert De Niro, actor now 83, went smoothly, tensions flared when Gere grabbed Stallone's T-shirt during auditions, his fingernails digging into Stallone's skin.
  • Stallone asked director Stephen Verona if he could "ad-lib here and react the way I would actually react if someone did that to me in real life." When Gere repeated the grab on a second take, Stallone told him to back off.
  • The conflict escalated into a physical altercation, resulting in Gere, now 77, being fired from the 1974 film; Stallone landed the role of Stanley Rosiello while Perry King, now 78, replaced Gere as David 'Chico' Tyrell.
  • Reflecting on the incident decades later, Stallone conceded in his memoir that though Gere had "begun to stir the emotional cauldron inside" him, the actor could not have known the full impact of his actions.
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Entertainment Weekly broke the news in New York, United States on Sunday, October 4, 2026.
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