Sylvester Stallone says he once threatened to knock Richard Gere's teeth out during a heated on-set clash in 1973, a confrontation so intense it ended with Gere getting fired from the film entirely. The claim comes from Stallone's new memoir, which revisits the chaotic birth of his career years before Rocky Balboa made him a household name.
According to Page Six, Stallone and Gere had a rocky relationship from the moment they met during auditions for The Lords of Flatbush, a 1974 film about a group of street teenagers from Flatbush, the Brooklyn neighborhood the movie takes its name from. The tension reportedly started during an ad-lib session in the audition process, when Gere allegedly grabbed Stallone's t-shirt and dug his fingernails into his skin. Stallone says he asked director Stephen F. Verona to let him respond the way he actually would in real life, and when Verona asked what that meant, Stallone said his instinct would be to knock Gere's teeth out. Verona's reported response: please don't.
A Lunch Break Turns Physical
The friction didn't stop at the audition table. Per the same account, Gere spilled chicken grease over Stallone during a lunch break, prompting Stallone to elbow him across the chest. Things escalated further when Stallone pulled Gere out of the back seat of a car, with Verona reportedly stepping physically between the two actors to keep the fight from going further. Gere, for his part, pleaded that he did not want to get physical.
Stallone wrote that the relationship simply wasn't working and that one of them had to go. Gere was ultimately replaced by Perry King, who took over the role of Chico Tyrell. The recasting opened an unlikely door for Gere, who went on to break through in Looking for Mr. Goodbar in 1977 before reaching A-list stardom with American Gigolo and An Officer and a Gentleman, according to Yardbarker.
A Story Stallone Has Told Before
This isn't the first time Stallone has shared his version of the Flatbush set drama. He first publicly detailed the chicken sandwich and mustard car altercation during a 2006 interview, recalling that Gere strutted around in an oversized motorcycle jacket like he was the baddest knight at the round table, according to Reader's Digest. That same year, Stallone also addressed a persistent 1980s Hollywood urban legend involving Gere, telling TMZ that Gere held a grudge because he mistakenly believed Stallone had personally invented and spread the infamous gerbil rumor, as reported by TMZ.
The feud apparently outlasted the 1970s. Sir Elton John's 2019 memoir Me revealed that tensions between Stallone and Gere flared again at a 1993 London dinner party, where the two nearly came to blows over Princess Diana's attention, as detailed by The Philadelphia Inquirer. Stallone's new memoir adds another layer to the Flatbush origin story, revealing that during auditions he actually got along well with fellow candidate Robert De Niro while improvising, a sharp contrast to his immediate friction with Gere.
The Film That Launched Careers
The Lords of Flatbush, directed by Stephen F. Verona and Martin Davidson, was shot across several regional locations, including Samuel J. Tilden High School in Flatbush, Abraham Lincoln High School in Coney Island, and a cove on Dale Street in Stamford, Connecticut, according to VHSCollector.com. Made on an estimated micro-budget of $380,000, the film went on to gross over $4 million following its May 1974 release by Columbia Pictures, per Wikipedia.
The movie also marked Stallone's first official screenwriting credit, for additional dialogue, two years before his Oscar-nominated screenplay for Rocky, Ultimate Classic Rock notes. Its cast included Perry King, Paul Mace, and Henry Winkler, who that same year became a household name playing Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli on ABC's Happy Days.
Stallone's memoir, titled The Steps, was published by HarperCollins in September and traces his life from a struggling young actor in New York to his breakthrough with Rocky, according to the Los Angeles Times. The book is available wherever books are sold. Page Six noted it reached out to Richard Gere's representative for comment, but Gere has not publicly responded to Stallone's account.
