In his new memoir, The Steps, Sylvester Stallone recalls one of the most tense episodes of his early acting career — his clash with Richard Gere on the set of The Lords of Flatbush. According to Stallone, the feud between the two actors became so serious that Gere eventually left the project.
In 1973, Stallone landed a role in the film about a group of young troublemakers in 1950s Brooklyn, alongside Richard Gere and Robert De Niro. However, working with Gere quickly became problematic.
Stallone writes in his memoir that during one scene, Gere grabbed him by the T-shirt and dug his fingernails into his skin. Stallone asked him to stop, but Gere repeated the gesture during the next take.
After that, Stallone approached director Stephen Verona and asked if he could improvise and react the way he would have in real life. When the director asked what exactly he planned to do, Stallone replied, “What? I’d knock his teeth out.”
“Please don’t,” Verona responded.
But the tension between the actors did not disappear. According to Stallone’s account, another confrontation soon followed when Gere spilled chicken grease on his leg. The incident reportedly escalated into a physical fight, and Gere was ultimately fired from the film.
Robert De Niro also later left the project after deciding to work on another movie. Gere’s and De Niro’s roles were eventually recast with Perry King and Henry Winkler.
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