Arnold Schwarzenegger has revealed an unexpected chapter in his decades-long friendship with Sylvester Stallone: the Rocky star is his painting mentor, and a commercially serious artist whose canvases command six-figure prices.
“These big paintings go like sometimes for several hundred thousand dollars,” Schwarzenegger says in a joint interview clip spreading online, before recounting the art lesson that left him in awe of his old rival’s nerve at the canvas.
Arnold’s Story: ‘Can You Believe the Balls This Guy Has?’
Asked what he admires about Stallone, Schwarzenegger described his own timid painting style, prompting Stallone’s intervention.
“He says, ‘Arnold, you got to be more daring. Got to open up a little bit,'” Schwarzenegger recalled.
What happened next stunned him. “So I go up to his house and he has this big paintbrush with 15 kind of different colors. Goes in there like this and he starts smacking it down on the canvas. And I said to myself, ‘Can you believe the balls this guy has? He just makes a commitment with all this paint.’ And then all of a sudden in no time he creates this really colorful unbelievable kind of modern type of a painting.”
Stallone, for his part, played the modest teacher:
“Oh, stop. I do everything little… I make fine lines and make everything very accurate,” he joked of his friend’s precise approach.
Stallone the Painter: A Six-Decade Secret in Plain Sight
The anecdote surprises casual fans, but Stallone’s art career is extensive and real. He picked up a brush young, inspired by Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, selling early canvases “for $5 to get bus fare” signed “Mike Stallone.”
Famously, he painted Rocky before he wrote him. The 1975 self-portrait that inspired the screenplay used a screwdriver to carve the boxer’s eyes and capture his sadness, and another Rocky canvas now sits in ca$ino magnate Steve Wynn’s collection.
Stallone has even declared himself a “much better painter than an actor,” explaining painting is “much more personal and I’m allowed to just do what I want to do.”
Museums, Markets, and the Bold Style Arnold Witnessed
Stallone’s expressionistic work has been exhibited at the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, the Nice Museum of Contemporary Art in France, and Germany’s Osthaus Museum, which staged a major retrospective spanning the late 1960s to the present.
His style matches Arnold’s description of fearless commitment: Stallone has said he treats the canvas “as some sort of an enemy,” getting physical with the brush when a painting resists, a fan of Julian Schnabel’s heavy interaction with the canvas. He is also a serious collector, owning works by Kerry James Marshall, George Condo, and Bridget Riley.
From Bitter Rivals to Painting Buddies
The art lessons are the latest evolution of one of Hollywood’s great redemption arcs. The action titans spent the 1980s in a famously vicious rivalry before becoming close friends, business partners in Planet Hollywood, and mutual cheerleaders.
Their bromance has produced pumpkin-carving sessions, with Stallone joking “That’s what real ACTION guys do with their free time!”, a joint documentary, and now, apparently, private art tutorials in which the Italian Stallion teaches the Terminator that great painting, like great action movies, requires total commitment.
Arnold Schwarzenegger says Stallone’s paintings sell for several hundred thousand dollars, and reveals how Stallone taught him to paint bolder
Host: “What do you admire about him?”
Stallone: “Oh, stop. I do everything little. Like this, you know, and I make fine lines and make… pic.twitter.com/rvAdGY1v0g
— Zeus (@ZeusRebirth) July 11, 2026
FAQ
How much do Sylvester Stallone’s paintings sell for?
According to Schwarzenegger, the large canvases sometimes sell for several hundred thousand dollars; Stallone’s work is handled by fine art galleries including Galerie Gmurzynska.
Did Stallone really teach Schwarzenegger to paint?
Yes, per Arnold’s telling: Stallone urged him to be “more daring” and demonstrated his bold multi-color technique at his home.
How long has Stallone been painting?
Since his youth in the 1960s, decades before fame; he painted his Rocky character in 1975 before writing the script.
Where has Stallone exhibited his art?
Major venues include the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, the Nice Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Osthaus Museum in Germany.
Were Stallone and Schwarzenegger really rivals?
Famously so, in the 1980s, before becoming close friends and Planet Hollywood business partners.
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