Sylvester Stallone says he threatened to knock Richard Gere’s teeth out during a heated clash on the set of “The Lords of Flatbush,” a 1974 film shot in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, Kings County.
The account appears in Stallone’s new memoir, “The Steps,” now available wherever books are sold. Stallone writes that tension between him and Gere began during auditions, over a disagreement about an ad-lib session.
Stallone claims Gere grabbed his T-shirt during that session. “Gere grabbed my T-shirt and his fingernails dug into my skin,” he wrote. “I told him to back off, but he did it again on the second take. He couldn’t have known, but Gere had begun to stir the emotional cauldron inside me.”
Stallone says he asked director Stephen F Verona for permission to ad-lib and react the way he actually would if someone grabbed him like that in real life. When Stallone said his real reaction would be to knock the person’s teeth out, Verona allegedly told him, “Please don’t.”
According to Stallone, things got worse once filming started. He writes that Gere spilled chicken grease on him during a lunch break, setting off a physical confrontation serious enough that Verona had to physically separate the two actors.
“A stream of chicken grease spilled off the foil paper onto my leg. I elbowed him across the chest, got out of the car, came around to his side, and pulled him out of the back seat,” Stallone wrote.
Stallone says Gere responded in a “thin voice,” pleading, “Hey, man, I don’t want to get physical.” Stallone claims he answered, “Too late…” before Verona stepped between them to end the altercation.
“It was clear to everyone that this wasn’t working,” Stallone wrote. “One of us had to go.”
Gere was ultimately replaced in the film by actor Perry King. Page Six has reached out to Gere’s representative for comment; no response has been reported.
“The Lords of Flatbush,” directed by Stephen F Verona and Martin Davidson, follows a group of leather-jacketed street teenagers in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn. The cast included Stallone, King, Paul Mace and Henry Winkler.
