Sylvester Stallone reveals explosive on-set brawl with Richard Gere after threatening to 'knock his teeth out'

Sylvester Stallone has recalled a feud with Richard Gere that escalated into a physical brawl on the set of their 1974 film The Lords of Flatbush.

The animosity between the two was born during the auditions, when an ad-lib session with Gere went so pear-shaped that Stallone threatened to 'knock his teeth out.'

Once shooting began, their relationship deteriorated even further.

According to the Rocky star's recollection, Gere spilled chicken grease over him during a lunch break, triggering a physical confrontation so intense that the director had to put himself himself between them.

'It was clear to everyone that this wasn’t working,' Stallone explains in his newly published memoir The Steps. 'One of us had to go.'

In the end, it was Gere who went and was replaced by Perry King. 

Sylvester Stallone has recalled a feud with Richard Gere that escalated into a physical brawl on the set of the 1974 film The Lords of Flatbush. Above, Stallone in the movie

According to Stallone, Gere spilled chicken grease over him during a lunch break, triggering a physical confrontation so intense the director had to intervene. Above, Gere in 1973

The Daily Mail has contacted Gere's representatives for comment.

Directed by Stephen F Verona and Martin Davidson, The Lords of Flatbush was a low-budget comedy about blue collar toughs in 1950s Brooklyn.

Stallone's audition process for the film involved not only Gere but also Robert De Niro, who was shortly to become a bona fide star in The Godfather Part II.

In his memoir, Stallone maintains that 'everything went pretty well initially with me and De Niro' and that he 'enjoyed improvisation and the process of ad-libbing.'

However, his attempts at improvising with Gere took a wrong turn 'when Gere grabbed my T-shirt and his fingernails dug into my skin.'

Stallone 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.'

In the moment, Stallone asked Verona: 'Is it okay if I ad-lib here and react the way I would actually react if someone did that to me in real life?'

When Verona inquired as to what precisely he would do, Stallone replied: 'Do? I’d knock his teeth out,' and was advised: 'Please don't.'

Matters came to a head during a lunch break, when Stallone goaded Gere to not make a mess, whereupon Gere allegedly dropped part of his dish on him.

'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,' the Rocky icon remembered.

Stallone (second from left) is pictured with (from left) Paul Mace, Henry Winkler and Perry King in The Lords of Flatbush, a low-budget comedy about blue collar toughs in 1950s Brooklyn

Stallone is pictured on September 29, the publication date of his new memoir The Steps, in which he recounted the story of his spat with Gere

Gere is pictured last month attending the 20th anniversary gala for the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, held at the Opera de Monte Carlo

'Hey, man, I don’t want to get physical,' Gere purportedly pleaded in what Stallone characterized in his book as a 'thin voice.'

'Too late...,' Stallone claimed to have replied, only for the altercation to be broken up by Verona placing himself in front of Gere.

Gere left the film, and so – for apparently unrelated reasons – did De Niro, whose replacement Henry Winkler became close friends with Stallone.

Two decades after The Lords of Flatbush was made, Gere and Stallone reportedly came nearly to blows once again, this time over Princess Diana.

Elton John wrote in his memoir that the incident unfolded in 1994 at a fete thrown in London during Diana's separation from Prince Charles.

According to John, Gere and Diana 'seemed very taken with each other,' to the chagrin of Stallone, whom John suspected of having 'turned up to the party with the express intention of picking Diana up, only to find his plans for the evening ruined.'

Gere and Stallone are said to have reached the stage of 'squaring up to each other, apparently about to settle their differences over Diana by having a fist-fight' that John's eventual husband David Furnish was supposedly able to avert.

John recalled that Gere and Diana then 'resumed their position in front of the fire,' while Stallone 'stormed off home,' fuming that he 'never would have come' had he known 'Prince f***in' Charming was gonna be here.'