During the shooting of 1974’s Lords of Flatbush, Richard Gere and Sylvester Stallone reportedly didn’t get along too well.

On one occasion, Gere allegedly dropped chicken grease on Stallone, who retaliated with an elbow to Gere’s head. To ease tensions, one of the stars had to go; ultimately Gere was replaced with actor Perry King.

Gere also blames Stallone for a nasty urban legend involving Gere and a gerbil. Stallone denies having anything to do with the gerbil story.

The future Rocky star instead puts the onus on Gere’s method acting, saying years later, “We never hit it off. He would strut around in his oversized motorcycle jacket like he was the baddest knight at the roundtable. One day, during an improv, he grabbed me (we were simulating a fight scene) and got a little carried away. I told him in a gentle fashion to lighten up, but he was completely in character and impossible to deal with. Then we were rehearsing at Coney Island and it was lunchtime, so we decided to take a break, and the only place that was warm was in the backseat of a Toyota. I was eating a hotdog and he climbs in with a half a chicken covered in mustard with grease nearly dripping out of the aluminum wrapper. I said, ‘That thing is going to drip all over the place.’ He said, ‘Don’t worry about it.’ I said, ‘If it gets on my pants you’re gonna know about it.’ He proceeds to bite into the chicken and a small, greasy river of mustard lands on my thigh. I elbowed him in the side of the head and basically pushed him out of the car. The director had to make a choice: One of us had to go, one of us had to stay. Richard was given his walking papers and to this day seriously dislikes me.”