Arnold Schwarzenegger Admits He Tried to Make 'Terminator 2' More Violent in Order to 'Outdo' Former Rival Sylvester Stallone

In the earlier years of Arnold Schwarzenegger's career, the actor nearly let his competitiveness get in the way of success.

Prior to a Wednesday, June 28, screening of Terminator 2: Judgement Day at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, the movie star recalled how he tried to amp up the violence in the 1991 flick solely because of his former feud with Sylvester Stallone.

"The reason why it became a big hit was, number one, Jim Cameron. I mean, Jim Cameron is a genius writer. He came up with this brilliant idea, even though at the beginning I was suspicious," he shared of the film.

"He says 'I want to make you a good Terminator.' I said ‘What do you mean a good Terminator?’" the father-of-five, 75, recalled. "I say, ‘I was killing 68 people in the first one. ... In the second one, I have to kill 150. We go up … Cut their throats and kill them and shoot them with a cannon …run them over with a car.’ … I got to outdo Stallone."

"Remember my whole mission is that I got to be number one in killing the amount of people in the screen," he added of what he was thinking back then.

Schwarzenegger admitted Cameron responded by telling him, "'Arnold, stop it. You’re a very sick guy.'"

"'I am gonna make sure that in Terminator 2, you’re not gonna kill one single person.' I say ‘Well that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,’" he continued of their conversation. "I say, ‘How can we do Terminator 2 without me killing?' I said, ‘C'mon, just a few token bodies we throw in there.’"

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The two macho men feuded for quite some time, with the former Governor of California admitting in an interview, "In those days we did all kinds of crazy things to get ahead in our rivalry."

"We couldn't stand to be in the same galaxy together for a while. We truly, truly loathed each other," Stallone noted during a separate chat.

The two wound up mending ties and even went on to star in a few movies together, including The Expendables.

"I told him, 'We are the last two tyrannosaurus.' We're the last two meat-eaters and there's not much beef left out there," Stallone, 76, revealed of their current bond. "So we better enjoy each other."