United Kingdom, Oct. 4 -- Sylvester Stallone says his and Richard Gere's decades-long feud began with a tense audition for The Lords of Flatbush.

Their tensions escalated into a physical altercation, ultimately resulting in Richard, now 77, being fired from the 1974 coming-of-age film, in which Sylvester plays Stanley Rosiello, one of four members of the 1950s Brooklyn greaser gang, The Lords.

In his new memoir The Steps, Sylvester, now 80, recalled "everything went pretty well initially" with Robert De Niro, now 83, during the audition process.

He added: "We were trying to outtalk each other. I enjoyed improvisation and the process of ad-libbing."

However, tensions arose when working with Richard.

Sylvester shared: "Then the improvs...