It’s time to ask yourself an important question: Are you really friends with someone if you can’t productively argue with them? It takes a strong friendship to be able to disagree with each other and still get along. But if you can be honest with your loved ones, your bond is cemented and is sure to last forever.

Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder were two men who had no fear to tell it like it is, even if briefly put them at odds.

Brooks and Wilder co-wrote the script for Young Frankenstein (1974). Though Wilder wrote the initial draft, he and Brooks worked together to create the version of the film that audiences would eventually see on screen.

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But although the film was well-loved, the process of drafting the script was slightly rocky. During an interview with The Montreal Star, Wilder explained that he and Brooks frequently argued over what should and shouldn’t be included in the script. Despite the hardship, Wilder admitted that arguing with Brooks taught him an important lesson.

“By the third draft we argued, lovingly but more intensely because it was getting closer to the shooting,” said Wilder. “If I hung on for 45 minutes after he badgered and beat and slapped and kicked and whipped and socked everything, and I said, Mel, you’re wrong, it has to be, he would immediately stop and say: ‘Okay, I understand. You’re right.'”

“And I’d say: ‘What did you put me through all this for?’”

“And he’d say: ‘Because if you held on after that, it must be right. Because I’m not that sure. But I know that if you give it up, you’re not sure either.’”

Brooks admired Wilder’s ability to fight for what he believed in, and that admiration went both ways. Passion was a driving force during the writing of the film.

“I was the same way with him,” said Wilder. “If we both held on, we had kind of an automatic respect. Whoever held on longest, the other would tend to give in. By the fourth draft, we were pretty much going down the same path.”