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"Arnold Schwarzenegger"

"Arnold Schwarzenegger"

Released Monday, 25th December 2023
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"Arnold Schwarzenegger"

"Arnold Schwarzenegger"

"Arnold Schwarzenegger"

"Arnold Schwarzenegger"

Monday, 25th December 2023
Good episode? Give it some love!
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Episode Transcript

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0:06

I'm waiting for the three guys, I

0:08

mean Jason, Sean and Will, but

0:11

I mean I don't know what happened with them.

0:13

Maybe the equipment doesn't work, or maybe everything doesn't

0:15

work. Who knows what's going on here. But welcome

0:17

to Smartless. Smartless.

0:36

Jason, what did you do last night? I know what

0:38

you did. You went to the Lakers game. Yes, had

0:40

a great, great time. Really fun. I

0:42

hosted three 11-year-olds, one of which was

0:44

my daughter. Was it fun? It

0:47

was really fun. Did they win?

0:50

They did win. They tried to lose, but they

0:53

fixed it there at the end. And

0:56

it was a hoot. I've heard people

0:59

describe fun things as. That's

1:01

fun. I like going to the Lakers game. And

1:03

then today I was going to do some

1:05

cooking, but then I heard that I think

1:08

Sean, maybe you might have mentioned to Amanda

1:10

that no one's interested in eating what I...

1:12

or was it you, Will? No one's interested

1:14

in... Sean, what I was planning on cooking

1:18

apparently got kind of a want-wah. Amanda

1:22

said what you were planning on cooking and Sean

1:24

said nobody wants that. Yeah, I said nobody wants

1:26

that. Who wouldn't

1:28

want a gooey

1:31

peanut butter chocolate

1:33

chip bar? Yeah. Oh,

1:35

sorry, gooey pumpkin chocolate chip bar. Well,

1:38

no, the only... Okay. And

1:40

then the other thing was... Yeah, because nobody wants

1:42

pumpkin in anything. Cranberry lemon bar. No,

1:44

that's right. Nobody wants pumpkin in anything and

1:46

nobody wants cranberry in anything. And

1:49

apparently the gal said, all

1:51

of them said that also you can't have

1:53

lemon in a dessert. That

1:55

was according to our hostess.

1:57

So I guess we're really... No,

2:00

Bullet dodged. I guess so.

2:02

Yeah. Yeah. What all these

2:04

freaks on the New York Times top 10

2:06

desserts lists are thinking. You know, was it

2:08

was that was the way, but this is

2:10

like, Amanda said, Amanda said that every year

2:12

you do this and that you, you like

2:14

to cook a few things here and there.

2:16

And I knew nothing about this. I did

2:19

not either. I didn't

2:21

either. I had forgotten. But I guess she

2:23

says that I, this is what I do every year.

2:25

But and is it because I bake

2:27

some stuff because I want to inspire.

2:29

I want to, oh, that's good. You

2:31

inspired me. I was so, you've done cheesecake. You've

2:33

done brownies. You've done to do E Claire's next

2:35

week. I think you did last night was good.

2:38

That little, that thing you did. Oh, last night

2:40

I did not like that. I made, I made

2:42

this new thing last night. I didn't love it

2:44

too much. So sweet. But Jay,

2:47

I made a box of Mac and cheese last night at 10

2:49

30 because I was too big of a

2:51

gummy. And I feel like

2:53

after a full dinner, he went home

2:55

and ate a full box and

2:57

hasn't eaten all day. I almost took a picture of it

2:59

and sent it to you. I'm like

3:02

gummy wipe out. Yeah. I did have

3:04

a gummy. Still recovering. Listen,

3:06

I'll tell you what, I'll tell you who did not

3:08

need an entire box of Mac and Mac and cheese last night

3:10

was our guest because

3:12

this is somebody who has famously

3:16

taken care of himself his entire

3:18

life. This is a

3:20

person who has made a mark in

3:23

every single thing he's decided to

3:25

go into in his life. It's

3:29

a, it's pretty hard to have lived

3:31

in Western culture and not know who

3:34

it is. Hard man is pretty

3:36

hard. Do I sound very familiar? Do you want to

3:39

say that? Senator is almost even Chicago, like you're from

3:41

Chicago. This person

3:43

has, is such a

3:45

part of our sort of cultural

3:47

fabric at

3:49

risk of embarrassing him when

3:51

I say that, but it is true. He over the

3:54

last 40, 50 years, he

3:56

has been in absolutely every

3:59

seemingly every walk of life. He

4:01

has done everything from being an author

4:03

to being a incredible, one

4:08

of the biggest film stars ever to being

4:11

a politician. He is

4:13

not, he refuses to be categorized as a

4:15

self-made man because I think that he claims

4:17

that he's had a lot of help along

4:19

the way, but it sure seems like he

4:21

did a lot. He's done a lot

4:23

of heavy lifting on his own, especially

4:26

he did a lot of heavy

4:28

lifting when he

4:30

won. I'm going to say he was

4:34

also a four time Mr. University. He's also the

4:37

38th governor of the state of California. Got

4:40

it. Guys. It's our nose

4:42

for a second. Hello.

4:45

Hello. Hello. Hello. What

4:48

a guest. Wow.

4:54

I couldn't cause Jason guessed it. I couldn't even

4:56

say you're a number one New York times selling

4:58

a number one author. You know,

5:00

I mean, just the list is just

5:02

keeps going, but Jason guessed it. So

5:05

Mr. Schwartz and Edgar, nice to meet you. Well,

5:07

thank you very much for the nice introduction and

5:09

I really appreciate that

5:11

the buildup. But I

5:14

mean, it's so entertaining

5:17

to listen to you guys talk.

5:20

I mean, I've very rarely heard

5:23

conversations like that. I mean,

5:25

the cheese Mac and cheese, what

5:27

about the mac and cheese and

5:29

it's four o'clock and I'm late.

5:32

It's not one of our best, but you know

5:34

what? You've really brought it up. Yeah. But I

5:36

mean, it's like, it's wild. I mean, like, but

5:38

the funny thing is I

5:40

don't know you Jason and

5:43

I don't know will, even though I

5:45

admire your work on television and then

5:47

the movies that I've seen and you've

5:50

entertained me thoroughly. But

5:52

Sean, I know personally, I mean, Sean is

5:54

someone that I've met in the night.

5:56

I think it was back in the nineties.

6:00

I'm not mistaken. And, you know,

6:02

he was out here and some other

6:04

given helped me with Maria together

6:07

decorate the house. What I

6:09

remember. Yeah. Generally

6:11

positive meeting. Yeah. Yeah.

6:13

Very, very, very positive. He's he's

6:15

a really, he's a really

6:18

positive guy. Well, so I mean,

6:20

when they hear this, this food kind

6:22

of story, what

6:25

a drama. Yeah. Oh my God.

6:27

I ate at 10 o'clock Mac

6:29

and cheese and they didn't feel

6:31

good. And guess why? And this

6:33

is terrible. The world is coming

6:35

to an end. Oh, what a

6:37

sad story. I feel so

6:40

sorry for him now. Thank you. I mean,

6:42

I don't even

6:45

know how to recuperate. Oh no. Where do you hear? What do

6:47

you eat the rest of the 24 hours? I

6:49

wanted to start this whole interview in

6:51

a positive way in an absolute way.

6:53

Then I get this beating there, but

6:55

things went from last night on 10

6:57

of God. Yeah. What has gone on?

6:59

I may see you've to come. I

7:02

don't know whether you live now, but I mean you

7:04

were out here in Los Angeles. I'm in the same

7:06

house you saw you saw you came to visit me.

7:08

Okay. Good. So then about time we get

7:10

back together again and get that so I

7:12

can go and make you one of the

7:15

stakes over here. So you

7:17

don't get sick and tired of the food

7:19

at 10 o'clock. Good night. You come over

7:21

for steak dinner, one more chicken dinner, all

7:24

for something. Maybe vegan. Well, that's our time

7:26

Arnold. Thank you so much. Let me just

7:29

say, having

7:31

Sean, it's, it's bad enough hearing what you

7:33

went through last night, but having Arnold Schwarzenegger

7:35

recited back to you is one of the

7:37

best things that I've ever heard in my

7:40

life. Cause it does really put it in

7:42

a different light. Like, right. It makes it

7:44

sound so crazy. And how disappointed he is

7:46

in your reactions. It's just like any dad.

7:50

No, no, no, no, no. Arnold, how long do

7:52

you think Sean, I just, I just, I just

7:54

thought it was funny because then you guys all

7:56

went off and talked about what you ate and

7:58

the things that you're doing at home. with you

8:00

cooking and stuff. So I said, well, maybe

8:02

I've plugged in here to a cooking show

8:04

or something like that. Maybe you guys have

8:06

even called. It's been called

8:08

worse. Well, how long do you

8:10

think Sean, Arnold, how long do you think Sean

8:12

can get away with eating like this? Because isn't

8:15

it true as you get older, doesn't it? The

8:17

metabolism. Yeah, the metabolism slows down such that if

8:19

you keep eating the same thing you ate last

8:21

year, you will gain, I think

8:24

it's three pounds a year if

8:26

you just eat the same thing every year,

8:28

like your metabolic rate goes down such that

8:31

you've got to eliminate three pounds a

8:34

year from what you eat. Is

8:36

that right? Yeah, it sounds good mathematically,

8:38

what you just said, but I think it's very

8:40

hard to do. Because

8:42

I can tell you for myself, I

8:45

have to go and bike rides every day. I

8:47

work out every day, because it's

8:49

very hard to kind of stop eating and

8:51

to just go and serve your diet like

8:53

some people do. I've never done that. So

8:56

of course you develop a little bit of stomach

8:58

because of that. But I think the key thing

9:00

is to keep it in moderation and not to

9:02

gain too much weight because otherwise it's made for

9:04

your heart and for

9:07

your health and family. Makes it sound good. You gain a

9:09

little bit of stomach. That's all right. You gain a little

9:11

bit of stomach, yeah, it doesn't sound as nasty. Arnaud, if

9:13

I could ask you, because I wonder, there's so much stuff

9:15

I wanna talk about before we

9:17

get to this, but now that we're on the

9:19

subject, because like I said, you're famously known, you

9:21

know, seven time Mr. Olympia,

9:23

four time Mr. Universe, you've done it

9:26

all, known for your physique for many

9:28

years and award-winning

9:30

physique. And you said that

9:33

you still work out, so you're riding the bike,

9:35

you're doing stuff. I'm so interested. What is working

9:37

out for you because you're not competing in that

9:39

way anymore? What is working out now for you

9:41

look like? Little bit, I just wanna

9:43

know selfishly for me. I

9:46

go on a bike ride. I ride the bike

9:49

around 45 minutes to an hour a day.

9:52

And I work out with

9:54

weights at Gold's gym.

9:57

I would say around 45 minutes a day. But

10:00

very light, nothing heavy, because

10:03

I had heart surgery in 1997.

10:07

And then the

10:09

doctors were telling me that I should stop the

10:12

heavy, heavy lifting, because it's not

10:14

good for your valves. They get kind

10:16

of, you know, the wipeout

10:18

sooner. And and so therefore, you know, I

10:20

just started lifting less weights, more reps and

10:23

stuff like that. But I work out regularly.

10:25

But this, you know, as you get older,

10:27

it's kind of like, how the

10:29

hell do you hold on to some of the stuff

10:31

that you want had. And it's really, it's

10:34

tough because it's Wait, so if you if

10:36

you if you do like free weights and

10:38

lift weights like that, it's bad for your

10:40

valves of your heart or for your heart?

10:42

If if no, not for normally

10:44

for heart, but I mean, it is when

10:47

you have valve surgery,

10:49

right? What evolved and pulmonary valve, got it,

10:52

you don't want to put that much pressure

10:54

on it. You know, when you really bench

10:56

press heavy or to heavy deadlifts or squats,

10:58

and all this good, you put a lot

11:00

of pressure on the valve, and it's unnecessary.

11:02

So the idea is, let's use less weight.

11:05

And therefore, you know, you don't

11:08

have to switch the valve. I

11:10

mean, after 23 years later, I still

11:12

had to exchange it anyway, and had another

11:14

surgery and all that stuff. But the bottom

11:16

line is you don't want to abuse it,

11:18

you know, it's not the valve, like everything

11:20

is like a tire, you have a certain

11:22

amount of miles, and then you just have

11:24

to switch, you know, so it's midsection or

11:26

mind you have a tire. Let's

11:31

get back to gold's gym. Can you walk me

11:33

through that process? You walk into the gym there,

11:35

you're ready to get your pump on like, yeah,

11:37

so you got your punch your ticket, you got

11:39

10 more visits left. And, and then you

11:42

get to your favorite machine. And there's some

11:44

some jamoke on that. And he's, he's sitting

11:46

there, he's running through his emails, he's still

11:48

sitting on the thing. And it's his idea.

11:51

Do you give him a hairy eyeball? Like,

11:53

buddy, let's go. I want to get in

11:55

there or you have a special section ready

11:57

for you because you've been going there for

11:59

years, right? No, I

12:01

mean, there's no reason to approach it

12:03

that way. I just always

12:05

when someone sits on a machine or when someone

12:07

works out on a machine, I just ask you

12:10

mind if I work in with you. Can you imagine while

12:12

they're resting you do your rep? Well,

12:16

yeah, because you know, everyone walks around. What

12:18

that basically means is if you do your

12:21

set, don't just sit there

12:24

while you're resting and then you can

12:26

cut in again after that because I

12:28

go from from machine to machine to

12:30

machine. And so it's easy

12:32

for me to just ask people if

12:35

I can cut in and then wasn't happy to do that. So

12:37

there's no problem with that. So it's just a matter of

12:40

attitude without saying, we're going to get off the bench. I

12:42

am going to make a sorry, so I'm just going to

12:44

just to follow up on that. I make a

12:47

safe guess that you're doing well enough to have your

12:49

own set of ways at the house there. You just

12:51

like to go down to gold to bond

12:53

with the fellas. I

12:56

have a fully equipped gym at

12:58

home. And during,

13:00

you know, COVID, I trained all

13:02

the time just at home. But

13:06

I am a company queen. And

13:10

so that means that I love company. Whatever

13:13

I do, I don't like to go out for

13:15

lunch by myself. I like to eat with somebody.

13:17

I don't like to go to football games or

13:19

the soccer game by myself. I like to go

13:22

with somebody or with a bunch of guys. So

13:24

people and the same is also with working

13:26

out. I get a lot of

13:28

energy when I go to a gym and

13:30

I see everyone else working out and sweating

13:32

and training hard. It makes me inspired. And

13:34

then I want to work out too. So

13:37

it's just a lot of sense. Yeah, because

13:39

like I was going to ask you like, even

13:41

at this age, nobody loves

13:43

to go to the gym. A lot

13:45

of people that love to work out or exercise,

13:47

but what is it that because it's not, it's

13:49

hard work. Like if I can skip it, I'll

13:51

skip it. But like, you

13:53

know, what's the draw to keep doing

13:55

it now and always

13:58

so that you don't pop Shawn? I

14:00

know, but I'm like, but to work at that,

14:02

at the intensity level that you're still working out

14:05

at is, um, it's

14:07

a decision. It's not that intense. It's not that

14:09

intense. I mean, but first of all, I

14:12

love working out. Yeah. I know. I don't know

14:14

why because it's, it just makes me feel good.

14:16

I understand. I mean, I've worked out. It makes

14:18

me feel good. I always say to people who

14:20

say, when I get up in the morning and

14:22

I basically down to the gym, I

14:25

feel like I'm, I'm bicycling through a black and

14:27

white movie. And then all of a sudden when

14:29

I'm finished working out and bicycle back, I

14:32

feel like it's a color movie. All

14:34

right. It's every day. The whole world

14:36

is more colorful. I feel more positive.

14:38

It's like the rainbow UCF. Do you

14:40

finish macaroni and only get on a

14:42

bicycle to go to get a black

14:44

and white shake? That's the only way

14:46

black and white cookies. That's really, who

14:48

are you doing it? That's so true.

14:51

I just, I just love it. I love the

14:53

things that I get from that. It's addictive. So

14:56

I'm addicted to working out. I have to say

14:58

to me, it's not kind of a chore because

15:01

I know why I'm doing it.

15:04

I want to look half decent

15:06

at my age, even though it's

15:08

beautiful. I think the beard looks

15:10

gorgeous. Yeah. Look at

15:13

the beard is gorgeous. It looks

15:15

really great. Thank you. But Jason,

15:17

let me tell you something. First

15:20

of all, I actually want to let you

15:22

know that you, with your

15:26

show, Ozark, I mean,

15:28

you have blown me away. You know, there's

15:30

three, there's three of my

15:32

favorite shows was Ozark and Darkos

15:35

and Yellowstone. They did that I watched. And

15:37

it was just, it was just so, I

15:40

mean, talking about the addictive to working out,

15:42

I was addicted to watching your show because

15:44

you did such a believable job and that

15:46

it was really fantastic. You're very, very, very

15:49

nice. I just wanted you to know that

15:51

how much you entertain me and how much

15:53

pleasure you brought to me watching this, watching

15:56

this series. It makes me shy. Thank you

15:58

though. Oh, Jason, entertain him right now. I

16:00

get small. I can

16:02

talk in the Marty voice. Ready? Hi,

16:04

this is me. I'm just talking. Oh,

16:07

Marty. That's Marty. And

16:12

we will be right back. This

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is go to amazon.com/smartless. That's amazon.com/smartless or

19:20

download the Amazon Music app. It's just

19:22

that easy. All

19:27

right, back to the show. So,

19:30

Arno, I mentioned in the intro all the things

19:32

that you've done and everything that you've done, every

19:35

sort of thing that you've decided to get

19:37

into, you've been successful and you started with

19:39

bodybuilding. That's what initially

19:41

I gathered, took you from Austria

19:44

to brought you here to

19:46

America. And then you got into films and

19:48

you were as successful as anybody could ever

19:50

imagine being in films. You're

19:52

the biggest star in the world. And

19:56

then you got into politics and became

19:58

the 38th governor of California. So

20:00

cool. It is amazing. And

20:03

I ask people this sometimes when we've had musicians on

20:05

and artists on it just from every sort of whatever

20:07

Whatever you do and I always say do

20:10

you ever do you have those moments where you

20:12

sit back now and you go?

20:14

Wow, you look back where you came from Back

20:18

from being a teen or being a kid

20:20

in Austria and now you here you are

20:22

having had this incredible Run in all

20:25

these different disciplines and do you look

20:27

back and go hey, I I really

20:29

accomplished a lot Are you able to enjoy

20:31

it or have perspective of it in that

20:34

way? I do

20:37

sometimes but very very

20:39

rare First of all

20:41

because I never really feel that You

20:45

know, I am that great

20:48

By any means I always felt like I could do better

20:52

Even when I was in my bodybuilding heyday, I

20:54

will win the Mistall and beer contest and then

20:56

I would look in the mirror Afterwards

20:58

and just say to myself how

21:00

the hell did this body win? You know,

21:03

it's kind of like I'm not ever satisfied

21:05

I always want to climb higher

21:07

and higher and higher and I think that's

21:09

what inspires me But the thing that I

21:11

do think about quite frequently

21:14

is not that I did it

21:17

But how did I do it right because

21:19

that's really interesting thing because how did you

21:21

do it? well, it's that

21:23

the principles and this is I think

21:25

why and I wrote this book be

21:27

useful is Because the

21:30

principles and the tools that they

21:32

used in bodybuilding I used the

21:34

very same tools in show business

21:37

And they used the very same tools when I

21:39

ran for governor and then to become governor and

21:41

then to be governor So it was the same

21:43

thing. It was like, you know having a great

21:45

vision And just chasing

21:47

that vision go after it relentlessly

21:49

and work your ass off Don't

21:52

listen to the naysayers, you know, just

21:54

shoot for higher course rather than low

21:57

course and just go all out You

21:59

know because this is German saying, Vengell, Denchon,

22:01

and I talk about it in the

22:03

book. So if you do something, just

22:05

go all the way and

22:07

give something back because

22:10

we have to kind of, and you mentioned

22:12

that briefly, that

22:14

I never felt that I was a self-made man, that I

22:16

had. I was very fortunate that

22:19

I had so much help along

22:21

the way that I felt that I have

22:23

to give something back now, too. And so

22:26

for decades now, I have been trying

22:28

to give something back to my community.

22:30

I mean, if it is working with

22:32

Special Olympics and being a coach for

22:34

Special Olympics or starting after school programs

22:36

or being the chairman of the President's

22:38

Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, President

22:40

Bush and all of this kind of

22:42

things, it was all about giving back

22:44

and then eventually becoming governor. Because remember

22:46

when I ran for governor, my agents

22:48

kept saying to me, I don't know,

22:51

this is the stupidest move that I've ever

22:53

seen, because I mean, you make... We can't

22:55

profit off it. I mean, it's

22:57

like, you know, what the hell? You're going to miss

22:59

out on two movies a year. That's 40 million dollars.

23:01

Why would you do that? And they say to myself,

23:03

and they say to them, I say, hey, I made

23:05

all the money because of America. Yeah, I

23:08

became what I am today because of America.

23:10

I said, America gave me the opportunity. So

23:13

I don't mind putting something back into it

23:15

and giving something back. So that's the way

23:17

I felt. But the key thing is the

23:19

tools, is tools that can make you successful.

23:22

And I think I write about that very

23:25

effectively. And in the book, and it

23:27

has been really great to see the

23:29

book be successful and be

23:31

number one on the bestseller list and all

23:33

of those kind of things and selling really

23:36

well internationally. Yeah, I watched your documentary.

23:38

I thought it was incredibly inspiring. And I loved that

23:40

it was in three parts. It was from

23:42

Austria to bodybuilding, then to being an actor, then

23:44

to being the governor. And one of the things

23:47

you said at the beginning of the documentary, which

23:49

has stayed with me, was for you, you said

23:51

the whole thing started out with. I

23:53

don't know why, but I was given this thing

23:56

that was put in my head where if

23:59

I have a vision. And I can't stop until I

24:01

see it through. I don't know why I'm,

24:03

you said, I don't know why I'm like that. I

24:05

just am that. And you put on your wall, a

24:07

picture of your favorite body builder,

24:10

your inspiration. And then you kept

24:12

using like vision boards and then goal lists

24:14

and everything. I've been talking about that for years.

24:16

So I really connected with that. I thought it was cool. Well,

24:19

thank you very much. And then it is, it

24:21

is so true that if you have a

24:23

vision, it's so much easier to get

24:25

kind of like into it and to kind of

24:27

chase it rather than let's say going to the

24:30

gym and not knowing why you're at the gym

24:32

other than the doctor told you you should work

24:34

out a little bit because it's good for your

24:36

health. But to me,

24:38

I always had fun going to the

24:40

gym, lifting the weights, doing the next

24:42

day. I was looking forward to an

24:45

extra thousand set, sit ups and

24:47

stuff like that, because I knew that each one

24:49

of those reps is going to get

24:51

me one step goes and winning that title. And,

24:54

you know, I admire this guy, Reg Park, who

24:56

was Mr. Universe three

24:58

times and then got into movies in the Hercules

25:00

movies. And so I said to myself, well, I

25:02

can do that. That's what I want to chase.

25:04

That is the dream that I have. That's the,

25:06

the, the vision that I have. And that's what

25:08

I mean. And then once your

25:10

mind was set on it, you're like, I'm getting that. It

25:13

was like a machine. It was, I was just following it

25:15

and just trying to figure out, okay, how do I train

25:17

now? And I copied this

25:19

guy's training methods and other people's

25:21

training methods. And they're just,

25:23

you know, it just, by the time

25:25

I was 20, I became the youngest

25:28

Mr. Universe ever. And

25:30

so I realized that it was that, that

25:33

having that dream that really helped me and

25:35

not listening to the naysayers because you can

25:37

imagine you're 15 years old and you say

25:40

to your parents, I want to be Mr.

25:42

Universe. Right. Of course, they're sick,

25:44

my child. Let's go to the

25:46

doctor. So they, you know, they didn't believe in

25:49

that dream at all. Nor did anyone else as

25:51

far as that goes, because there was no one

25:53

in Austria. Bodybuilding was an

25:55

American sport. So there was no one in

25:57

Austria that ever won, you know, any competition,

25:59

any competition. kind of a Mr. You're Mr.

26:01

Universe. So how did you start actually bodybuilding

26:03

in your 10, the small town that you

26:05

grew up like if nobody else was doing

26:07

it, how, how did you even think of

26:09

it as a possibility where you just extra

26:11

strong as a kid and like, it just

26:14

came to you naturally. Like no,

26:16

I met a guy that was actually

26:18

Mr. You know, Mr. Austria. He

26:21

was a bodybuilder. There was a lake where I grew

26:23

up and he came down to that lake. So that's

26:25

where I met him. And he brought

26:27

me to that weightlifting gym. It was not

26:29

a bodybuilding gym. It was a weightlifting gym.

26:31

So I became part of the

26:34

weightlifting team. As a matter

26:36

of a year after working out

26:38

there made me be part of

26:40

it. And we started competing against

26:42

other towns and villages in weightlifting

26:44

competition. And so that was the

26:46

main thing we did was lifting heavy

26:48

weights and doing Olympic lifting. And

26:51

then at the same time, I used

26:53

the time to do chin ups and

26:55

to do some, you know, curls and

26:57

some body parts to build

26:59

my body also at the same time. So

27:01

but it was doing weightlifting, powerlifting and

27:04

bodybuilding at the same time. So this is

27:06

a, but the equipment was

27:08

very crude. It was very simple. Only

27:11

when I moved to Munich with the age

27:13

of 19, I had a really well equipped

27:15

gym there. And that's when I really started

27:18

exploding. I mean, my body started growing really

27:20

fast. Sean, you met a well equipped gym

27:22

the other right. A couple of years ago.

27:24

Yeah, we didn't go. It was his name.

27:26

Well, James, but he went by Jim Jimmy.

27:28

Jimmy was well equipped. Let me

27:31

ask you Arnold, Arnold.

27:34

Did you, did you, you, I want

27:36

to start. I was thinking about all

27:38

the films that you've done. I was

27:40

thinking about all the iconic roles, but

27:42

certainly and how much we get, we

27:45

get in people like we'll stop and you

27:47

know, people who are fans of stuff will

27:49

stop you and say like something from your movie.

27:51

And I think about how many times over the

27:53

years I've personally said or heard people say the

27:55

expression, I'll be back. I can't imagine

27:57

how many times you've been at a restaurant. somewhere

28:00

where somebody has gone like a you've gone like, Hey,

28:02

can I get a cup of coffee? And they sure,

28:05

and they look back and they go, I'll be back.

28:07

And like, I mean, it must have happened a million

28:09

times, right? Well, it's really wild

28:11

because I go sometimes to an event and

28:14

people will be screaming out, get

28:16

to the chopper. Yeah. This is

28:19

the line from predator. Yeah. Cook

28:21

it down. The lines

28:24

from the movies. It's just wild. I mean, but

28:27

you're right. Funny hearing you do

28:29

you put the cookie down. What was the

28:32

cookie down? It was from jingle all

28:36

the way. So it's the people who

28:38

repeat those lines. The funny thing is when you

28:41

read it in the script, it doesn't read like

28:43

anything like a special line. But just because the

28:45

way I say, you know, get

28:47

to the chopper. So then the director

28:49

comes in and says, it's not chopper

28:52

on it. It's chopper. It's an honor.

28:54

And I said, no, get to the

28:56

chopper. You know, I say

28:59

everything wrong. It's the people saying to

29:01

that's funny. And then they repeat the

29:03

line. Your accent is just so beautiful.

29:05

It's just so iconic. And I'm so

29:07

glad that it has stayed, that it

29:09

hasn't been like beaten out

29:11

of you by living in Southern California too

29:13

long. You know, I just, I

29:15

could listen to you all day.

29:18

You, you ran, you, you, you,

29:20

you, you've run so

29:22

many things at such a high

29:24

level sets, you

29:26

know, our state. What

29:29

are, what are you enjoying pointing all

29:31

of those incredible leadership skills at now

29:33

that, that,

29:36

that, that some people may know about, some

29:38

people might not know about, but obviously your,

29:40

your, your skill set is huge. Are

29:42

you enjoying pointing it out something right now? Or

29:44

are you, are you enjoying letting

29:47

it rest for a minute? No, no,

29:49

look, I was very fortunate to be

29:51

involved in all those different careers. And

29:54

I learned so much in bodybuilding

29:56

and how to be competitive and all

29:58

that. I learned so much in show

30:00

business. It is

30:03

just has been a most

30:05

extraordinary right to work on

30:08

all these movies and to work with such

30:10

great directors, and then to

30:12

go into, you know, politics

30:15

and to get into becoming governor of

30:17

the greatest state of California,

30:19

and to sit at the Capitol and

30:22

to learn every day, something

30:24

new. I mean, it's absolutely

30:27

if the imagine that when you go in

30:29

there as an actor, I mean, I've never

30:31

done policy, I've never gotten into the details

30:33

and the new details of policy. But now

30:36

you're sitting there. And now you're always sitting

30:38

you have meetings from nine o'clock on in

30:40

the morning. And you sit there and always

30:42

in the nurses union comes in, and you

30:45

talk about the four to one

30:47

ratio versus a six to one ratio.

30:49

And you say to yourself, what

30:52

are you talking about? Yeah, yeah. No,

30:55

right. And so so then afterwards, you have

30:57

to have the briefings and all that stuff

30:59

so you can come back and then continue

31:01

that meeting later on. And then that the

31:04

prison guard union will come in and they

31:06

will talk about their problems. Then the teachers

31:08

union comes in talks about their problem, then

31:10

health care advocates come in, and all the

31:13

folks come in, Indian gaming drives come in,

31:15

and they talk about their issues and stuff.

31:17

So it's like, it's literally like

31:19

I said, it's a university, the

31:22

capital. And I

31:24

have learned stuff there in the seven

31:26

years that you would never

31:28

learn in any university. Nowhere,

31:31

right? And they teach you that, you

31:33

know, how to craft so anybody listening

31:35

should try to be a governor. Right.

31:37

I mean, I tell you, it's quite

31:39

a challenge. It was the most pleasurable

31:42

thing to serve 40 million

31:44

people and to be in charge of

31:46

the fifth largest economy in the world.

31:48

Yeah, I mean, it's really was extraordinary.

31:50

And it wasn't easy. It was very,

31:52

very tough. It was very tough on

31:54

my family also, because you know, you

31:56

promise to your family that you are the

31:58

most important thing but And then when you become

32:00

governor, then you promise the

32:02

California people that they're the most important

32:05

things, that clashes sometimes. So I

32:07

would go and I would go to fundraisers

32:09

at night, I would be having meetings all

32:11

day, and I would not be around for

32:13

those recitals and for the sports competitions that

32:15

my kids had. And so there were times

32:17

when I came home and my kids would

32:20

be sitting on the table where

32:22

I'm sitting right now, and then we

32:24

would start crying. Daddy, why wouldn't you

32:26

not be at my football game? Daddy, why didn't

32:28

you watch me on Thursday

32:30

when I was practicing soccer? And

32:33

all of this kind of things. And then

32:35

one after the next, I started crying. And

32:37

I remember my wife, Maria, was sitting there,

32:39

she goes, okay kids, just express yourself now.

32:41

Now is the time to express yourself. I

32:43

didn't tell her. That's the last thing I'll

32:45

do here. So anyway, we

32:48

had wild scenes. So it's very tough

32:50

to do those kind of things, but

32:52

I tell you, I wouldn't exchange it

32:54

for anything. I'm curious about, Arnold, you

32:56

keep talking about coming here to America. I did too.

32:59

I came a lot. I only drove 90

33:01

minutes to Buffalo from Toronto. But I was

33:04

wondering about when you

33:06

first got here, when

33:09

you first came to California, where

33:12

did Arnold, like where did you write on your

33:14

landing car? Where did you stay? Did you have

33:16

an apartment? Did you know somebody? Did you move

33:18

into a hotel? Like literally, what was the granular,

33:20

like what was that day like when you land

33:22

and you went through customs and they're like, what

33:25

are you doing here? Like I'm going

33:27

to be bodybuilder and then I'm going to be a movie star and then

33:29

I'm going to be governor. Look out. Like what,

33:31

how did that day go? So

33:34

I was Mr. Universe. I just won the

33:36

Mr. Universe competition in Ken for

33:38

the second time at the age of 21. And

33:41

this guy by the name of Joe

33:43

Wieder, Oh yeah. Who was then kind

33:45

of the czar of bodybuilding. He was

33:48

the publisher of the bodybuilding magazines and

33:50

he has a weight distribution kind of,

33:53

you know, an equipment distribution company,

33:55

a food supplement, a supplement company. And he

33:58

brought me to the United States. And

34:00

so he sent me

34:03

out to Los Angeles because this

34:05

is where the best gymnasiums were.

34:08

And he asked some

34:10

of his friends, look,

34:12

why don't you go and find an

34:14

apartment for Arnold? In the meantime, let

34:16

him stay there at your house. And

34:18

so I stayed at someone's house for

34:20

three days. Then in the meantime, they

34:23

found an apartment for me in North

34:25

Hollywood. And there I started training then

34:27

at Vince's gym, which was one of the

34:29

great bodybuilding gyms where a lot of the champions

34:31

trained. And then eventually I moved

34:33

over to Santa Monica, to Venice, where Gord's

34:36

gym was. And then I started training there.

34:38

What was your English like? What was your

34:40

English like at that time? Oh, it sucked.

34:43

It totally sucked. I mean, it was like

34:45

in a school English. I was a few

34:47

times in England for posing

34:49

exhibitions and strongman acts and stuff

34:51

like that. So I was able to

34:53

practice a little bit of English,

34:55

but I couldn't

34:58

read a newspaper. I couldn't really

35:00

understand television. I had a friend,

35:02

a Jewish friend that spoke German by

35:05

the name of Artie Zeller, who was

35:07

a bodybuilding photographer. And he would translate

35:09

for me when we watched the news.

35:11

And I remember when there were discussions

35:14

in press conferences with Nixon, and he

35:16

ran for president and Humphrey,

35:18

and he would always translate. And he

35:20

was a real liberal, this guy. And

35:23

when I said, I like what Nixon

35:25

said, he said, don't be absurd, Arnold.

35:27

This is absurd. He's a fool. Don't

35:29

even listen to him. So he

35:31

would always get mad at me about this. But in

35:33

any case, so I could not really understand. I was

35:36

not with the program at all. But one

35:38

thing I remembered, and that was it

35:41

was now Thanksgiving. And

35:45

it was, I did not know what Thanksgiving was. And the

35:48

guy came over to me in the gym and he says,

35:50

what are you doing Thanksgiving? And

35:52

I said, what is Thanksgiving? He

35:55

says, well, it's a special holiday. And

35:57

notice, he says, where we eat a lot of

35:59

food. He says, if you don't. have anything to

36:01

do if you don't have anyone to spend the

36:03

day with, I want to invite you to my

36:05

house. And so this guy, Bill Drake, invited me

36:07

to his house. And I had

36:10

this unbelievable Thanksgiving dinner, the first

36:12

Thanksgiving dinner. The following

36:14

day, when the word got

36:16

around the gym that I was new,

36:19

and that was kind of helpless here,

36:21

and all that, they came

36:23

over to my apartment. And

36:26

they brought dishes, they

36:29

brought silverware, pillowcases,

36:32

pillows, and all

36:34

kinds of, even the black and white TV one

36:36

guy gave me with the old antenna, like it

36:38

used to be, and then

36:40

a little radio, a wooden box,

36:42

the radio for my nightstand on

36:45

the side of the bed. So

36:47

I mean, the generosity that I

36:49

experienced was so staggering and so

36:51

touching. I will never forget

36:54

that this is why today, I was

36:56

over at the Hollenbeck Center, you

36:58

know, for the 32nd

37:01

time since I've

37:03

been in America to give out turkey.

37:05

Because I donate the turkey for the

37:07

poor people in East LA. And

37:10

so we handed out hundreds of turkeys to

37:12

these poor people that sometimes can't even afford

37:14

to have a nice turkey dinner. Just because

37:16

I remember that day, how this guy included

37:19

me. So I always wanted to do the

37:21

same thing back to the American people, to

37:23

poor people, to people that needed it. That's

37:25

great. We'll

37:28

be right back. Hey,

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41:04

Now back to the show. Well,

41:07

with such meager, meager

41:09

beginnings, I

41:11

mean, the leap from there to thinking

41:14

that you could actually be the governor

41:16

of the state. When,

41:19

when do you remember the first time you

41:21

thought, well, maybe that's, that's

41:23

something I could do. Was

41:25

it, was it during, was it during Reagan's

41:28

administration? You thought, well, hang on, here's an

41:31

actor who became a governor

41:33

and I'm an actor. So why can't

41:35

I get, what was it? Was that

41:38

the linkage that was the first time

41:40

it felt plausible? No,

41:43

not really. Because I knew

41:45

at that time there was stories written

41:49

that people from the outside come

41:51

in. You know, there

41:53

was stories about Eisenhower, who was a

41:55

general, who was not a politician at

41:57

all and became president of the United

41:59

States. States, you know, there was people

42:01

that were basketball players, John Glenn then

42:04

eventually became a senator, he was an

42:06

astronaut. So that was not even though

42:08

it was great to see that someone

42:11

from entertainment, because everyone always laughed at

42:13

that ever from Hollywood, how can anyone

42:15

become governor? When he's from Hollywood, or

42:17

how can he become president if you're

42:20

from Hollywood, and act and stuff like

42:22

that. So there were those kinds of

42:24

conversations, of course. But I think what

42:26

really inspired me was

42:30

maybe a little bit of that, but also,

42:32

like I said, hanging out with the Shrivers,

42:34

with the Kennedys, then becoming

42:36

the chairman of the President's Council on

42:38

Physical Fitness and Sports, on the President

42:40

Bush senior in 1990, he

42:44

made me German. And so when I hung out

42:46

with him, and he invited me to Camp David,

42:49

I mean, so many times, so I really

42:51

spent a lot of time with him. And

42:54

we organized a great American workout. And

42:56

he had me sit in on several of the meetings,

42:59

up in Camp David, and also in the White House.

43:02

And so all of that really inspired me

43:04

to say myself, that is such a wonderful

43:06

job, to bring people together like he does,

43:08

and to make this a better place, a

43:10

better country, a better state, or whatever. So

43:12

I got inspired with that. And just a

43:14

mere fact that you were hanging out with

43:17

somebody who was president, it sort of made

43:19

it feel like, well, I know this guy's

43:21

a human being. He's a man just like me.

43:24

I'm sure it took care of some of the

43:26

sort of debilitating mystique that some people might. Made

43:28

it sort of right size a little bit. Yeah.

43:31

And also the compliment that he always gave me is,

43:33

you know, you already have a good nose for this

43:36

stuff, for politics. I can

43:38

see that you're interested in it and all

43:40

that stuff. But I was in the middle

43:42

of my movie career then. I was just

43:45

preaching over for the first time things that

43:47

you guys are so good at, which

43:49

is comedy. You know, because I was

43:51

an action hero. I was doing Terminator

43:53

and Predator and Running Man and Red

43:56

Heat and all those movies. And they kept grossing

43:58

more and more money. But

44:01

then all of a sudden I had this urge to say I

44:03

got to do comedy. And you were hilarious. I came to get

44:05

stuck here and do the action. And then

44:07

everyone said, forget it, it's not going

44:09

to happen. But then Ivan Reitman, who

44:12

was the producer, I mean the director

44:14

of Ghostbusters, he said to me, I

44:16

do it. I'm going to

44:18

develop a project for you. And he did.

44:21

It was twins. He did develop this project, twins. Yeah.

44:24

And so we did that in 1988. We

44:26

had with President Bush a

44:29

presidential premiere

44:31

at the Kennedy Center in 1988 in December.

44:36

And the movie went through the roof. And

44:38

so it was the first movie actually that

44:40

made over $100 million domestically. Oh,

44:42

wow. So it was $128 million. So

44:46

it was really something that I was excited about.

44:48

So I was kind of like in the middle

44:50

of climbing that ladder. You know, it was just

44:52

two thirds up at Mount Everest. And I still

44:55

had to go climb one third more. And

44:57

I felt like it's a thing that did come in at

44:59

the two. And so that was, I was not really at

45:02

that stage where I said, okay, I'm going to run

45:05

now. No, but I should, it should be pointed out.

45:07

I just want to sidebar it because you're being quite modest

45:09

about it. You

45:11

wanted to do a comedy and to the

45:13

point that the studio

45:15

wasn't sure, tell me if I've got this right

45:17

or wrong. Studio wasn't sure that you could, that

45:19

you were, you were such a bankable action star,

45:21

but they weren't sure that you would be a

45:23

bankable, be you'd be able to open a comedy

45:26

and you took a risk on yourself, which is

45:28

what you've been known to do. And

45:30

you took nothing up front and you just took a percent.

45:33

You just took a big piece of the box office and

45:35

twins was your biggest payday

45:38

ever by far because

45:40

it was such a massive hit and you bet

45:42

on yourself, which is so fucking great. Cause you've

45:44

been betting on yourself your whole life and

45:47

it paid off. Am I right about

45:49

that? You're absolutely right. Very well researched.

45:51

I have to say, you know, all

45:53

the details. I love that. But I

45:56

mean, the bottom line was the studio's

45:58

basically not only this. believe that

46:00

I could open a movie in a

46:02

comedy. But they also said

46:05

to me, they said to me, I

46:07

said, Arad, tell me now why

46:09

I would go and invest in a

46:11

comedy when we're making all this money

46:13

now with your action movies. What do

46:16

you think you're stupid? And

46:18

so I said, no, no, no, I totally understand

46:20

it. So we had to figure out a way

46:22

to kind of make it more appealing

46:26

to them. And so what Ivan Reitman

46:28

then said was what we should all

46:30

do is we should make the

46:32

movie for 16 and a half

46:34

million dollars and

46:36

not take a salary. He

46:39

says, I won't take a salary. Danny

46:41

doesn't take a salary and you don't take a

46:43

salary, Arad. And what we do is in return,

46:45

we go and get 40% ownership

46:49

together. Just

46:51

don't give that anymore. We negotiated. We

46:54

renegotiated and they made it 37 and

46:56

a half percent because

46:58

Tom Pollock was a good friend of

47:01

Ivan Reitman and he felt kind of, he got

47:03

a beating from the studio to make the deal.

47:05

So we gave him a two and a half

47:07

percent cut and we made it 37 and a

47:09

half. But you're absolutely right. That made more money

47:11

for me than anything because worldwide the movie gross

47:14

over 250, 260

47:16

million dollars. So it was kind of like, you

47:18

know, you have 40% of that. You can imagine

47:20

with a big chunk that by the way, by

47:22

the way, and rentals too. Yeah. You know,

47:24

it was, you know, there's the plane, it was

47:27

sort of moving to the airplane airlines when they

47:29

sold it to the TV, to network and

47:31

to all the different, and I'm still getting new

47:33

features. Now, that's amazing. That's a

47:36

waste of worrying about you. But I

47:38

mean, anyway, the bottom line is that

47:40

I was still now I was like

47:42

growing, I was doing kindergarten cop after

47:44

that junior and true lies, which in

47:46

Cameron and they were all kind of

47:48

like comedies and in action and

47:50

all that stuff. But what do you think

47:52

about this troublemaker son in law of yours?

47:54

Uh, this fellow is Chris Pratt.

47:56

He's this guy. We know him. We know

47:58

Brad. He's a little. He's an

48:00

outlaw. He's a troublemaker. He's a

48:02

great friend of ours. We love

48:05

him. We love like

48:09

golf with them. We laugh with them.

48:11

He talks

48:13

very highly of you. It gets,

48:15

it gets me a little jealous. It

48:17

sounds like you guys have a great sort of family

48:20

sort of rhythm going over there with getting

48:22

together for dinners and vacations and hanging out.

48:24

It just sounds like a really

48:26

good thing. You're right. I mean,

48:28

it is so much fun when

48:31

he and my daughter comes over here to the

48:33

house and they

48:35

come over like last week to

48:38

come over on Saturday at

48:40

seven in the morning to help

48:42

me feed the animals. Sure.

48:44

So, you know, which of course

48:46

I have a miniature pony. I

48:49

have a miniature donkey. I have

48:51

a pig. I have three dogs. I

48:53

mean, there's those animals all over the

48:55

place. And so of course in the

48:57

morning I always feed them. So I

48:59

told the Catherine, I

49:01

said, gotta bring the kids over. You feed

49:03

them like mini donuts and many, many,

49:06

do they have many food or you just give

49:08

them smaller portions? No, no, it's just smaller

49:11

portions. I'm going to tell you, how

49:13

do you give a smaller portion to

49:15

a pig? Yeah. All the time. I

49:18

mean, you let it out. It goes out

49:20

in the grass and then it's grass all

49:22

day long. Then it comes into the kitchen

49:25

and everything that you see in the kitchen

49:27

that drops the pig. Wait, the pig comes

49:29

in the kitchen. The pig

49:31

sleeps. It's a house pig. Yeah, absolutely.

49:33

Yeah. I mean, you know, it depends

49:35

with the way you deal with the

49:37

animals. But my dogs come into the

49:39

house. The donkey comes into the house.

49:41

Come on. He comes into the house.

49:43

This is where they're minnies. Yeah. I

49:46

get it. The mini, but the mini,

49:48

even the regular was where we bring

49:50

brought, I had a pison. What

49:52

do you mean? My kitchen here, pison, you

49:55

know, the, the, the, the pison. Yeah. I mean,

49:57

I mean, I, I, I I

50:00

opened up the double door here because

50:02

we have every year

50:05

a poker tournament here to raise

50:07

money for after school programs. And

50:09

this last October we raised $7

50:11

million with that. Wow.

50:14

The theme was Oktoberfest. Everyone had

50:16

to wear leatherhosen and the women

50:18

were girdles and all that stuff.

50:20

And part of the

50:22

entertainment, I have all these animals coming

50:25

over here. So we had this bison

50:27

standing outside. So I said, let me

50:29

just try it because I saw it online.

50:31

When you go online you can see there's

50:33

a farmer that raised his bison from the

50:35

time he was like a little baby. And

50:38

it's fed it with a bottle and

50:40

milk and all that stuff. And then

50:42

he's still coming into the kitchen at

50:45

this farmer's house. He had to widen

50:47

the door and increase

50:49

the height of the door. So I tried to

50:51

do the same thing. I opened up the doors

50:54

and I brought this bison into the kitchen. I

50:56

mean, if this son of a bitch would have

50:58

gone crazy, he would have destroyed the whole house

51:00

because it was so big. But

51:03

I think it's cool when you bring animals into

51:05

the kitchen and into the house and they roam

51:07

around. So earlier, I

51:10

think it was a question Jason had.

51:13

When I was going, you know, you climb this mountain

51:15

of achieving this

51:17

bodybuilding greatness. You'd climb this massive

51:19

mountain of being a global

51:22

international movie star. The biggest movie

51:24

star we've ever had. Yeah. Nobody

51:27

had done it that big before. Right.

51:30

And then you climb this other, this third

51:32

mountain of being the governor of California. Is

51:34

there a fourth mountain? Is there another chapter?

51:36

Like, you know what? There's one more thing

51:38

I really want to do. I have my

51:40

eyes set on blank. He's trying to

51:43

get you to musical theater. Just don't

51:45

don't take the bait. Very

51:47

funny. But I mean, you know, the thing

51:50

we sometimes

51:54

kind of have a vision that we

51:56

go after, like we did

51:58

with bodybuilding. like

52:00

I did with show business, but

52:03

my vision was not to

52:05

become governor. Only later on, all of

52:07

a sudden, when we had a recall,

52:10

all of a sudden I kind of got obsessed

52:13

with the whole idea. And

52:15

I ran for governor. But

52:17

I mean, now my vision is kind of like,

52:20

I want to go and

52:22

help people become more successful.

52:25

I somehow got into these

52:27

motivational speeches because I started

52:29

giving a motivational speech,

52:32

commencement speeches at universities. And

52:35

then all of a sudden, that kind of went

52:37

wild. It spread like wildfire and people started

52:39

writing to me, why don't you write a

52:41

book and all that stuff? And so I

52:44

kept on doing motivational speeches all

52:46

over the world, kind of like the

52:48

ex-presidents to the gonna speaking circuit, you

52:50

know? And you make some good

52:52

money with that and you can reach a lot

52:54

of people. And out

52:57

of that came then this book. So

52:59

this is the new thing now that

53:01

I'm really into is, how do we

53:03

help people? Because there's so many people

53:05

that are unhappy. There's so

53:08

many people that are on drugs to get

53:10

happier. There's so many people that are

53:12

lost, that don't have a real goal or a mission.

53:15

And I just feel very, very

53:17

strongly that when we have

53:20

a mission, when you get up in

53:22

the morning with a vision, and then you get up

53:24

in the morning with a purpose, that

53:26

we know what we're going after, what we're

53:28

chasing, no matter how hard it is. Because

53:32

you mentioned earlier about this is really hard to go

53:34

in the gym or the workout. I

53:36

look forward to that because I feel that

53:38

our brain is kind of like a muscle.

53:41

The more resistance we give it, and the

53:43

more we struggle, the better we get and

53:45

the stronger we get. And I think that's

53:47

what it's all about. So we don't, we

53:49

bother and everything, but we can confront kind

53:51

of challenges. And confront

53:54

the wipeouts, the losses,

53:56

because you fail, I

53:58

failed many times. and

54:00

movies have failed in politics many times. But then

54:02

I always kind of get up and dust myself

54:04

off and get stronger with that. So I want

54:07

to teach that to other people. How do they

54:09

get happy and how do they become more successful?

54:11

And that's what the book Be Useful is all

54:13

about. Yeah, Be Useful, Seven Tools for Life, which

54:15

is amazing. And I would just say, Arnold, on

54:17

the side, Jason just texted me and he said,

54:20

do they make dumbbells in a one pound? Do

54:23

they make them in the one pound? And I was like,

54:25

what? That's crazy. But I mean, he literally- I like to

54:27

do a lot of reps. It's

54:29

so sad. I don't believe that

54:32

Jason was asking that question. No,

54:34

it's true. Jason was probably asking the

54:36

opposite question and saying, did they make

54:38

dumbbells in a one pound? All I

54:41

do is cardio. I

54:43

lift a lot of- I go to the gym a lot.

54:45

You can't tell the lighting's not great here, but I do

54:47

go to the gym a lot for, you know, you should

54:49

just know. Okay, the last

54:51

thing I want to ask you, Arnold, I

54:54

mean, honestly, there's just such an endless

54:56

well of stuff that you've done that

54:58

I'd love to talk to you about. Your

55:02

friendship, potential friendship, but

55:04

certainly working professional relationship

55:06

with Jim Cameron. When

55:09

did you first meet James Cameron? What was that

55:11

moment? Could you guys obviously had

55:13

an incredible run together? Yeah,

55:15

I mean, Jim, at the time when I met

55:17

him, he only has done one movie and

55:21

he pitched, you know, he

55:24

talked to me about Terminator, the first

55:26

Terminator. And I

55:29

was actually going for the interview to

55:32

play Reese to play the heroic

55:34

character. And through

55:37

some kind of a, I

55:40

showed a little bit too much enthusiasm

55:42

about the character of Terminator and

55:45

kept saying to him, whoever plays that

55:47

character, because I think OJ Simpson was

55:49

cast, not yet a contract

55:52

sign, but was cast already to play.

55:54

I would say to play the Terminator.

55:56

Wow. So he was trying

55:58

to talk me into playing. the Terminator and

56:00

I said now I want to play Reese and

56:03

he says no no you understand

56:05

the Terminator you talk about that he has to

56:07

walk like a machine and he has to kind

56:09

of turn his head like a machine he has

56:11

to kind of like prep taking

56:13

the guns apart and putting the back together

56:15

blindfolded notice this is all great stuff he

56:18

says that's exactly what he has to do

56:20

and so anyway he talked me

56:23

into it I played the Terminator and the rest

56:25

is history you know that the

56:27

movie was highly successful and was

56:30

of course very very smartly

56:32

written I mean he self-described it as

56:34

an almost an indie film because

56:40

he wrote it as part of it in

56:42

his car and it was weird it was

56:44

wild yeah yeah absolutely but anyway so then

56:47

we did a Terminator 2 that became the

56:49

highest closing movie of the year and we

56:51

did then True Lies and that

56:53

also made like one and the 50

56:55

million dollars worldwide so it was really

56:57

I had a great great streak of

57:00

movies that we did together and he

57:02

was an excellent director very demanding I

57:05

have to say and very but very very

57:08

smart he's one of those guys that if

57:10

he wants to film something a certain

57:12

way but there is no equipment around

57:14

like that no camera that could do

57:16

that then he would develop it yeah

57:18

I would develop the camera you know

57:20

it's like when he went down and

57:22

he developed this kind of like submarine

57:24

to go down the ocean to the

57:26

Titanic and look inside the Titanic he

57:28

went with his vehicle inside the Titanic

57:30

to go and to really be able

57:32

to make the film Titanic in the

57:35

best possible way so that's the way he

57:37

is he just develops it I mean he's

57:39

just a genius and everything he

57:41

does and he also helped me a

57:44

lot with the environmental stuff that I

57:46

did here in California and worldwide we've

57:48

given speeches about the environment not as

57:50

he's really into the reducing of pollution

57:53

and to clean up the world and make the world

57:55

a healthy place he's also in

57:57

very heavily into a vegan He's

58:00

a vegan for the last 10 years

58:02

already and hasn't eaten any meat because

58:04

he feels like the producing of livestock

58:07

creates the pollution. 28% of the

58:09

pollution. He shouldn't come to your house

58:11

then. Yeah, we're going to run over by a bike. I

58:14

actually got off meat at least 70% of the meat. I

58:18

do eat steaks every so often, still in

58:20

the finish, and stuff like that. I've

58:23

reduced my meat intake considerably. It's

58:27

much healthier because of it. I could listen

58:29

to you say, son of a bitch and

58:31

venous and it's all dead. I know. I know.

58:35

Get to the choppa. God damn

58:37

it. Ardo, you're

58:39

a very busy man. You have a lot of

58:41

animals that you need to tend to. But

58:45

thank you for taking the time

58:47

and talking to us and so

58:49

much success and congratulations on everything,

58:51

including your book,

58:53

which is just amazing. Be useful, Seven

58:55

Tools for Life that's out now. I'm

58:59

so happy for you. And again, just such

59:01

an honor to have you here with us. Yeah. Thank

59:04

you for doing this. Thanks for doing it, pal. This guy's Jason,

59:06

Sean, Will. I just want to tell

59:08

you that it was such

59:10

a pleasure to be interviewed by

59:12

three brilliant actors like you. And

59:15

so it was an honor for me to

59:17

do this. And I had a great time.

59:19

I really enjoyed every minute of it. Thank

59:22

you very much. Thank you very, very much. Thank you.

59:24

Good to see you. Bye-bye. Be good.

59:27

Wow. How cool was

59:30

that? Nice guest, Willie. Wow. Right.

59:33

That's pretty cool. Sean, you know, I actually kind of

59:35

didn't bring this up and I'm sure we have lots

59:38

of fans who I was because I see sometimes in

59:40

the comments like, well, you got to mention that you

59:42

know the thing and you said to know it all,

59:44

but I did meet him once your house. Right.

59:48

You're here. You remember you had that poker tournament

59:50

in your backyard. Yeah. 1999 or

59:52

2000 or something like that. Something

59:54

crazy. Wow. It was crazy. And

59:57

he, yeah, no, 2000. 2004.

1:00:00

Oh, wow. I don't think you can make a

1:00:03

real argument that that's the biggest star we've ever

1:00:05

had on this show. I mean, I mean, it's

1:00:07

like you name me one person

1:00:10

more recognizable, more

1:00:12

famous, the biggest sort of like the

1:00:14

sort of the quintessential star, you know,

1:00:17

like that's known that that every, every

1:00:19

country he goes to, like from the

1:00:21

time that the three of us were

1:00:23

teenagers into our, into our late twenties.

1:00:26

Yeah. And if anybody had said

1:00:28

to us like, who's the biggest

1:00:30

movie star in the world? You'd

1:00:33

say, yeah, for sure. It's crazy.

1:00:35

What a career that guy has

1:00:37

had. Unbelievable. I know. Pretty remarkable.

1:00:39

Very inspiring from some Lake in

1:00:41

Austria becomes like, you know, the

1:00:43

most, the most world famous bodybuilder

1:00:45

ever then the governor two

1:00:47

times governor to Tom governor. Yeah.

1:00:50

Of this, of this, of this

1:00:52

state, as he said, the fifth largest

1:00:54

economy, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. I

1:00:56

mean, it's just, and a

1:00:58

guy who really was right down the

1:01:01

middle of his politics, you know, it's

1:01:03

just incredible. And he's everything he did.

1:01:05

And yeah, it's, it's pretty remarkable to

1:01:07

watch. And like you said, Jason, very

1:01:09

humble beginnings, like doing like strongman competitions

1:01:11

against the next town, like

1:01:14

not even bodybuilding. And, uh, but,

1:01:16

you know, and I know he doesn't work out in

1:01:18

the same way these days, but I bet you he's

1:01:20

still got some pretty good looking by

1:01:23

that one

1:01:26

was going smart

1:01:40

list is 100% organic

1:01:42

and artisanally handcrafted by

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tell us about yourself by filling out

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1:02:13

is nothing more joyous than the

1:02:15

holidays. Joyous? Did you say joyous?

1:02:18

There is nothing joyous about Christmas.

1:02:21

Anyways, I have such great memories

1:02:23

with my family decorating, listening to

1:02:25

holiday music, and watching Christmas movies.

1:02:27

Sounds like a lot of noise,

1:02:29

noise, noise to me. Oh, hey,

1:02:32

well, he's already interrupted my intro, so I guess I

1:02:34

can reveal our next guest. The

1:02:36

Grinch. Anything you want to

1:02:38

tell our listeners? Well, yes, actually. I

1:02:40

have a new podcast. From

1:02:43

Wondery, Tiz the Grinch Holiday Talk

1:02:45

Show is a pathetic attempt by

1:02:47

the people of Whoville to use

1:02:50

my situation as a teachable moment.

1:02:52

So join me, the Grinch. Listen

1:02:55

as I launch a campaign against

1:02:57

Christmas cheer, grilly celebrity guests, like

1:02:59

chestnuts on an open fire. Your

1:03:01

family will love the show. As

1:03:03

you know, I'm famously Grinchy, Tiz.

1:03:06

Follow Tiz the Grinch Holiday Talk Show on

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the Wondery app or wherever you get your

1:03:10

podcasts.

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