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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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
1:03:08
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1:03:10
podcasts.
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