#587 - Arnold Schwarzenegger

Today's guest is a legendary actor, bodybuilder, tastemaker, really, in the world of bodybuilding. He was the governor of California. When you think of the American dream, he is pretty much it. The second season of his Netflix show FUBAR is dropping soon. We're going to talk about that and a lot more. I'm honored to sit down with the one and only Mr. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

So where do you work out of normal? I live in Nashville, Tennessee now. Tennessee? Yeah. I lived here for about 12 years. That's a growing city now, isn't it? Yeah. It's growing fast because it's safe. They have... You can have a weapon if you need to. So you can, you know, I think there's that semblance of you can take care of yourself type of energy. Right. And so, and it's a friendly community and it's very safe. You know, it's like a lot of cities, some of them get kind of dangerous.

It's known for its country music, right? Yeah. Did you ever listen to country music growing up? Yeah. Well, no, it's growing up. Growing up was kind of rock and roll in the 50s.

rock and roll did they have any uh because you grew up in austria right or to what age austria yeah i was in austrian until i was 19. oh and um so we were there was a program that was called Hit parade and the hit parade a television show No, no, we didn't have television So we just had the radio at home, but I had then bought I was like 15 and I just bought my first transistor radio. Yeah. In a little plastic box, right? And I paid off.

50 shillings a month until it was paid off a year later. But then that I always took down to the lake where I grew up. Then we were sitting around the boys from a village. And we were listening to this hit parade. It was from 7 to 8 at night on Wednesdays. And there was like Little Richard and Chuck Berry and all of those guys that were, you know, big in the 50s and 60s. Exactly.

And so I grew up with that. And that's why I have that station in my radio fifties at all times. Oh, so you still listen to it. It just listens. I just love it. Right. Then when I came over here. I became aware of a little bit of the country, Western kind of music. Did you go to a concert in Austria? Was there a concert you ever went to before you came here? No, no. I could never afford a concert. Are you kidding me? I had no money. But I mean, when I came over here…

I then became aware of the country western songs, especially Johnny Cash. He did a television show, a weekly television show. And it was great, great music and so I fell in love with that. And then friends of mine here in America then took me to concerts. You know, it was like a jazz concert.

or a country western concert and all of this stuff and so then that's when i started really getting into it but i mean i love the music but when you grow up in austria the most of the stuff that you hear is really austrian music Is it beautiful music? Beautiful music, but I mean, that's what you hear on public radio and public television also. That's what you see and you see operas.

and you hear concerts. My father himself was a musician. He played six instruments. Six instruments? Yeah, six instruments. All kind of like a flixi hoan. trumpet, saxophone, clarinet, all of the stuff like that. A lot of traditional music he would play? Yeah, very traditional because he was the conductor.

of the Chendemarie music, which is the police, the country police, like the sheriffs. Chendemarie, it's called? Yeah, Chendemarie is a French word, chendarm. And so he was a chendarm, he was a police officer. And so he played in that Gendarmerie music. Would he play at home or where would he play at home? He practiced at home. You know, while I was training, I remember.

I was doing my workouts and he would be standing, the window would be opened up at our house and he would be kind of playing out to the window, out the window and there was a kid that was my age. that lived 150 yards away from us. He was one of my best friends. And he also learned how to play the trumpet at the age of like 13 or 14. So he would play over there.

and then my dad would play over here, and they were going back and forth like that. It was really fun. Like a couple of birds almost. Yeah, but I never, for some reason or the other, my dad always wanted me to get into music. Not as a professional. Did you try it at all? Yeah, I tried it. It just didn't work. What instrument? Well, he tried with trumpet, obviously. Then he thought that he can seduce me kind of into the music.

because I liked Elvis. So he said, well, why don't you learn how to play the guitar? I don't play the guitar. He says, but there's a farmer that is a hundred yards up the road. He plays the guitar and he can teach. He's also a teacher.

And so I would go to him, but it just, you know, I just could see right away that that was not meant for me. Was there a lot of like, when you were a child in Austria, was there a lot of like individualism or was it, were things very like. regimented like in america you could like you can be an individual right but some countries it's a little bit harder to kind of like

you know, be an individual and have a voice. I'm just wondering, what was it like there when you were young? Did it feel like things were regimented or it was okay to be rebellious? What was it like there? Well, I was rebellious in a way because... I mean, think about it, soccer and track and field, they were kind of like the in-sports. But when I was exposed to weightlifting and to powerlifting and to bodybuilding...

I fell in love with that. And also because my heroes like Reg Park and Steve Reeves, they were doing Hercules movies, and I just started looking at those movies, right? And so I said to myself, I want to be like that. I don't want to be a top soccer player. I want to be like that. I want to have some muscles like that. And I want to get into movies like that. That all of a sudden became my dream. So you really wanted to be like this? Yeah. So I was fixated.

I was like kind of like concentrating that I kind of put visually my head on Reg Park's body. There was a picture, a famous picture where he... won the Mr. Universe contest in London in 1951. And when I saw that picture, it was like him holding the trophy and flexing his bicep. Yeah. And then I said to myself,

Can you imagine if this is me? I'm gonna make this me. And so that's what I was training for. So my parents thought it was kind of like, what is that all about? Where did that come from? And the whole neighborhood was kind of like... wondering what is this guy doing training every day, two hours, three hours a day. I came home and instead of having lunch, I would put my sit-up board up in the kitchen table.

And I would be doing sit-ups. 500 sit-ups during lunch. So you were addicted to it. Totally addicted. Because I was driven by my vision. It was always there. Even when I was in school. I would sometimes just wander off when the teacher was teaching out there and writing up something on the blackboard and I would be looking at that and then all of a sudden he could see that I was just kind of like staring off.

And then, all of a sudden, he threw a chalk at my head. And I looked back again. He says, Arnold, I'm up here. I mean, I know you're looking at the beautiful trees out there. They're more beautiful maybe than me, but you got to listen to what I'm saying here. So I noticed I was always kind of drifting off and visualizing my dreams.

Always visualizing my dreams, being on that stage in the Mr. Universe contest, doing maybe Hercules movies, going to America and all of that. So it was very different. So that was not the norm. So I did step out of the norm because everyone else was talking about, oh, I'm going to go and get a job with the government because I want to make sure that I collect my pension when I was 65 and all this.

I had no interest in any of that pension. I mean, what are we talking about now? The age of 18, we start talking about pensions? I mean, it's crazy, right? But that's the European way. Everyone looks for stability, especially in those times where government was really ruling.

So then that's also I think an explanation of why when I came over here to America in 1968 and I saw Hubert Humphrey and Nixon. Hubert Humphrey. Who is Hubert Humphrey? He was the vice president under Johnson. Okay. After Kennedy? Well, Johnson was after Kennedy. Then Hubert Humphrey was his vice president. So he was running for president.

oh yeah looks like he eats gumdrops that guy and so it was really interesting when i listened to the debates and i didn't understand maybe three-quarter of it but I had a friend that spoke German and he translated for me. And when I heard of what Nixon said, it was so opposite of what I grew up with, which I didn't like. The government was kind of in charge of everything.

in austria in austria exactly and since i was in germany and in all those countries over there in europe socialism was the system that i grew up in so when when nixon spoke i felt like wow Get government off your back. Get the government off your back. That sounds great. Wow. And lowering the taxes. Strong military. Strong police force.

Strong, very strong, and a strong economy. Let the people be free. Let them shop all around the world. And blah, blah, blah. And I said to myself, this is like unbelievable. And then when Humphrey spoke. It was like I was back in Austria. You know, so then I said to myself, what are the parties here? Because they didn't understand really the parties here. Why? What was it about Humphreys that made it feel like you were back in Austria? Well, I said, government is the solution. Oh, I see.

So he was more like the cage. We all know that the government is not the solution. I mean, it's like the free enterprise, the economy. I got to let people be free and not be controlled by government. Government is good.

But you have to find kind of the middle ground of all this stuff. Yeah, you can't, if you rely solely on the government for your life, then you'll just be a, you'll be a part of the government, basically. And you become a vegetable. Yeah. Because you create a safety net, then you don't have the will to really kind of make it.

on your own so what the big advantage of coming to america was that there was no safety net so i was on my own yeah so i had to get really creative okay how can i go and go to school and educate myself How can I go and get more English classes? How can I go to Santa Monica City College and at the same time work and at the same time train five hours a day and do all of those kind of things? So this is...

But it was up to me now to be successful, not up to the government. Oh, I like that. So the government was providing the opportunities and orders, the structure. But that is what I enjoyed. And so this is why I became kind of like a Nixon Republican. And people always were kind of like... Especially in California, which is a much more liberal state. I really enjoyed it. Nixon, of course, came from California.

Question, Arnold. Was it scary to tell your parents that, to leave Austria? Did people do that at the time? I'm just a little bit curious on what it was like to say, I'm leaving here and I'm going to go to America. Was it even a popular path for people to go?

Remember, I started saying this when I was 10. Ah, I see. So it had been, your parents knew it was in your head. Yeah, exactly. So I saw a documentary, a black and white documentary in a school that showed always those films with this eight millimeters, whatever. films on the little screen. And like I said, television was not the common thing at that time in Austria, so we didn't grow up with that. But they showed the film and they saw a documentary about America.

Now I see the Empire State Building. I said, wait a minute. This building is like, you know, a hundred times taller than any of the buildings in Graz, where I grew up, right? In Austria. And... Then I saw the Golden Gate Bridge. Then I saw the Pacific Coast Highway. I saw all of this kind of, you know, great, great things. I saw the six-lane highways. I saw the big Cadillacs, you know, with the big fins sticking out, you know.

And so I said to myself, and then we had all this little kind of cars and Muscle Beach and all of this stuff that did Hollywood. And so I said, I got to go to America. I got to go to America. Austria is not the place. It was almost kind of like. that my gene was over here. So it kind of, I gravitated towards America. Not that they hated Austria, but they just wanted to leave and go do something different. So my parents always saw.

me as being different. So it was not a surprise to them that I wanted to go as soon as I was through with high school and trade school, that I wanted to go into the military.

So I went in the military because after you go and serve in the military, then you can get your passport and you can travel. So you had to go to the military to get your passport in Austria? That's right, yeah. Is it still that way? No, I don't think it's different now. Everything is different because…

Everything has changed. Yeah. And you had a brother as well, right? Did he go in the military? He was in the military. Was he older or younger? He was a year older. Oh, cool. What's his name? So he was a year Meinhardt. Meinhardt. Meinhardt, yeah, exactly. So he was a year earlier, but he... Passed away, as you know. I didn't know it. At the age of 24. Oh, I didn't know that. Passed away. Yeah. That's him right there? Yeah. No, this is a Franz Tischinger. He was my training partner in Munich.

So after the army, the Austrian army, I immediately left to go to Munich because I got an offer because now in the meantime I... became the European champion in bodybuilding in the junior division. Okay, so you go through the military. So, yeah, so I became this, while I was in the military, I won this title, you know, best built man of Europe, junior.

And I was 18 years old. So now I got this offer in Munich that's the biggest gym to go and become a trainer. So I said to myself, okay, I'm going to serve out my term here, get out of here a year later, and then I go to Munich. and i become a trainer then not then i can train anytime 24 hours a day because i actually lived in the gym so i could get up literally if i wake up at three in the morning

And, you know, I can, let's say, I can fall back to sleep. I go out to the gym. How did you live in there? Like where? They just had a bed in the side or something? Exactly. It was a little room. It was from here to there where you sit and a bed. And just a little kind of a thing with cabinet with drawers. I put my stuff in. That was it. That was it. And then I walked out of it. It used to be an office there for the gym. And I just moved in there because I had no money.

And you were like, this is what I do all the time anyway. This is like. Yeah. So I was in heaven. Yeah. Are you kidding me? I mean, I went out there, turned on the lights, and I was posing with all the overhead lights. I was posing in the mirror all the time. At night, I would wake up and go out there posing. So I was like, you know, very intense and very...

I'm passionate about bodybuilding and perfecting my body and going to London to that very same contest that Reg Park won the Mr. Universe and that very same year when I went down to Munich in 1966. I became now Mr. Europe, literally two months later, and then best buildman of Europe, and then I went to the Mr. Universe contest with the age of 19. I was the youngest competitor, and I came second.

And where was that held at? It was in London. The same stage as Reg Park. So you still hadn't made it to the U.S. yet? No, no, not yet. And was your brother also lifting weights? Was he a weightlifter? No, he was not interested in that. He was much more... I think, academic, I would say. Because he read a lot and he studied a lot. He was really good in school. I was not that good in school. Did you guys get along pretty well? Is that him or no? That's him, yeah. That's Meinhard.

oh that's a cool yeah what is mine mine hot yeah i just wonder what it would be like because i have a brother too so i'm just thinking sometimes like it would be um yeah i just think about my brother a lot so i guess i was just curious what it was like um what your brother was like

Well, he was different than me, but we did hang out together. He did come to the gym every so often, and he worked out with me, but he was not into it. He wasn't passionate. Naturally, he had a better body than I had, actually. Oh, really? Yeah, he had a really V-shaped body.

White shoulders, a very, very small waist. God, they always give it to the person that doesn't want it. I know. Yeah, we had a guy like that. But that's, I think, what is interesting about it is that you struggle much more in the beginning and to catch up. And then all of a sudden, you know, you see your own potential. Yeah. You know, you don't see it in the beginning. But then, I mean, I think it was like going to the gym was my first time.

where I got compliments. Because my parents weren't into that. It was the Austrian kind of upbringing, kind of everything, they correct everything. The grades are no good. And the soccer, why didn't you kick the ball? You were like...

10 yards away from the goal. You didn't kick it in. You tripped over the wall. I mean, come on, Arnold. It was always some kind of a complaint. Always trying to correct you. Exactly. That's right. Yeah. It was always a complaint. And then if you made a mistake, you get smacked and stuff like that. It was that kind of upbringing.

But it was very helpful to me because it actually gave me the motivation. who leave austria and to give you control i mean if your weight if your bodybuilding it's just you against you there's no you don't have to depend on anybody else i mean i guess you have to depend on the judges when you go to actually Yes, but also at the same time, even though it is a sport that you are on your own.

But in the end, you still rely on your training partners. I was very fortunate always that I had the mentality of being able to attract the best training partners. So I had guys that were as hungry as I was.

Because that's the important thing. If you have someone that is not as hungry, then it doesn't really mean anything. If you have someone that competes with you, that counts out the reps, then he wants to do an extra two reps more than you do. And you get up the weight and all this stuff. So always it's good training.

I'm a big believer in that we really can't do anything by ourselves. That's why we say, don't call me a self-made man, because I'm a product with a lot, a lot of help. If it is in bodybuilding, or just, I mean, think about Joe Weider. after winning two Mr. Universe titles in London, the amateur Mr. Universe the following year, 1968, the professional Mr. Universe.

So I was like the youngest Mr. Universe ever. And that was the year after you got second? That's right. Okay. And you were 20 years old. 1967, I was 20 years old. Wow. And I wanted to become the youngest Mr. Universe now. I'm down that stage, exactly where Reg Park was, and Windham is the Universe. And not only that, but Reg Park immediately sent me a fax. to London and invited to South Africa to give posing exhibitions and do a strongman act down there. So I was invited by Reg Park.

Eventually, by the end of the year, I went down to South Africa. And you still hadn't gone to the US yet? I haven't gone to the US. What brought me to the US was, which was kind of my dream, someone would notice me in bodybuilding.

that it would take me to because bodybuilding was an American sport. Oh, it was? Not a European sport. It was an American sport, really. And so I all of a sudden get this invitation from Joe Weider. who was the publisher of the muscle magazines he published like four big muscle magazines flex and strength and health and uh oh yeah we used to get some of them i think when i was a kid and uh we didn't use them

And he had also an equipment company, the food supplement company. Because it's weights, right? I've seen the weights before. It's weights. It's the food supplements. And his brother was the head of the organization, the Bodybuilding Federation. Got it. And this is when you came to the U.S.? Yeah, so he brought me over in 1968. Okay, before we get there, Arnold, and not to interrupt or anything, but you did a show, you went to like one of the first interracial shows that was in South Africa?

That was later on. Oh, that was later on. Okay. So that was 1975. Got it. Okay. You're absolutely correct. So you get to the U.S. Very good research. Do you remember your first, thank you. Do you remember your first day in America? Oh, yes. It was in Miami.

I went to Miami and I was competing there in a competition and then after that I came out to California and I was picked up in California at the airport by... a bodybuilding photographer by the name of Arizella and Dick Tyler who wrote for the Muscle magazines. They picked me up and took me to an apartment that Joe Weider rented for me.

And it was fantastic. I mean, from then on, I got all the help in the world now because that's when I really realized the generosity of the American people. I mean, they gave me... I mean, the bodybuilders, there was Thanksgiving came up after that. Because I came over here in October, November was Thanksgiving. So there was like this whole thing about...

You know, giving me pillows and giving me blankets and giving me dishes and silverware. Where were you? Homeless or something? Say again. Why were they giving you all that? Oh, just to make you feel welcome. When you move into an apartment, what do you get? I mean, it was a furniture.

apartment and you were living in la at that point yeah there was it was in the valley over there in the valley and then all those bodybuilders came to me and it brought me all this stuff it was like unbelievable so i could not even believe how generous they were. And this was a lot of times people that didn't know me at all. But just because bodybuilding and joining a club, you know, you become kind of part of that family.

And so they were very, very sweet and kind. I would never forget that. That's actually what made me then think about, well, when I ever make it, I will give that back. I will help other people myself, you know.

So what's it like finding a gym that really fits you? Like, what's that like at that level of bodybuilding where there are a couple of gyms you try it out and you're like, this isn't it? Or did you already know where you wanted to be? I came over here. There was a gym called Vince's Gym that had all the champions training. Where was that located? It was over in the valley on Vendura Boulevard in North Hollywood.

and a very, very famous gym. This is where, you know, Larry Scott, Mr. Olympia trained, and Don Howard, who was Mr. America, and Don Peterson, all those guys were training there. And then I ventured over here every so often for powerlifting. There was a gym called Gold's Gym. Not many bodybuilders trained there. Some, but I mean not many. Most of them were like shot putters and powerlifters and weightlifters and so on. And it was a much more rough gym.

But somehow, because of the Austrian gym where I kind of started the first three years in this weightlifting club, it reminded me of that. So I started getting more and more attracted to that gym. And then I moved from the valley over here. To Venice. To Venice. And I was still part of Santa Monica, actually. It was, you know, Ashland, one of the streets not far away from here. And then I went to daily training there. And then Gorge Gym, then other bodybuilders came.

from all over the country to train there too. Because you were there? Well, I was there and that was Joe Weider now started writing in his magazines about Arnold is training in Gorge Gym. And, you know, if you want to go and train in a great place, this is the place to go. Was it hard for you to train? I mean, were people at that point just standing around watching you train? No, because there was a lot of, you know.

this place was filled with great body. Oh, I see, yeah. Oh, yeah. So then others came out here from Florida and from Kentucky and from New York, and they all started joining Gorge Gym instead of training there. So this was kind of like the place. that had the best bodybuilders in the world training in coach. That's how coach gym became famous. Because it was a little gym. It was not big. It was 3,000.

square feet i think it was well i remember when i first moved to uh los angeles we went to a firehouse i don't know if it's still there or not yeah yeah was that the place it was a big protein place it was like a was that maybe i think well firehouse now is is a is a restaurant down there It used to be like a place where you could get literally like a bowl of chicken. Yeah, yeah. You still can get there. You can...

You get like 30 eggs or whatever. Yeah, exactly. That's crazy. It was like, yeah, I remember I ate, I ordered like a month worth of food right there just for, just at lunch. Yeah, it took me like five hours to get out of there just because I didn't want to like. Yeah, I was never a big eater.

So to me, that meant nothing. If I had a little steak and two scrambled eggs, I was perfectly fine. I was full. For the day? Not for the day, no. But let's say in the morning, steak and eggs or scrambled eggs or something like this. I always had to take... protein drinks in between meals because I could never eat enough to get my 250 grams of protein because I weighed 250 pounds and the idea then was that for every

What kind of pound of body weight you have is you should have one gram of protein. Yeah. When, because I used to buy, I don't know if I used to bodybuild. I used to use steroids when I was like growing up and just lift weights a lot. I loved it for years, you know? And I think whenever I get like. Whenever I quit working as much, I'll probably try to get back more.

weightlifting. Was steroids pretty popular then or what was it like? Was that part of the, because I'm sure it was part of the culture. Well, no, it was not yet. It was something that was in the beginning very experimental.

So would you hear it? Like, would it be like on the black market or it was just like public? It was just like people would talk about it like as a supplement. It might be in some places it was in the black market. I don't know. But all I know is, is that we always went to a doctor.

because they want to make sure that they measure your blood pressure and they check your health and all of that stuff because it has side effects oh yeah and especially if you take it beyond of what they recommend so if they recommend let's say one shot a week and you start taking one shot a day or something, which is of course the case a lot of today, that people are overdosing and that's why you see some bodybuilders actually die.

because of the overdose of drugs and all this stuff. Did you see friends go down that road or other bodybuilders go down that road where they would get addicted to it? Not in my days. It was new, but now it's, I think, really somewhat, I would say, out of control. Yeah. Is a sequel better than the original? We're going to find out at UFC 316. It's a rematch nine months in the making.

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Like, you've had such an interesting life and career. You've gotten to do so many things. What do you think? Was there a time period in your life that you wish you had maybe done, like, a little bit different, you know? No. I don't really. I just know. move that ever made career-wise. I thought that I had a real good nose when to make my moves forward and when I should retire from bodybuilding, when I felt like, okay, I don't have the joy anymore.

After five Mr. Universe competitions that I won, Mr. World and Mr. Olympia six times, I retired in 1975. after that competition in South Africa that you mentioned just earlier. So that was kind of the last competition. I did come back in 1980 again for the Mistolome Beer, but that was really just an afterthought.

But I mean, really, I retired in 1975. After the South African show? After the South African show, yeah. Can you tell me a little bit about that? Because I bet it was really interesting. Just South Africa is probably my favorite country. I mean, it is beautiful. It is a gorgeous country. And of course... At that time, blacks and whites and everyone was separated. I mean, separated meaning they had different rights. You know, the whites were the ones that ruled the country.

The blacks were kind of kept down. Was Desmond Tutu down there at the time? Do you know if he was speaking? Yes, of course he was. But I mean, the whites really were kind of in control. They were kind of the leaders of it. Exactly. The Dutch and the British. It was always a fight between those two in the parliament and all that. And so then I got to meet and to know the Minister of Immigration.

and he was also minister of sports and minister of labor and blah, blah, blah. So he was a very, very powerful guy in administration. And when I met him, he said to me, Arnold, when you come over here to South Africa and you do posing exhibitions and strongman acts, you should also go to the townships. To the townships. Yeah. Yeah. So I said, the townships. Like the Sowetos? Yeah. So I said, was it? Of course, I did not know. And so he then explained it to me. And then he would organize.

with the Reg Park together for me to go in because it was not what we call the safest place in town. Not that they wanted to do harm to you, but I mean, for someone like me to come in there and do a demonstration there. I mean, everyone got lit. I mean, they were drunk, they were celebrating that someone would come in and give them the respect and do something special for them. So very appreciative, right? So I would go in there and I was in the cage.

Into the Sowetos? Is that what it's called? Can you bring that up for me, Nick? The townships, they're all over the place. In every town in South Africa, there's townships like that. There's places where... the plaques would live, right? In a very, very kind of flow. I think they're called the Sowetos. Are they or not? That's one of them. Yeah, Sowetos. Yeah, I think so.

So in any case, so I will go in there and do a demonstration and do my posing and lift weights and all of this kind of stuff. In these small townships? thousands of them surrounding and then just screaming loud and having the greatest time. And then we would go out. Oh, they would put you on the grill. I'm surprised. I bet they were so hungry. Sometimes they would be like, look at this well-fed guy. It was fantastic. The reception and everything.

The reason I'm mentioning that is because it led to the conversation with, you know, that Minister of Sports. He said to me, he says, we should have an international competition here in South Africa. He says, we should work together on that. And I said, okay, we will. And his name was Dr. Kornhoff. Dr. Kornhoff. And he was an extraordinary man. Very, very smart. But it just shows you that there was people like him that already wanted to do more for the blacks.

You elevate them. So he then, I set him up with Ben Weider, with Joe Weider Sprotto, who was the head of the International Federation of Bodybuilding. They got together and they hit it off really well. And so Joe Weider and Ben Weider worked with him to bring the Mr. Olympia contest to South Africa, to Pretoria, the capital of South Africa. But the conditions were that...

that they were able to have a mixed audience. Okay, so black and white audience. Had they done that ever? Never. Wow. So there was the first time. There was black, it was blacks, but there was not just black and white in South Africa. There was...

a group that was called blacks, there was a group that was called colored, there was a group that was called Indians, there was a group that was white. I mean, there was like five different Asians. So everyone was different. A lot of variety. It was kind of like... It was not considered we are all equal there, right? And so what Ben negotiated was that we have a mixed audience with anyone, no matter what their nationality and what their kind of color is or religious beliefs.

Anyone should be able to come to this competition. And also not only that, but to be a judge, we will have also... Half black and half white judges, blah, blah, blah. So was that scary to go before a black judge? Did you think that they would judge you fairly? I would be. No, not at all. Because they were not.

I mean, I was competing in America at that time already. Oh, you were used to it. And I was used to it. There was Leroy Colbert, who was the first guy with one 22-inch arms. Big, big bodybuilder from the 50s and 60s. And he was a judge in New York several times. And he was a totally honest judge. There was other black judges that, so there was, that's the great thing about bodybuilding. Bodybuilding, there was no prejudice. You know, there were some people.

and they were prejudiced. But in general, especially under the Wieders, the Wieders, I think because they were Jewish, I think it had something to do with the fact that they were. that kind of open-minded about it. Oh yeah. A lot of times they're the leaders. Exactly. They're like the leaders in promoting diversity. That's right. Yes. There was no prejudice. There was no, there was no prejudice there at all. And as a matter of fact, there was.

A guy by the name of Bob Hoffman, he always made sure that when the AAU had their Mr. America competition, only whites could win. No black could win there. Oh, really? Yeah, so that was really embarrassing. So there were some barriers within the... There was guys like Sergio Lever... that would be competing in 1966 or 1965 in the Mr. American, he would get beaten by white guys. And it was totally unfair. Or Harold Poole got beaten in 1963 by Vern Weaver, which I thought was unfair.

So what they did then was, because there was now two federations, there was the IFBB, there was the AAU in Napa. AAU? AAU, the American Athletic Union. Yeah. And so they then went from that federation. over to the IFBB and there Sergio Lever won immediately. He became Mr. America, he became Mr.

World and Mr. Universe, then Mr. Olympia, and he actually, in the first Mr. Olympia competition, Sergio Lever beat me. Wow. 1969, fairly. I mean, there was no complaints there at all because he was extraordinary, right? And... So then in 1970 I came back and I beat him in the Mr. World competition in Columbus, Ohio. And then two weeks later in the Mr. Olympia in New York. So we were big rivals and I was of course a big admirer of his.

in a big island. He treated me really well. We went to Chicago and trained together at the Duncan YMCA and all that stuff. I wanted to learn from him. I love the YMCA, don't you? Oh, absolutely. It's great. I've always been a fan of the YMCA.

It's just kind of like they're always a little bit like it's never perfect there, but everything's kind of like a little bit old enough where I like the equipment. You know, it's never too fancy. Yeah, but you can get the job done. Right. So to me. It's not about the luxury. It's just much more about the will to succeed. And when I see pictures online of bodybuilders that are training in the sand.

in Africa right now, blacks, that are having cement weights on a bar. And a cheap bench. And when they do their bench press, and the other day I... I saw one of those kind of videos and they get up from the bench. I'm looking at this guy could win Mr. America or win Mr. California or something like that. He looks extraordinary. So it's really... not the technology so much. It helps you, but I mean, in the end it is really...

What you have to work in is the will. Oh, the will was the best. There's nothing better than just having like a little weight bench outside in your backyard or something. And you go out there or in your garage. I did my deadlifts right in front of the house in Graz, in Tal.

which now is a museum, and the house where I grew up in. Your home is a museum where you grew up? The home, exactly, yeah. I'm going to go over there in two weeks. Our pump club is meeting there with the European... bodybuilders members from the pump club and then there's some americans that always are coming over there that audience in south africa what was did did it have the the feeling during the show of like this is like a novel thing this is like a

Like, was there that energy in the event? There was so much energy in that auditorium. And it was not a big auditorium. It maybe held, I would say, 1,500 people, I would guess. And it was, the energy was fantastic. The joy of being together was fantastic. And I really think they had a tremendous impact also in the future of South Africa. And it was just wonderful that there were.

leaders there that believed in that and wanted to organize. And everyone, the police and everyone was really cooperative, everyone worked together, so it was a fantastic show, a fantastic competition.

And of course I won. So it's always a fantastic competition. You know, when he went, my sixth Mr. Olympia. But I, what was interesting about it was I got a thousand dollars cash price. And I was... really upset about that because I felt like, wait a minute, in 1965, 10 years ago, Larry Scott, when he won Mr. Olympia got a thousand dollars.

And now 10 years later, we still get $1,000. So that's what made me actually motivated to go then in front of the IFBB, the International Bodybuilding Congress and to ask them for permission to organize. the next year's Mr. Olympia in Columbus, Ohio. And that's exactly what we did. I got the permission and then we upped the cash price to $5,000, then to $10,000, to $20,000. We doubled it every year.

And now we're giving over a million dollars away for cash prizes for the Arnold Classic. What's like one of the things right before you go on? Because I'm guessing you're backstage, right? You wait to go on and they call your name out and then you go out and do your poses. Is that how it goes? Well, in those days, the way it worked was the whole lineup of all the competitors. Now, if you understand, Mr. Olympia means that you have to have one.

a world championship title before. So Mr. World, Mr. International or Mr. Universe. So those guys are the top guys. So you have like six or seven guys that are on the stage. And so the judges, they ask you the order come out. You have a certain time at one o'clock, be ready for pre-judging. And then you come out and then you stand there. And then the judges will shuffle you around. This is okay, can number seven.

go over where number one is and number one goes over where number seven was. You know, they just see them next to each other, different people next to each other. They say turn around, turn sideways. What's the scariest way to be turned? Like, was there ever a part where you're like, this is, I got to kind of cheat this angle a little bit.

No, I mean, for me, it was basically always a tremendous joy to be up on stage because it's one of those things where you feel like when you're really ready. I always felt kind of like in most cases. that I was so ready that no matter what angle it was I was ready to go and I had always a smile on my face and I flexed everything and you know the key thing is that you have practiced your posing enough that you can stand there

In a flexed position, it looks relaxed. You stand there like this, but you're still flexed. You keep the stomach in, and you keep the abs flexed, and the calves flexed, and the biceps and the tricep flexed. So that was... The idea, and I was always having great joy with that. So it's a lot of acting too. It's kind of some acting up there. It is one of the great forms of acting. Why? Because you cannot go and say to the judge, look at me.

I'm the most perfect up here. Look at my abs. No, you have to do all that without talking. You have to communicate with them and also with the audience. Because remember the sound of the audience. It's very important because you want to get big applause so the judges say, oh, this guy got the most applause. I mean, he definitely, you know, has the best body. So, but then you wait for the individual posing.

So then you come at one after the next. You do a three-minute posing routine. And what's the tricks there? Is there any trick of the trade, a last-minute thing you used? You would, like, pinch your tits or just rub some just... like molasses in your land? Like, was there, what was like a last minute thing people would do? Put ice under your arms or something? No, I think the key thing is just that you, when you go there, that you're so ready that you don't shake.

You get how many bodybuilders, I'm sure you've seen it. They hit a shot and then after a few seconds, they started shaking. Oh, so that's bad. For that level, I mean, it's natural when you have a Mr. Venice Beach competition, or Mr. Muscle Beach. Or Mr. Montgomery, Alabama, yeah.

Beginners, of course, they make mistakes and they're not as well trained. But when you get to the Mr. Olympia level, it's unacceptable. Ah, so you want to make it look so that you want to control the shake. You hit the shot. Yeah. And you smile. You look at the judges. And you smile. And then you smoothly move into the next shot. And then the hands, just the movement. It has to be all very gracefully.

and no shaking. So that again, that you say to the judges, look, I am so ready for this. Unlike maybe the others. So that's what it is. So it's all about the seven Ps. You know, the seven Ps, proper prior planning prevents pissed poor performance. Right in the Marines. They have that. Upper prior planning prevents piss poor performance. Exactly. So that's what it's about. It's the same there. You come prepared. You make sure that you work. Everyone has weak points.

So you have to make sure that you worked as much in your weak points so that the judges see that you're not blind, that you noticed that last year you maybe had not so defined legs. Yes, maybe you won, but the legs were so-so. And then the next time when you come back, you have to have ripped legs. Right. So then the judge said, that guy got the message. So this is what it's all about. Because in the end, you really are.

as an artist. You're a sculptor. You're not just the athlete that's competing, but you're the sculptor. You're sculpting on your own body instead of a chisel and a hammer that you kind of sculpt. a physique, you do it now with machines and with the reps and the different exercises where you say, I need a little bit more of the rear deltoids. I need a little bit more separation. in the front between the deltoid and the pectoral muscle. I need a little bit more cut in the lower abs.

And the calves have to be balanced. They're not big enough for the arms because it should be the same size as your arms are. And all of those kind of things. So you become kind of like an artist in your own body. That's what the idea is.

Did, was there a, was it, did you ever like have to work out the top of your feet or your hand? Were there things you could do for your face even and stuff like that? No, no. I mean, there are people that pay attention to that. I didn't. Right. To me, it's always. about the bottom line. So, but what is it that we're doing here? What we're doing here is we are showing the most perfect physique and who is the best in actually displaying that physique. Because it's all about, you know.

Presentation, presentation, presentation. It's like a piece of art. You know, you can have a painting that is maybe amongst many other paintings and you wouldn't even notice there's a Picasso. But then when you put it up there on a white wall. and with a beautiful gold frame, with a special lighting, and then you have someone talk about it, now you can auction something off for a lot of money. So it's all about presentation. And so this is why I think the same is also in bodybuilding.

and the way you present your body and the way you present your muscles.

And did at that point, I mean, I can see now how even like lobbying for certain things to be changing in like in the prize money. Right. I can almost see where your direction comes to even end up in politics. Right. You can start to see it like, well, this should be more this. There should be some.

adjustments you weren't just like a competitor you were also somebody who was examining how things were run and how they could be better especially when you were partnering with guys like uh ben wider and stuff like that and probably inspired by those guys to probably get this

larger vision of things that were going on um did you when you got into film so at that point you know how to act you know how to impress the front row you know how to use probably every element of your body to impress people so that kind of just leans leads kind of perfectly into acting. Yeah, but remember that what is key in all of this stuff is also personality.

and i don't know if you can train a personality or not i mean i don't know what you think about that but i mean i think some people just don't have the greatest personality oh yeah some people are boring people have a great personality yeah And so I think that I developed over the years, not that someone taught me that, but I developed a personality because my joy for whatever I did came through. So when people talk to me about bodybuilding in those days.

I was not shy of the press. Other bodybuilders for decades didn't talk to the press. So when I came over here, people thought that when they saw my body, they thought it was a football player or was a wrestler or something like that. But the last thing they guessed was a bodybuilder. So they didn't know about bodybuilding. So I, in 1974, I hired, I was the first bodybuilder to hire a publicist. And so we went and did talk shows, the Johnny Carson show, Murph Griffin show.

Mike Douglas show and all of those shows. And were there football teams that tried to get you to come and play for them? Did you ever get an offer? No, because I mean, I think I made it very clear in my interviews that my vision is be the greatest bodybuilder of all times.

and to go then into acting. So even when people came to me, because I was always very good in business, I studied business, I got my degree in business while I was over here and doing the training for bodybuilding. At SMC? Say again? Did you go to SMC? I went to Santa Monica City College to UCLA and to you know got my degree in business and it was like business administration and I was just naturally always gifted.

for making deals and being creative. Got it. And I always understood how it works. And so in bodybuilding, for instance, it's one thing to say, okay, I'm going to up the cash price. to $20,000 let's say from like within a three-year period we gave away $20,000 in the beginning but then you have to say okay where do we get this money from?

sponsors right so now i have to go out and hustle the sponsors and says now of course we have the biggest bodybuilding and fitness convention in columbus ohio in the world We have 200,000 people coming through there in three days. We have every company displaying their products, their machines, their food supplements, clothing. At the Arnold is called? The Arnold Classic. Arnold Classic. It's always the first week.

in in in march and it's three days the whole thing so and now like i said now we raise enough money where we can give away over a million dollars this coming year you're going to go in up to a million and a half dollars so it's like so it's all kinds of great things happen but I was able to build it to that because I have a business mind. Right. And I know exactly how that works and how do we attract everyone and bring everyone together. Were there women all weightlifting at that time or no?

The first Miss Olympia competition was a guy by the name of Schneider. He was back east from the Philadelphia area and we did that together. Oh, you guys started it? Yeah, well, yes, because the women were all kind of complaining, why can't we compete? So we did a little, we call it Miss Olympia. And because the International Federation of Bodybuilding at that point had no interest.

in women bodybuilding why was that do you think was it just their view of women at the time no it's it's at the time it was they were stuck in we created this federation for the guys oh yeah why are we why are we getting It's like Jim. It's like Joe Gord. He would not let women train. Why? Not because it was against women. No, we love women coming in there. But he figured, I don't have the room for another bathroom here. I have 3,000 square feet.

I've only for the man, the shower and the bathroom. Some of those girls are pissed standing up. I'll tell you. Yeah. But I mean, we had women coming in and their watches work out, but they couldn't train there until they got in a bigger space. And then women were included in the whole thing. And so.

The Federation was a little bit reluctant to do that. And when we did the Miss Olympia and all of the girls really enjoyed that, that they were able to go on stage to also compete with their muscles and all that stuff.

The Federation then woke up and they said, okay, we're going to get involved in that and we're going to go again. And since then it has been booming and they have been doing not only... uh bodybuilding competitions but you know fitness competitions and uh beauty company does arnold classic have women's division oh yeah absolutely oh that's great i didn't know that sorry oh wow look at these chocolate babies right here huh

Yeah, everybody kind of gets chocolatier, huh? They're tanned. Now you have this tanning stuff. Was it real tanning back then or was it? No. what was the key to the best tan the best tan we got the best tan that we could get so i would work out a lot of times outside in the weightlifting platform in venice oh yeah so so you get kind of tanned all over the place

and doing chin-ups and doing bench presses and incline and dips and all this stuff. Then we would jump in the ocean again, come back and work out some more and all this. But in the end, we then added to that tan. I don't know if this exists anymore. Bring it up 10 in a minute, huh? 60-second sous-vay, they called it. That was, in those days, it was the big trick. So you put it on with the sponge.

You know, you just poured it out on a little plate. You put it on with a sponge and you hit a buddy of yours. They did your back and stuff again, the back of the thighs and all of that stuff. So this is what they did. That's why a lot of guys, they spray it on. They have actual. experts come to the bodybuilding show and backstage there's people that manufacture this tainting stuff and they would then help bodybuilders and spray it on.

and all of that so it is much more professional today but at the time so you would somebody they would put that tan in a can basically yeah they would put it in a bottle it was in a bottle and you'd have a friend do your back would anybody ever sabotage somebody and not do their back really good

No, but I mean, there were some people that were really stupid and then did not know how to put it on. Maybe it would show kind of like streaks of the, of the, because it didn't have a little mulatto around the wrist. So we put on just a light kind of layer. It was all about just a little subtle thing because...

It's not going to make you win. It just makes you the photos look a little bit better when you have a little bit of color. And what was it called if somebody went too dark? Would you just call him a little chocolate bunny or something? No, nothing. It was up to the individual. As a matter of fact, they tell you.

that you can see in our Arnold Classic, a lot of times when the guys turn around, you sometimes don't even know who is black and who is not. Oh yeah, I know, it's the best. Because they're so dark now. The tanning has gotten so sophisticated. Look at this guy. When he turns around, you would think it's a black guy standing there. For sure. And a nutmeg fella, yeah. That is just a little molasses, baby.

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I want to talk about your new show. You do have some stuff just so we make sure we talk about it, man. FUBAR, I watched your first episode. So I guess it's not out yet, right? No. um and it's season two it's kind of great because it brings me through all this like nostalgia of watching you over the years right like

I feel like it's a little bit of all, like to me, this is perception and it could be judgment, but a little bit of like all your roles into one. Did it feel like that a little bit when you're shooting it or? Well, the idea of the show is, of course, when you act out, then you find those moments where you can play all of the different roles. But the idea of the show is just to do like what we did with True Lies.

what Jim Cameron did with True Lies, right? So it was like, how do we go and do a show where you pack it with action and also with comedy, with humor? and also with kind of soap opera, where there's relationships, interesting relationships, and so on. And so I think that the writers did a really good job, because just like in True Lies, I'm the number one spy in this show.

But when I come home, so I kick ass out there. I take care of the job all the time. Wipe out the enemy. All the terrorists know this. But when I come home, I have to deal with the everyday crap. Like we all do, right? If you have to worry about the kids, the wife is mad at you because you were gone for a week again and you couldn't really explain. I always, because my wife does not know.

that I'm a spy. So I always had to lie and have to have this equipment company and there's a health convention there. They have to go to this convention. I have to come home and have to make up stories. The sales guys are really interesting. I tried to sell my equipment there. and all they talked about is life cycles. All of a sudden, they said, I was so upset about this whole, and so, you know, you just make up all these stories, which is, but.

I'm getting, you know, there's a divorce there then, you know, then my daughter all of a sudden is in the CIA and then she's also a spy and all of this stuff. So there's all these conflicts that are going on. And it makes it a really interesting show then to watch because it's relationships, it's action, it's funny and all that. And so Nas showed it very well. The last series, the second season. And so now we see how that is doing.

Yeah, I think there's like a level of also nostalgia just getting to see you still operate in these roles, you know, like you've just, you've continued to keep your, I mean, you're.

You just continue to want to work. Because you don't have to work anymore. Well, let me tell you something. I love to work. Why? Because... It makes you active. And I just think the most important thing is as we get older, you don't have to worry about any of that right now. But I mean, eventually you will. When you get older, you just, you have a tendency of sitting around.

You have a tendency of not moving as much. And so it forces you. So when you do a movie, you have to get up at six in the morning. You have to get to the set. You have to go and prep. You have to go and practice the action and all that stuff in the fight scenes. You have to do the rehearsals of the scenes. And you work until night. Right. Then you go home and you fall better tired. And then you get up again in the morning. So, and.

Remember the most important thing for your brain is to go and practice and to kind of do challenging things with your brain so you don't get Alzheimer's and other kind of diseases like that. So it makes you memorize lines. Long scenes, especially in TV, you do like six...

Do eight or 10 pages a day. Oh, just keeping your brain active. And then I play chess on the side while I'm waiting for the scenes and all this. Just keep always going. So to me, the important thing is because I feel like if you rest, you rust. And so it's all about movement. It's all about keep moving and keep moving and keep challenging yourself. Because as soon as we retire, you know, things go south. Yeah. I mean, there's just something that happens. Especially Alzheimer's. Especially.

It's Alzheimer's. Schwarzenegger, Alzheimer's, they almost seem like they would be neighbors. You know what I'm saying? Like no judgment or anything, but it almost seems like that would be the one to look for you because of just your same letters, some of the same letters even.

i have enough with my heart problems so i mean i don't have to worry about another problem forever you know for the last 25 years had heart open heart surgery you know three times and all that kind of stuff and valve replacements and all that stuff. It's a congenital thing for my mother. She had it from her mother and all that stuff. And so I have to deal with that all the time. But everything is good because I train every day and I exercise and I watch.

What they eat, which is I watch the food and then I eat it. Did you ever have a stroke and you just kind of, you're like, I've kind of had that before. I can get through the rest of the day. No, no, none of that. You know what I'm talking about though? Yeah. Like, did you ever have like, because sometimes you'll get a pain or something and you're like.

I think I'm okay. Did you ever have like, I'm assuming if you had a lifetime of like having heart issues that you would start to be like, ah, that's going to be okay. I always was kind of in front of the situation. So that means that I remember when I took my mother.

to the hospital here when she was here visiting. She always had an episode and I took her to UCLA. That's when we found out that she had a valve problem. And the doctor then said to me, he says, make sure that you also check yourself.

He says, because this is something that's a genetic thing. So it's almost like a gift that she got to be here and you got to go through that with her. Exactly. So I, from that point on, always went to the doctor. And the doctor said to me, he says, well, you have, you know, at one point he said, you have a problem with your valve, with your aortic valve. And you don't have to do anything now. It says, but as soon as we see it going down.

We want to catch it before it goes down because otherwise it affects the order itself and blah, blah, blah. So the bottom line is I stayed on top of it. So when I got my surgery, open heart surgery.

I went in there because I made an appointment. So there was no episode. There was no stroke. There was no heart attack or anything. Never had any of those kind of things. So I always was ahead of the game. Was it scary when they put you under? Like, were you kind of scared? Did you make sure it was the best guy doing it, Arnold?

Of course, it's important. You look him in the eyes and take him off the side and say, hey, let's make sure we do it good. No, I don't have to do that, no. I think I would do that for sure. I knew this guy's history, Dr. Stanz. was his name. They did the first two surgeries and he was like the top of the top. So there was no two ways about it. When you, you've had such a like, you've had a very blessed and.

interesting life, right? It's been, you know, and you've had it, so you know. At what point you're probably, I would say, I think it's fair to say you're probably in the second half of your life. At what point do you, like, do kind of, like, go, like...

how goals turn into like legacy, if in your mind at all, if it does. And I don't mean that to be an uncomfortable question. I'm just like, does your brain start to adjust where like, these are my goals? And then like, okay, this is a legacy that I want to leave. Does that make any sense or no?

Well, I think it is always important to think about the idea of that we should leave the world a better place than we inherited it. And so my whole life was always about, okay, how can I make this a better world of the knowledge that I have? So, for instance, in fitness, in bodybuilding.

I went around the world to promote the idea of weightlifting and weight training and resistance training and made it then popular, right? Because we had to figure out a way of penetrating through the general public. They thought that bodybuilding is just, you know, flexing your muscles on stage. But they didn't realize that bodybuilding is something that you just get a healthy and stronger body.

For whatever you do, you maybe need it for tennis, you maybe need it for your bicycling, you maybe need it for your whatever sport, you know, like UFC fighters are working out. Oh, the first time I heard of fitness was through you. It was through you. But I mean, that was the idea is I wanted to not just...

lift myself up, but I wanted to lift the rest of the bodybuilding movement up. And so it was always something. So now, of course, 50 years later, there's a gymnasium in every hotel in the world. There is a gymnasium or weight room in every kind of a military installation or base. There's those guys we saw there doing those curls with the cement. Exactly. People are lifting weights everywhere. Every high school.

every college, every sports team, everyone has weight rooms. So this is where we are now. So this is why I felt really proud of that, that we were able, with the help of Jane Fanta and other kind of characters, that were... you know helping women with the fitness movement and so we really elevated the the fitness sport to something really and also a huge economic uh you know contribution yeah that it made so to me that's important when i became governor

I wanted to make sure that we have health care for everybody. I want to make sure that we have a clean environment, that we fight pollution. and to pass laws to reduce the pollution in California by 25% and all that. So I continued on creating an environmental organization and to have our World Summit in Vienna every year.

where all the environmentalists come together and talk about how do we go and fight pollution and all that stuff. So we have one coming up in 14 days now again. And so it's always after school programs, for instance, when I realized that our kids... that 70% of the kids come from a home where both of the parents are working. So there's no way they're picking them up after three o'clock from the school. So there's kids standing around after school.

and not doing anything so then i found out what this is the danger zone for kids between three and six o'clock because there's no supervision So they get involved with drugs, with gangs, with violence, with alcohol, teenage pregnancy. I said, this costs the community a lot of money. Let's do something about it. Everyone was complaining about it, but they weren't doing anything about it. So I stepped out and I started the after school.

programs and uh it has been a huge hit we've raised over the last 30 years are they still open five billion dollars we raised oh really all over the country We have been to millions and millions of kids who have helped with after-school programs, with great success rates and all of this stuff. So to me, it's all about how can I make this a better world? I see what you're saying. So you feel like a lot of your legacy has kind of been lived along the way.

Exactly. It's not like this should be my legacy. I don't think that way, but I think about I want to improve the world, especially now. But I mean, think about it. I'm an immigrant. I'm an immigrant that came over here. and got every opportunity in the world because of America. America gave me everything. They gave me the money that they have made, the career in bodybuilding, the career in acting, the wonderful family.

All of that stuff is because of America. So to me, it's a natural thing that it gives something back to America. You're one of the most jacked immigrants, too, that we've ever had, probably, I think, for sure. I hope so. Yeah, you do. And you're competitive about it. I love that.

you know, I can feel how competitive you are. And that's great. You have to be competitive because also America is a platform for if you are competitive and if you choose to apply yourself, that you can reach some of your dreams and goals and aspirations.

Do you think that it's still possible? Like you've had this, you've gotten to live in America for a while now and have a good breadth of understanding here. You've gotten to work in politics. Do you think it's the American dream is still possible? Or do you think there's... There's things happening these days that are where we're not helping that along. Well, I can tell you, I didn't study this issue, right? I couldn't really give you facts and figures. But what I can tell you is.

No matter where I go in the world today, people come up to me and say, Arnold, can you please help me get to America? So that never has changed. It doesn't matter to immigrants. People that want to come here, they don't know what the political situation is, they don't care if the Democrats are in power or Republicans are in power, what the Senate says, what the Congress says, what the governor says, nothing. They just want to come over here. They want to get a shot.

You know, so this is what it is. And they have to do it the legal way. You know, so that is the key thing to me. For sure. Do it the legal way. So anyway, the bottom line is, I think the opportunities are there. When I go down to Gorge Gym, I see this guy from Africa. that was competing in my bodybuilding shows in the Arnold Classic and was in one of the top three in order. Then he became a personal trainer. He's charging $200 an hour.

He's driving up one day with his blue Bentley. The next day he's driving up with his red Ferrari. And I mean, this is a guy from Africa that came over here with nothing. So this is a young kid. He's like...

maybe 35 or 40 years old, and look at what he does. So there's trainers down there that are from different countries. There's people. If you're willing to work, that's why I always say to people, I say, work your ass. Don't ever come. This is my big advice to immigrants. I said, don't ever come over here to just use this country. I said, give something back.

Think about that you want to work your ass off here, you want to educate yourself here, you want to contribute to America here. That's what you want to do because the very fact that you're allowed to come over here. you should go and have that mentality of wanting to give something back.

That's the bottom line. Amen, man. And I think that goes to it. Even as you're saying that, it's making me think about like even a relationships that I'm in or business situations. I should think of most things as that way. Let me give something to this, right? Whatever this is, if this is a relationship with a spouse or a girlfriend or a boyfriend or if it's a team that I'm on or just a commitment I have, I'm going to spend an hour with my son or my mom to do something. Let me.

give something to this, right? Let me not just take even this moment for granted, whatever it is. Let me be here and be present and apply myself so that we create something that...

Just so I'm honoring the fact that I even have this moment in time. Yes. And let me tell you something. That as soon as people realize that they're not self-made, that there were a lot of people involved. and where you are today. A lot of people, you couldn't operate without your engineer, you couldn't operate without the deal that you got to do this and blah, blah, blah and all this kind of stuff.

You have to recognize that because when you recognize that you're not self-made, that people have helped you, that is what makes you then click and say, I got to now help other people. I have the responsibility to help other people. And then you realize how much joy it brings you when you see that you have an impact and you can help other people. That's why we have the Pump Club and that's why we do the Arnold Classic and the promotion of bodybuilding.

and the environmental stuff and the after-school programs. I mean, to go to one of these after-school program conventions and to hear the kids' stories, it just makes you feel so good. that you did that, that you raised the money. We have poker tournaments at my house where we raised like seven, $8 million sometimes. And then we put this right into the afterschool programs. So this is where the action is. And you can do all of that because as I always say,

the day is 24 hours and I talk about a lot at great length in my book you know be useful I talk about all of those kind of principles of giving back and having a vision and don't listen to the naysayers and all those kind of things.

Who do you go to for your inspiration? Do you have a coach or a mentor over the years? Do you go to Tony Robbins? Do you hire some of these guys who are really good at this type of stuff to help you in certain speed bumps in your life? Well, I would say that I have always had mentors. You know, the weeders that helped me and I looked up to them. Reg Park is something then bodybuilding that I looked up to.

Then later on was Ronald Reagan when he was governor of California, then became president, and Nixon. People that at least I looked up to, or George Shultz who was Secretary of State under Reagan. that then became my mentor when I became governor and told me about how to work together with Democrats and Republicans and not just my way or the highway. Did you get to meet Reagan? Yeah, for many times. Oh, really?

Wow. What was he like? I was at the White House. I was invited to state dinners there and everything like that. They have good food over there? Say again? Good food over there, huh? Oh, yeah. They know how to cook. Hell, yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. God, I love that. And then also Nixon. I mean, I was down at the Nixon Library, I remember, in the early 90s. And that's when Nixon, just without telling me, called me up on stage and told me,

wanted me to give a speech. So I told him how I became a Nixon fan when I came over here to this country and all that stuff. He loved it. He said to me, he says, you should become governor of California. It was really great. So he was one of the guys that always pushed about. That's Bob Hope right there. Yeah, exactly. I just got back and did a show in Qatar. It was pretty cool. Yeah.

i happen to just be over there trump was over there speaking to it the same day but we just did a show for the troops oh yeah yeah exactly but this is a great thing that you do it was awesome i tell you there's nothing that they appreciate more than to go there and to schmooze with them

take photographs with them, or tell them some jokes. I remember I did it with Jay Leno. It was hit or miss. There we are right there. Oh, man. Look at that. Look at that team. A couple of Klu Klux Sandsmen. That's a joke I made. Pretty good joke. I think it's good. Do you do that often? Do you do shows? I did it for a long time, and then I've taken a break recently. For troops? Yeah.

Yeah, I did it for a long time and then I've taken a break recently. But this really reignited me on it. I was actually texting. a couple of friends of mine and saying, let's go do some just even close bases that are close to us in America. Just whatever we can, let's start to do it a little bit more. And I think we're going to start to do it more. So I'm really excited about that. I feel really lucky. I mean, my whole job is freedom of speech, right? So it's like.

If people aren't protecting that, you can't even be a comedian in some countries. No, of course not. No, I think it's a great idea. And of course, I remember that when I was in my height in my bodybuilding days, I was invited to go on the aircraft carrier.

Norfolk, Virginia, and to go and train with the sailors. And to show them how to exercise and all that stuff. It was fantastic. I bet they loved that. It was up there. Ever since then, I really... I found it really enjoyable to go, if it's down here near San Diego, to Pendleton, or any of those military bases, or if I go to Seoul, South Korea, or to Japan, or anywhere I go Middle East, I was... I'll tell you that

There's some really serious lifters there. Yeah, but they do not want to see me do anything. I usually stand on the side and just drink. I'll have a little bit of a protein shake.

When you, what about like, like, was it hard with your whole life? Was it tough to be like, was it ever tough to be a good husband or be a good dad? Like if so much of your job takes like your work side of you, because I noticed for me, like I'm not married yet. I would like to find a wife, but it's hard for me.

even find time you know like is it like were there moments where because your life gets so big right and you've had a big life i mean there's like you arnold and then the other guy hey arnold he's a fucking drawing i think right so you're the only you're like The name is yours, really. Right. Like, does it ever get hard to be a parent or something? Because of how big you're... Let me tell you something. Everything that you want to do that is really good and you want to go all out...

It's difficult. It's challenging. But I was very fortunate because I married a woman that understood that I have to work. And she didn't complain about it. So we got together and they understood that right away because of the family she came from, the Kennedy family, right? So Maria Shriver was like, she understood that all of her- Bobby Kennedy, she related to Bobby Kennedy? Exactly, yeah.

if it is, you know, John F. Kennedy, if it was Bobby Kennedy, senior, you know, when he ran for president. I mean, her father ran for president and for vice president and all of this. So she was used to...

that everyone has to go out and work. The energy of it all. That they left the house in the morning and they came back late at night. Or like, for instance, he then laid on, you know, was traveling around the world for Special Olympics because, and her mother was also a workaholic. And so she understood that. And so when I was going on location, when we had kids, she would go and she would stop her job in New York, the NBC job that she was hosting, the morning news.

She will stay home and she will stay with the kids. And so this is why we have four terrific kids that we created together. And Patrick, of course, we're very proud of him. Oh, yeah. I love his new show. So cool. He did a great job. He did a fantastic job. And Catherine is fantastic and writes books and all this stuff. And who are your other two children? Christina and Christopher. And Christopher. And Christopher is also in show business.

He's working for a production company. He reads more scripts than I ever read in my whole life. It's really great to see all the kids. Then I have one son outside the marriage, which is Joseph. And Joseph is also doing terrific. in real estate and so on. So the key thing is to really concentrate on being a participative father when you have kids.

Because you got to go, they want to see you ski when you go up and say, let's go skiing. They don't want you to just send them up in the mountains in the cold weather where they freeze their butt off. They want to see you sitting on the chairlift, go up with the skis and ski with them. So that's what I did. They're showing up. Of course, they hated it when they were kids. They said, oh, daddy, let's go in. I want to get a hot chocolate. They said, there is no hot chocolate.

They're skiing. I said, this is ski mountain, not a hot chocolate mountain. I said, what's the matter with you kids? You know, and then they were crying on the chair and then we were going up there and the chairlift and we were skiing down and skiing down for three, four hours. And then we had the hot chocolate and we had the lunch and all that stuff. And now, when they go up to Sun Valley and go skiing, they stop me and they say, Dad, I just want you to know.

how much I appreciate that you made a ski. Because now I ski fantastic. I can go down on any run. And they think of you when they do it. That's what I always tell my friends. I say, don't just go and take pictures of them skiing. No, you put the skis on.

You would just keep Hutan and you go and do it. It's the same with playing soccer. I was playing soccer with my son. You got to go and participate in all of this stuff. And so this is what I believed in. I went to all the games with my wife. Oh, damn. and uh brother well any liverwitz can make anyone look good i guess yeah my gosh

No, but you know what? I just gather from some of your things is just the application of self, right? And that you have to go get it. You have to go do this, right? Yeah. Do you know Bobby pretty good? Bobby Kennedy's a friend of mine. Yeah. Yeah. Bobby, I mean, let me tell you something about Bobby. He's a great guy. Oh, he's one of my favorite guys. I know him from recovery. We go to recovery meetings together. But think about this for a second. I'm running for governor.

In 2003. And then all of a sudden I get a phone call from Bobby, who I knew very well, and Bobby and Joe Kennedy, his brother, his older brother, and they were always really kind of nice to me. and kind and inclusive and stuff like that well you're the damn terminator they gotta be at least no no but i mean you know some people are kind of like who is this new guy coming into the family oh i see especially their family because it's a prestigious thing that's right yeah

So, but they were really nice. So Bobby calls me and he says, Arnold, you're Republican. Republicans are not known for the environmental record. He says, I'm an environmentalist. He says, yes, you know, I'm the head of the River Keepers. and all that stuff. And I have a guide that you should have on your team that can educate you really about the environment. I said, well, think about it. It's really nice to say, who is it? Terry Taminen.

He says, let me send him over to your office. He sent over Terry Tammen and we hit it off right away really well. And the next thing I know is we're working together. He's part of the team. And then when he became governor, and I think that contributed to me becoming governor because... I sold this whole idea that I want to be environmentally friendly, I want to reduce greenhouse gases, I want to get that renewable energy up in California and all of this stuff.

The next thing is I become governor. He becomes now Terry Tamminen, becomes the head of the EPA and all of this. But this all happened. In my knowledge about the environment, all this happened. Because of Bobby Kennedy. So that's the kind of a guy he is. I mean, he's like, didn't say, oh, you're a Republican. I'm going to campaign against you. No. He was 100% on board. He wanted to wish me good luck. And he did wish me good luck. And he wanted me to win.

uh not because i'm a republican he just felt like oh i like arnold i want the good guy to win no matter what side he's on exactly so that's the kind of a guy bobby is you know so i'm

I think the world of him. Yeah, he's cool. We had him on the podcast when everybody was thinking he was kind of crazy during the pandemic and stuff. And he was concerned about just people's health and well-being with vaccines and stuff. We had him on.

but yeah i've always known him to be just a neat guy you know he's my friend um yeah i'm excited for him i'm curious to see what it's like once you get into office how can you still keep your beliefs or not or do things get heavily compromised do you feel like It is compromised. You have to. You have to compromise. Because the whole world doesn't think exactly like you. Remember what Eisenhower said. Eisenhower said that politics is like the road.

The left and the right is the gutter, and the center is drivable. And that's exactly the way it is in politics. You have to understand that there's a sweet spot. You know, like the teacher in golf, hit the sweet spot, or in tennis, they hit the sweet spot and all this. There's a sweet spot to find exactly so you can get a deal made and then you can move things forward. It's not exactly your way.

I mean, I remember with the infrastructure, I wanted to build $100 billion worth of infrastructure, but they only agreed on around $60 billion. So I didn't get in my way. With the financial situation, I wanted to wipe out the deficit. And I was not able to do that with all these Democrats around. They love to spend money. So I was stuck with it. But the fact of them is we could improve the situation and I was able to work together with the Democrats.

on environmental issues and infrastructure issues and so many other healthcare issues and so many other issues, education and all of this stuff. And we really find it at a great time up there being governor of the state of California. But it's about compromise. I mean, you've said before that you can't do everything. You can't do it all by yourself, right? No, it's not a dictatorship. You know, so you have two parties.

If ever, within your own party, they think differently. So that's, you have to face reality. The trick is just to be, do not hate the other side because they think differently. It's just kind of like figuring out how can we work together and how can we do something that's really good for the people? That's the bottom line. Do you think we'll ever have a Republican governor again in California? Well...

You know, if someone has a good program and if someone is organic, I mean, with me, it was possible because I had a great mentor, number one, which was... Pete Wilson, who was a governor of California, two terms. And he helped me. Pete Wilson? Yeah, Pete Wilson, yeah. And he helped me, you know, with the race a lot. And then I also was organic because...

You know, people saw that I did not come out of nowhere where I always went from acting to politics. I mean, I was working with Special Olympics for decades, going around the world. to help Special Olympics and to get recognition for them and to be able to get jobs and to have, you know, be able to live anywhere they want and to get into sports, Special Olympics sports programs.

nor is power lifting. So I was always fighting for equality, including in South Africa with Nelson Mandela. We were there together. fighting for Special Olympics. So the people in California saw all of that. And also me starting the after school programs and having an initiative that I went to the people.

a year before in 2002, and the people voted 57% in favor of that initiative to help after school programs. So I was already in there, and I was working with President Bush, being the chairman of the President's Council. on physical fitness and sports. So I was already giving back and giving back and giving back. So when I said, now, I'm not interested anymore in just doing another movie.

I'm more interested in getting the state of California back on its feet because we had blackouts with huge deficits. You know, the illegals were getting driver's license. There was all kinds of crazy stuff that was going on here. And I said to myself,

You know, the Indian gaming, they didn't pay taxes and they did all the gaming and made billions of dollars and their workers' compensation costs were high and people were moving out with their businesses in California. I said, I will bring California back.

No matter how many people were campaigning for Gray Davis, who was governor then, Clinton came out and campaigned for him, Gore came out, John Kerry came out, Al Sharpton, all of those guys came out to campaign for him. I said to Bush, I said, no, no, don't come out. I don't need that. It's between me and the voters. And so I convinced the California people and that's how I became governor. That's why I got a huge majority of votes.

But it was organic. So many of the guys come from real estate and they say, well, I want to be governor. I have the money now. People don't buy in on that stuff. Right. You can just buy it. I don't think you can just buy it. You had Bloomberg tried to do it a few years ago. It didn't work. Yeah, you have to be real. And you have to be able to have a vision.

Remember, again, it goes back to the book, Be Useful. Rule number one is you have to have a clear vision. You can't just say, I want to be governor. What is your vision? If someone sits down and says, what is your vision of your California? Right. Remember that Teddy Kennedy, the problem he had when they asked him, Roger Mudd asked him when he announced to run for president. Roger Mudd asked him, he says, why do you want to be president? Teddy couldn't answer it.

You know what I'm saying? So it was like, well, my mother rose. She always taught us to give something back. It didn't work. People didn't buy it. And even though he was a great public servant, he did a great job, the senator, but he couldn't sell it. So you have to come out of the gate and really be very forceful and let the people know, I know what I want to do and I'm going to fight for you.

Let's fight for me. I don't want to be a political hack. I don't want to be just another Republican that wins the thing. No, I want to fight for you. So that was the whole theme of the campaign.

They have, like, they just had where they found, like, 20-something billion dollars that was, like, it was supposed to be earmarked for homeless help in California that went missing, right? How does money go missing once you're in these places, do you think? Is it just like people, what does it say? Newsom confronted at press conference about $24 billion spent on tackling homelessness. Like, how does stuff like that?

And it didn't have to be this specifically, but once you're in office and you see these huge amounts of money, how does stuff like that just go by the wayside where it gets, you know, lost or missing, hypothetically, do you think? Well, first of all, let me just say, none of those politicians, I would want to run my company.

None of those companies, none of those politicians, I would like to hand over my checkbook, my bank account and say, you manage it now. Yeah. Right? So that's where it starts. So they're not that smart. when it comes to solving problems. And so I can totally understand how $24 billion is missing because it's wasted. They cannot even show it. They cannot even have any accountability.

But this has been going on for 20 years now. I know. We're not talking about just for the last few years. This has been going on and on. Everyone has been complaining about the homeless, but they don't create, they don't really tell you that this was created by the politicians. The homelessness. Did Reagan create it though? No, no. It was created by having people go and say, we don't want no growth in California.

So when you have 19, when I came over, it was 19, 20 million people in California. Well, we had six lane highways. So now when you go to 40 million people. you would know mathematically now you need 12-lane highways, meaning six lanes, and then on top of it, you build another freeway, right? So you don't have traffic congestion.

But that's not what they did. Then when you go from 20 to 40 million people, then you need twice as many houses. You need twice as many apartment buildings. You need twice as much of everything. Schools and everything. And they didn't. They didn't take care of them because the environmentalists thought that if we say no growth, then no one will come. But in the meantime, no one gives a shit about that. They come anyway. And then they somehow then live.

three people in one apartment, or five people in one apartment, or sometimes, you know, workers that sometimes live 10 people in one apartment. Oh yeah, they'll really be laying on each other's backs, taking turns. When you have a limited amount of housing, now the prices rise. So now when the prices go up,

The value of the apartment building goes up. So the unit that used to cost $600 now costs $3,000 a month. But the salaries, the wages didn't go up accordingly. So now you have people that are economically homeless. They cannot afford paying for their rent anymore. So this is created by the politicians. And now remember what Einstein said. The people that created the problem.

cannot solve it. So they are doing the same thing over, which is another thing Einstein said. If you try to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results, that's the definition of insanity. And it feels like that's where we're living. So this is what we're dealing with here. So we have, you know, the city here is not able to manage this whole thing. On a state level, we are not able to manage this whole thing. So it's like I had to go.

I mean, we had the homeless veterans camping out in front of the Veterans Administration up there in Westwood. Oh, yeah, right over there, 405 in Santa Monica. Right in front of the four years. They're camping out there and no one is helping them. So I went and I started making a deal and I said, can we not put inside some houses, little houses.

And they said, yes. And we started, I donated the money and we started building houses. And since then, there's now hundreds of houses inside the Veterans Administration and the homeless are gone because they wanted to help. the Veterans Administration. But it took a while and the city kept saying, oh, it is too difficult to do and this is really challenging to do. I said, watch that. Within two months.

We had those houses there and we created homes for 25 people so they could move in. Just to show to the city, it can be done. Don't give me this, it can't be done. Anything can be done if there's a will to it with the whole thing. Amen.

I have two quick questions for you just about people. Thank you so much for your time today, Arnold. Thanks for the inspiration. I feel like this has been an inspirational conversation for me. You never know what certain conversations are going to be like. Thanks for your contributions to entertainment and to just, it's evident that you.

you know, you are the American dream. And it made me feel like it is still possible, which I don't know if I even felt like that when I started this conversation. Did you ever get to meet Michael Landon before? No. You didn't? I love him.

He was one of my favorites. And did you ever get to meet Michael Jackson before? Yeah. What was he like? Do you have any good, like a cool story about him? Really nice man. I mean, he was very nice. He came to my trailer several times when I was filming over there in Universal a lot.

the studio and then we had also dinner several times I remember one time with Katzenberg and maybe it was even Katzenberg that organized it I cannot remember anymore but I mean yeah I mean it was a wonderful wonderful would he tell stories and stuff like regular people because they always make him seem so quiet no no he's quiet and it could be because he wanted to protect his voice and he was odd yeah no two ways about that but

he was very very nice and very interesting and fascinated about different things and uh and he was many times he also felt like you're talking to a child Oh, I can see that for sure. You know, he would shift into this thing with things that children are really into, you know, kind of like riots in Disney or something like that that he would talk about that really interested him.

And so it was kind of an interesting thing, but you can see the way he grew up. And with the amount of fame that he had, how difficult it must have been for him. to handle all that oh i can't even yeah to be this genius of a musician i mean it's like unbelievable and it's sad that he got addicted to this kind of you know sleeping thing propofol i think exactly yeah

And then I took too much of it and passed away. It was a huge loss for the world because he was just such a fantastic entertainer. Yeah. Yeah, I'll see his children every now and then. I'll cross paths with his daughter every once in a while. Anything else that you want to share? I think it's been a good conversation. Do you guys feel like that? I think that the key thing is, you know, that we pump up, you know, that while you're airing this interview, that you show every...

10 minutes, a trailer of FUBAR. And then while I'm talking, you show a little bit of the clips again. Let me help you with the editing, okay? Hey, I promise you this. I will certainly support it. And I'll watch some more of it. I'm going to get some of my friends to watch it. We grew up watching just so many of your movies. The lady with the three breasts, remember that one? She was like, God. Oh, yeah, from Total Recall. Yeah, exactly. I recall those a lot, brother.

you know yeah and i totaled them up three every time so you know but thank you for that that was the first breast i was ever allowed to see a little bit But thank you so much, man. Absolutely. It was great. And remember, I hope it's not the last time that we do it again sometimes. Oh, no. I would love to do this again. Yeah, that was fun. I really enjoyed the conversation. Thank you so much. Oh, one more. Just say something nice about each one of your children so one day they'll be up.

to see this really fast. Well, I'm proud of all my children. I'm very proud of Catherine, who has three kids now herself, and who's writing books, and she's the greatest mother. She's just like... her mother Maria that was a really fantastic mother and I'm very proud of her I'm proud of Christina who is also you know into producing and doing uh you know tv shows documentaries and all that here in los angeles yeah and uh then maybe i of course patrick

schwarzenegger you know yeah just saw his new show he's so good he's doing really well i'm so happy that his acting career is taking off you know this is something that he really was very passionate about always christopher is doing a great job i mean he just lost 150 pounds no way yeah so he used to weigh 350 is now down like 210 or something like that oh he must be feeling so much healthier huh he feels really great works at engorge gym

Every day. And I know that I'm really proud of him. You get to see him there sometimes? Yeah, I see him all the time. Oh, that's awesome. And, you know, Joseph is a fantastic human being. He's into real estate. He's into acting. And... he's going to the training he works out all the time so i'm really proud of all of them yeah well and none of them is in the drugs none of them is the alcohol and any of this thing so it's really fantastic to see them

And even, and I have also a nephew here. I mean, he's really fantastic. Patrick Knapp. Patrick Knapp is his name? Yeah, Patrick Knapp, exactly. That's Catherine, you want to have Catherine's kids? He's my entertainment lawyer. I mean, so I brought him over from Austria because my brother passed away. So he's, this is Patrick. This is your brother's son? Yes, my brother's son. No way.

He was three years old when my brother passed away. And then, so he went to school over there and everything. Then they brought him over to also go to Santa Monica College, go to UCLA, go to Hastings. law school. That's your path, Santa Monica to UCLA. That's right, yeah. Does he remind you of your brother? Oh, yeah, yeah. He reminds me a lot of my brother, yeah.

That's awesome. I'll bet your brother's super proud of you, man. And thank you so much, Arnold, for just all your contributions and for your time today. My pleasure. Yep, you guys go watch FUBAR. I'll share this peace of mind I found I can feel it.