"Arnold Schwarzenegger"

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I'm waiting for the three guys.

I mean, Jason, Sean and Will.

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

Maybe their equipment doesn't work.

Or maybe everything doesn't work.

Who knows what's going on here?

But welcome to Spotless.

Smart.

Less.

Smart.

Less.

Smart. Less.
smart less smart less Jason, what did you do last night? I know what you did. You went to the Lakers game.
Yes, had a great, great time. Really fun.
I hosted three 11-year-olds, one of which was my daughter. Was it fun? It was really fun.
Did they win?

They did win.

They tried to lose, but they fixed it there at the end.

And it was a hoot I've heard people describe fun things as.

That's fun.

That's fun.

I like going to the Lakers game.

It's fun.

And then today I was going to do some cooking,

but then I heard that I think Sean,

maybe you might have mentioned to Amanda

that no one's interested in eating,

or was it you, Will?

No one's interested in eating, Sean,

that what I was planning on cooking

apparently got kind of a want-want.

Amanda said what you were planning on cooking

and Sean said,

nobody wants that.

Yeah, I said nobody wants that.

Well, who wouldn't want

a gooey peanut butter chocolate chip bar? and Sean said, nobody wants that. Yeah, I said nobody wants that.
Well, who wouldn't want... Yeah, please tell me what it is.

...a gooey peanut butter chocolate chip bar.

Yeah.

Oh, sorry, gooey pumpkin chocolate chip bar.

Well, no, the only...

Okay.

And then the other thing was...

Yeah, because nobody wants pumpkin in anything.

Cranberry lemon bar.

No, that's right.

Nobody wants pumpkin in anything,

and nobody wants cranberry in anything.

And apparently the gal said, all of them said that also you can't have lemon in a dessert. That was according to our hostess.
Boy, so I guess a real bullet dodged. I guess so.
Yeah. You know what all these freaks on the New York Times top 10 desserts list are thinking.
You know what was interesting though? Wait, but this is like... Amanda said that every year you do this and that you like to cook a few things here and there.
And I knew nothing about this. I did not either.
I didn't either. I had forgotten.
But I guess she says that this is what I do every year. And is it because I bake some stuff because I want a piece? You inspired me.
I want a piece. Oh, that's good.
You inspired me. I was so...
You've done cheesecake. You've done brownies.
You've done... I'm going to do eclairs next week.
That thing you did last night was good. That thing you did...
Oh, last night? I did not like that. I made this new thing last night.
I didn't love it. It was too much.
It was too sweet. But, Jay, I made a box of mac and cheese last night at 10.30 because I have too big of a gummy and I feel like crap today.
After a full dinner, he went home and ate a full box and hasn't eaten all day because he's been... I almost took a picture of it and sent it to you.
You want a gummy wipe out. Yeah, I didn't have a gummy wipe out.
Still recovering. Listen, I tell you what, I tell you who did not eat an entire box of mac and cheese last night was our guest.
Because this is somebody who has famously taken care of himself his entire life. This is a person who has made a mark in every single thing he's decided to go into in his life.
It's pretty hard to have lived in Western culture and not know who this man is. Pretty hard.
Do I sound very Canadian when I say that? I sound almost East Coast. Or Chicago, like you're from Chicago.
This person is such a part of our sort of cultural fabric at risk of embarrassing him when I say that, but it is true. He, over the last 40, 50 years, he has been in absolutely every, seemingly every walk of life.
He has done everything from being an author to being a incredible, one of the biggest film stars ever, to being a politician. He is not, he refuses to be categorized as a self-made man because I think that he claims that he's had a lot of help along the way, but it sure seems like he did a lot.
He's done a lot of heavy lifting on his own, especially he did a lot of heavy lifting when he won, I'm going to say, seven-time Mr. Olympia.

He was also a four-time Mr. University.

He's also the 38th governor of the state of California.

Got it.

Guys, it's Arnold Schwarzenegger!

Hello there.

Hello there.

Hello, Mr. Arnold.
What a everybody. What a guest.
What a guest. Wow.
I couldn't, because Jason guessed it, I couldn't even say you're a number one New York Times selling a number one author. You know, I mean, just, the list just keeps going, but Jason guessed it.
So, Mr. Schwarzenegger, nice to meet you.
Well, thank you very much for the nice introduction, and I really appreciate that, the buildup. But, I mean, it's so entertaining to listen to you guys talk.
Oh, yeah. It's sad.
I mean, I very rarely heard conversations like that. I mean, what is cheese, mac and cheese? What was this? Mac and cheese, and's four o'clock and I'm late.
It's not one of our best, but you know what? You've really brought it up. Yeah.
But I mean, it's like, it's wild. I mean, it's like, but the funny thing is I don't know you, Jason, and I don't know Will, even though I admire your work on television and in the movies that I've seen, and you've entertained me thoroughly.
But Sean, I know personally. I mean, Sean is someone that I've met in the, I think it was back in the 90s, if I'm not mistaken.
And, you know, he was out here. And Samavik even helped me with Maria together decorate the house, what I remember.
So it was a generally positive meeting. Yeah, very, very, very positive.
He's a really positive guy. Well.
So I love it. But I mean, when I hear this food kind of story.
Yeah, yeah, it's upsetting. What a drama.
You've got to help him. Oh, my God.
I ate at 10 o'clock mac and cheese, and they didn't feel good, and they always threw up. Guess why? And this is terrible.
The world is coming to an end. I said to myself, oh, what a sad story that is.
It is horrible. I feel so sorry for him now.
Thank you. I mean, I don't even know how to recuperate.
Where do you hear what he ate the rest of the 24 hours? I wanted to start this whole interview in a positive way, in an absolute way. And then I get this beating there about how terrible things went from last night on 10 o'clock.
I mean, Sean, what has gone on? I mean, you have to come. I don't know whether you live now, but I mean, you were out here in Los Angeles.
I'm in the same house you came to visit me in. Okay, good.
So then it's about time we get back together again. Yes.
So I can go and make you one of the steaks over here so you don't get sick and tired of the food at 10 o'clock at night. You have to come over for steak dinner or for chicken dinner or for something maybe vegan.
Well, that's our time, Arnold. Thank you so much.
Let me just say this. Having Sean, it's bad enough hearing what you went through last night, but having Arnold Schwarzenegger recite it back to you is one of the best things that I've ever heard in my life because it does really put it in a different light.
Like, right? It makes it sound so crazy. And how disappointed he is in your Sean reactions.
It's just like any dad. Arnold, how long do you think Sean...
I just thought it was funny because then you guys all went off and talked about what you ate and the things that you're doing at home when you're cooking and stuff. So I said to myself, maybe I've plugged in here to a cooking show or something like that.
Maybe you guys have a cook-off. It's been called worse.
Well, how long do you think Sean, Arnold, how long do you think Sean can get away with eating like this? Because isn't it true, as you get older, doesn't it- Your metabolism. Yeah, the metabolism slows down such that if you keep eating the same thing you ate last year, you will gain, I think it's three pounds a year if you just eat the same thing every year.
Like your metabolic rate goes down such that you've got to eliminate three pounds a year from what you eat. Is that right? Yeah, it sounds good mathematically what you just said.
But I think it's very hard to do. Yeah.
Because I can tell you for myself, I have to go on bike rides every day. I work out every day because it's very hard to kind of stop eating or to just go on severe diets like some people do I've never done that so of course you develop a little bit of stomach because of that but I think the key thing is to keep it in moderation and not to gain too much weight because otherwise it's made for you for your heart and for your health it makes it good.
You gain a little bit of stomach. That's all right.
You gain a little bit of stomach. Yeah, it doesn't sound as nasty.
No. Arnold, if I could ask you, because there's so much stuff I want to talk about before we get to this, but now that we're on the subject, because, like I said, you're famously known, seven-time Mr.
Olympia, four-time Mr. Universe.
You've done it all. Known for your physique for many years for it and award

winning physique and you said that you still work out so you're riding the bike you're doing stuff i'm so interested what does working out for you because you're not competing in that way anymore what is working out now for you look like i'm literally i just want to know selfishly for me I go on a bike ride, I ride the bike around 45 minutes to an hour a day. And I work out with weights at Gold's Gym, I would say around 45 minutes a day.
But very light, nothing heavy because I had heart surgery in 1997. And then the doctors were telling me that I should stop the heavy heavy lifting because it's not good for your valves they get kind of you know they wipe out sooner and and so therefore you know I just started lifting less weights more reps and stuff like that but I work out regularly but as you know as you get order it's kind of like how the hell do you hold on to some of the stuff that you once had and it's really it's it's it's tough because it's uh wait so if you if you live if you do like free weights and lift weights like that it's bad for your the valves of your heart or for your heart if if no not for normally for heart but i mean it is when robotic valve and pulmonary valve.
Got it. You don't want to put that much pressure on it, you know, when you really bench press heavy or do heavy deadlifts or squats and all that stuff.
You're good, Sean. Then you put a lot of pressure on that valve, and it's unnecessary.
So the idea is let's use less weight, and therefore, you know, you don't have to switch the valve. I mean, after 23 years later, I still had to exchange it anyway.
I had another surgery and all that stuff. But the bottom line is you don't want to abuse it.
You know, it's kind of like the valve, like everything is like a tire. You have a certain amount of miles and then you just have to switch, you know.
Also, his midsection will remind you of a tire, too. You will.
Yeah, that's for sure. Let's get back to Gold's Gym.
Can you walk me through that process? You walk into the gym there. You're ready to get your pump on.
You got a fob? Yeah, so you punch your ticket. You got 10 more visits left.
And then you get to your favorite machine, and there's some jamoke on that. And he's sitting there.
He's running through his emails. He's still sitting on the thing and it's, he's, do you give him a hairy eyeball like, buddy, let's go, I want to get in there? Or do you have a special section ready for you? Because you've been going there for years, right? No, I mean there's no reason to approach it that way.
I just always when someone sits on a machine or when someone works out on a machine, I just ask, I say, do you mind if I work in with you? Can you imagine being a ghost? While they're resting, you do your rep. Well, yeah, because, you know, everyone walks around.
So what that basically means is if you do your set, don't just sit there while you're resting and then you can cut in again after that because I go from machine to machine to machine. And so it's easy for me to just ask people if I can cut in and they're more than happy to do that.
So there's no problem with that. So it's just a matter of attitude without saying to someone, hey, get off the bench.
I am going to make a, sorry, just to follow up on that, I make a safe guess that you're doing well enough to have your own set of weights at the house there. You just like to go down to Gold's to bond with the fellas? I have a fully equipped gym at home.
Yeah. And during COVID, I trained all the time just at home.
But I am a company queen. And so that means that I love company, whatever I do.
I don't like to go out for lunch by myself. I like to eat with somebody.
I don't like to go to football games or the soccer game by myself. I like to go with somebody or with a bunch of guys or people.
And the same is also with working out. I get a lot of energy when I go to a gym and i see everyone else working out and sweating and training hard it makes me inspired and then i want to work out too so it's just a lot of sense yeah because like i was going to ask you like even at this age nobody loves to go to the gym now there's not a lot of people that love to work out or exercise but what is it it that, because it's not, it's hard work.
Like if I can skip it, I'll skip it. Yeah.
But like, you know, what's the draw to keep doing it now and always? So that you don't pop, Sean. I know, but I'm like, but to work at the intensity level that you're still working out at is a decision.
It's not that intense. It's not that intense.
I mean, but first of all, I love working out. Yeah, I know.
I don't know why. Because it just makes me feel good.
I understand. When I work out, it makes me feel good.
I always say to people, when I get up in the morning and I bicycle down to the gym, I feel like I'm bicycling through a black and white movie and then all of a sudden when I'm finished working out and bicycling back, I feel like it's a color movie. All right.
The whole world is more colorful. I feel more positive.
It's like the rainbow you see after you finish macaroni and cheese. Sean will only get on a bicycle to go to get a black and white shake.
That's the only way. Or a black and white cookie.
That's the only way he's doing it. That's so true.
I just love it. I love the feeling that I get from that.
It's addictive. So I'm addicted to working out, I have to say.
So to me, it's not kind of a chore because I know why I'm doing it. Yeah, you love it.
I get it. I want to look half decent at my age, even though it's pitiful.
You look beautiful, Arnold. I think the beard looks gorgeous, too.
Look at the beard. The beard is gorgeous.
Yeah, it is. It looks really good.
Thank you. But Jason, let me tell you something.
First of all, I just want to let you know that you, with your show Ozark, I mean, you have blown me away. You know, there's three of my favorite shows was Ozark and Narcos and Yellowstone that I watched.
And it was just so, I mean, talking about addictive to working out, I was addicted to watching your show because you did such an unbelievable job. It was really fantastic.

You're very, very nice.

I actually wanted you to know how much you entertained me

and how much pleasure you've brought to me watching this series.

It makes me shy.

Thank you, though.

Oh, Jason, entertain him right now.

I get small.

I can talk in the Marty voice.

Ready?

Okay.

Hi, this is me.

I'm just talking.

Oh, Marty.

Marty.

That's Marty. And we will be right back.
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Hilton, for the stay. All right, back to the show.
So, Arnold, you know, I mentioned in the intro all the things that you've done and everything that you've done, every sort of thing that you've decided to get into, you've been successful. And you started with bodybuilding.
That's what initially, I gather, took you from Austria to brought you here to America. And then you got into films and you were as successful as anybody could ever imagine being in films.
You're the biggest star in the world. And then you got into politics and became the 38th governor of California.
So cool. It is amazing.
Unbelievable. And I ask people this sometimes when we've had musicians on and artists on, just from every sort of whatever, whatever you do.
And I always say, do you ever, do you have those moments where you sit back now and you go, wow, you look back where you came from, back from being a teen or being a kid in Austria, and now here you are having had this incredible run

in all these different disciplines. And do you look back and go, hey, I really accomplished a lot.
Are you able to enjoy it or have perspective of it in that way? I do sometimes, but very, very rare. First of all, because I never really feel that, you know, I am that great.
By any means, I always felt like I could do better. Even when I was in my bodybuilding heyday, I would win the Mr.
Olympia contest and then I would look in the mirror afterwards and just say to myself, how the hell did this body win? You know, it's kind of like I'm not ever satisfied. I always want to climb higher and higher and higher.
And I think that's what inspires me. But the thing that I do think about quite frequently is not that I did it, but how did I do it? Right.
Because that's really the interesting thing because. How did you do it? Well, it's that the principles, and this is, I think, why on the end I wrote this book, Be Useful, is because the principles and the tools that are used in bodybuilding, I used the very same tools in show business.
And they used the very same tools when I ran for governor, and then to become governor, and then to be governor. So it was the same thing.
It was like, you know, having a great vision and just chasing that vision, go after it relentlessly and work your ass off. Don't listen to the naysayers, you know, just shoot for higher goals rather than low goals and just go all out, you know, because this is German saying, and I talk about it in the book.
So if you do something, just, you know, go all the way. And give something back because we have to kind of, and you mentioned that briefly, that, you know, that I never felt that I was a self-made man, that I was very fortunate that I had so much help along the way that I felt that I have to give something back now too.
And so, you know, for decades now, I have been trying to give something back to my community. I mean, if it is working with Special Olympics and being a coach for Special Olympics or starting after school programs or being the chairman of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports and President Bush and all of those kind of things.
It was all about giving back and then eventually becoming governor because remember when I ran for governor, my agents kept saying to me, I don't know, this is the stupidest move that I've ever seen because, I mean, you make $20 million a movie. Because they're like, we can't profit off it.
I mean, it's like, you know, what the hell? You're going to miss out on two movies a year? That's $40 million. Why would you do that? And I said to myself, hey, I made all the money because of America.
I became what I am today because of America. I said, America gave me the opportunity, so I don't mind putting now something back into it and giving something back.
So that's the way I felt. But the key thing is the tools.
There's tools that can make you successful, and I think I write about that very effectively in the book. And, you know, it has been really great to see the book be successful and be number one on the bestseller list and all those kind of things and selling really well internationally.
Yeah, I watched your documentary. I thought it was incredibly inspiring.
And I loved how it was in three parts. It was from Austria to bodybuilding, then to being an actor, then to being the governor.
And one of the things you said at the beginning of the documentary, which has stayed with me, was you said, the whole thing started out with, I don't know why, but I was given this thing that was put in my head where if I have a vision, I can't stop until I see it through. I don't know why I'm, you said, I don't know why I'm like that.
I just am that. And you put on your wall a picture of your favorite bodybuilder, your inspiration, and then you kept using like vision boards and then goal lists and everything.
I've been talking about that for years. So I really connected with that.
I thought it was cool. Well, thank you very much.
It is so true that if you have a vision, it's so much easier to get kind of like into it and to kind of chase it rather than, let's say, going to the gym and not knowing why you're at the gym other than the doctor told you you should work out a little bit because it's good for your health. But, you know, to me, I always had fun going to the gym, lifting the weights, doing the next day.
I was looking forward to an extra thousand sit-ups and stuff like that because I knew that each one of those reps is going to get me one step closer in winning that title. And, you know, I admired this guy Reg Park who was Mr.
Universe three times and then got into movies, into Hercules movies. And so I said to myself, well, I can do that.
That's what I want to chase. That is the dream that I have.
That's the vision that I have. And then once your mind was set on it, you were like, I'm getting that.
It was like a machine. I was just following it and just trying to figure out, okay, how do I train now? And I copied this guy's training methods and other people's training methods.
And I just, you know, it just, by the time I was 20, I became the youngest Mr. Universe ever.
And so I realized that it was that having that dream that really helped me and not listening to the naysayers, because you can imagine, you're 15 years old and you say to your parents, I want to be Mr. Universe.
Of course they're going to say, well, you're sick, my child. Let's go to the doctor.
So they didn't believe in that dream at all, nor did anyone else as far as that goes because there was no one in Austria. Bodybuilding was an American sport, so there was no one in Austria that ever won any competition, any kind of Mr.
Europe or Mr. Universe.
So how did you start actually bodybuilding in the small town that you grew up? Like if nobody else was doing it, how did you even think of it as a possibility? Were you just extra strong as a kid and like it just came to you naturally? No, I met a guy that was actually Mr. Austria.
He was a bodybuilder. There was a lake where I grew up and he came down to that lake.
So that's where I met him. And he brought me to that weightlifting gym.
It was not a bodybuilding gym. It was a weightlifting gym.
So I became part of the weightlifting team. As a matter of fact, a year after working out, they made me be part of it.
And we started competing against other towns and villages in weightlifting competition. And so that was the main thing we did was lifting heavyweights and doing Olympic lifting.
And then at the same time, I used the time to do chin-ups and to do some curls and some body parts to build my body also at the same time. So I was doing weightlifting,lifting, powerlifting, and bodybuilding at the same time.
So this is how, but the equipment was very crude. It was very simple.
Only when I moved to Munich with the age of 19, I had a really well-equipped gym there. And that's when I really started exploding.
I mean, my body started growing really fast. Sean, you met a well-equipped gym the other, right? a couple years ago? Yeah, we didn't get a lot.
Was his name James, but he went by Jim. Jimmy.
Jimmy sometimes. He was well-equipped.
Hey, let me ask you, Arnold, Arnold, did you, did you, I want to, sorry, I was thinking about all the films that you've done. I was thinking about all the iconic roles, but it's certainly, and how much we get, we get in, people will stop and, you know, people who are fans of stuff will stop you and say like something from your movie.
And I think about how many times over the years I've personally said or heard people say the expression, I'll be back. I can't imagine how many times you've been at a restaurant or somewhere where somebody has gone like, you've gone like, hey, can I get a cup of coffee? And they're sure.
And they look back at you and they go, I'll be back. And like, I mean, it must have happened a million times, right? Well, it's really wild because I go sometimes to an event and people will be screaming out, get to the chopper! Yeah.
Which is a line from Predator. Yeah.
Or put the cookie down. Lines from the movie, it's just wild.
But you're right. It's funny hearing you do you.
Wait, put the cookie down? What was put the cookie down? It was from Jingle All The Way. So people repeat those lines.
The funny thing is when you read it in a script, it't read like anything like a special line. But just because the way I say it, you know, get to the chopper.
So then the director comes and he says, it's not chopper, Arnold. It's chopper.
It has an R on the end. I say, no, get to the chopper.
You know, so I say everything wrong. And so people think that's funny and then they repeat the lines.
But your accent is just so beautiful.

It's just so iconic.

And I'm so glad that it has stayed,

that it hasn't been like beaten out of you

by living in Southern California too long.

You know, it's just, I could listen to you all day.

Well, thank you.

You ran, you've run so many things

at such a high level. Yeah.
Sets, you know, our state. What are you enjoying pointing all of those incredible leadership skills at now that some people may know about, some people might not know about? But obviously your skill set is huge um are you enjoying pointing

it out something right now are you are you enjoying letting it rest for a minute no no look i was very fortunate to be involved in all those different careers and i learned so much in bodybuilding and how to be competitive and all that i learned so much in. It just has been a most extraordinary ride to work on all these movies and to work with such great directors and then to go into politics and to get into becoming governor of the great state of California and to sit there at the Capitol and to learn every day something new.
I mean, it's absolutely, you have to imagine that when you go in there as an actor, I mean, I've never done policy, I've never gotten into the details, the new details of policy, but now you're sitting there, and now you're always sitting, you have meetings from 9 o'clock on in the morning, and you sit there and all of a sudden the nurses union comes in and they talk about the four to one ratio versus a six to one ratio and you say to yourself what are they what are you talking about yeah yeah so you don't even know right you know and so so so then afterwards you have to have the briefings and all that stuff so you can come back and then continue that meeting later on. And then the prison guard union would come in and they would talk about their problems.
Then the teachers union comes in and talks about their problem. Then healthcare advocates come in and all the folks come in.
Indian gaming tribes come in and they talk about their issues and stuff. So it's like, it's literally like I said, it's a university, the capital.
And I have learned stuff there in these seven years that you would never learn in any university. Nowhere can they teach you that.
You know, how to craft policy. So anybody listening should try to be a governor right now.
I tell you, it's quite a challenge. But it was the most pleasurable thing to serve 40 million people and to be in charge of the fifth largest economy in the world.
I mean, it really was extraordinary. And it wasn't easy.
It was very, very tough. It was very tough on my family also because, you know, you promise to your family that you are the most important thing.
But then when you become governor, then you promise the California people that they're the most important thing. So that clashes sometimes.
So I would go and I would go to fundraisers at night. I would be having meetings all day and I would not be around for those recitals and for the sports competitions that my kids had.
And so there were times when I came home and my kids would be sitting here on the table where I'm sitting right now and they would start crying. Daddy, why weren't you not at my football game? Daddy, why didn't you watch me on Thursday when I was practicing soccer? And all of this kind of thing.
One after the next started crying. And I remember my wife, Maria, was sitting there and she says, okay, kids, just express yourself now.
Now is the time to express yourself. I said, no, that's the last thing I want to hear.
Wait till I leave. So anyway, we had wild scenes.
So it's very tough to do those kind of things. But I tell you, I wouldn't exchange it for anything.
I'm curious about, Arnold, you keep talking about coming here to America. I did too.
I came a lot. I only, I drove 90 minutes to Buffalo from Toronto, but, but I, I, I was wondering about when you first got here, when you first came to California, where did Arnold, like, where did you write on your landing card? Where did you stay? Did you have an apartment? Did you know somebody? Did you move into a hotel? Like literally, what was the granular, like, what was that day like when you land and you went through customs and they're like, what are you doing here? And you're like, I'm going to be bodybuilder and then I'm going to be a movie star and then I'm going to be governor.
Look out, man. Like what, how did that day go? So I was Mr.
Universe. I just won the Mr.
Universe competition in England for the second time at the age of 21. And this guy by the name of Joe Weider.

Oh, yeah.

Who was then kind of the czar of bodybuilding.

He was the publisher of the bodybuilding magazines

and he has a weight distribution kind of, you know,

an equipment distribution company, food supplement company.

And he brought me to the United States.

And so he sent me out to Los Angeles

because this is where the best gymnasiums were.

And he asked some of his friends,

look, why don't you go and find an apartment for Arnold

and in the meantime let him stay there at your house.

And so I stayed at someone's house for three days.

Then in the meantime, they found an apartment for me in North Hollywood. And there I started training then at Vince's Gym, which was one of the great bodybuilding gyms where a lot of the champions trained.
And then eventually I moved over to Santa Monica to Venice, where Gord's Gym was. And then I started training there.
What was your English like? What was your English like at that time? Oh, it sucked.

It totally sucked. I mean, it was like in a school English.
I was a few times in England for posing exhibitions and strongman acts and stuff like that. So I was able to practice a little bit that English, but I couldn't read a newspaper.
I couldn't really understand television. I had a friend, a Jewish friend that spoke German by the name of Adi Zeller, who was a bodybuilding photographer, and he would translate for me when we watched the news.
And I remember when there were discussions in press conferences with Nixon when he ran for president and Humphrey, and he would always translate. And he was a real liberal, this guy.
And he, said, I like what Nixon said, he says, don't be absurd, Arnold. This is absurd.
He's a fool. Don't even listen to him.
So he would always get mad at me about that. But in any case, so I could not really understand.
I was not with the program at all. But one thing I remembered, and that was, it was now Thanksgiving.
And it was, I did not know what Thanksgiving was. And the guy came over to me in the gym and he says, what do you do on Thanksgiving? And I said, what is Thanksgiving? He says, well, it's a special holiday.
And he says, well, we eat a lot of food. He says, if you don't have anything to do, if you don't have anyone to spend the day with, I want to invite you to my house.
And so this guy, Bill Drake, invited me to his house, and I had this unbelievable Thanksgiving dinner, the first Thanksgiving dinner. The following day, when the word got around the gym that I was new and I was kind of helpless here and all that.
They came over to my apartment and they brought dishes, they brought silverware, pillowcases, pillows, and all kinds, even a black and white TV. One guy gave me the old antenna like it used to be and then a little radio, a wooden box, a radio for my nightstand on the side of the bed.
So, I mean, the generosity that I experienced was so staggering and so touching. I will never forget that.
And this is why today I was over at the Hollenbeck Center, you know, for the 32nd time since I've been in America to give out turkey.

I donated turkey for the poor people in East L.A.

And so we handed out hundreds of turkeys to these poor people that sometimes cannot even afford to have a nice turkey dinner

just because I remember that day how this guy included me.

So I always wanted to do the same thing back to the American people, to poor people, to people that need it. That's great.
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And now back to the show. Well, with such meager beginnings, I mean, the leap from there to thinking that you could actually be the governor of the state.
Yeah. Do you remember the first time you thought, oh, well, maybe that's something I could do? Was it during Reagan's administration? You thought, well, hang on, here's an actor who became a governor and I'm an actor.
So why can't I get what was it? Was that the linkage that was the first time it felt plausible? No, not really, because I knew at that time there were stories written that people from the outside come in. You know, there were stories about Eisenhower, who was a general, who was not a politician at all and became president of the United States.
You know, there were people that were basketball players. John Glenn then eventually became a senator.
He was an astronaut. So that was, even though it was great to see that someone from entertainment because everyone always laughed at that they were from hollywood how can anyone become governor when he's from hollywood or how can he become president if you're from hollywood an actor and stuff like that so there were those kind of conversations of course but i think what really inspired me was maybe a little bit of that but also like i said out with the Shrivers, with the Kennedys, then becoming the chairman of the President's Council of Physical Fitness and Sports under President Bush Senior in 1990.
He made me chairman. And so when I hung out with him, and he invited me to Camp David, I mean so many times.
So I really spent a lot lot of time with him and we organized the Great American Workout and he had me sit in on several of the meetings up in Camp David and also in the White House. And so all of that really inspired me.
I said to myself, that is such a wonderful job to bring people together like he does and to make this a better place, a better country, a better state or whatever. So I got inspired with that.
And just the mere fact that you were hanging out with somebody who was president, it sort of made it feel like, well, I know this guy's a human being. He's a man just like me.
It's sort of, I'm sure it took care of some of the sort of debilitating mystique that some people might. Made it sort of right-sized a little bit.
Yeah. Yeah, and also the compliment, you know, that he always gave me.
He says, you know, Arnold, you have a good nose for this stuff, for politics. I can see that you're interested in it and all that stuff.
But I was in the middle of my movie career then. I was just, you know, just bridging over for the first time things that you guys are so good at, which is comedy, you know, because I was an action hero.
I was doing Terminator and Predator and Running Man and Red Heat and all those movies. And they kept grossing more and more money.
But then all of a sudden I had this urge. I said, I've got to do comedy.
And you were hilarious. I can't just get stuck here and do action.
And then everyone said, forget it. It's not going to happen.
But then Ivan Reitman, who was the director of Ghostbusters, he said to me, I do it. I'm going to develop a project for you.
And he did. It was Twins.
He developed this project, Twins. Yeah, and so we did that in 1988.
We had with President Bush a presidential premiere at the Kennedy Center in 1988 in December.

And the movie went through the roof.

And so it was the first movie, actually, that made over $100 million domestically.

So it made $128 million.

So it was really something that I was excited about.

So I was kind of like in the middle of climbing that ladder.

You know, it was just two thirds up on Mount Everest, and I still had to go climb one-third more. And I felt like, so then I did Terminator 2.
And so I was not really yet at that stage where I said, okay, I'm going to run now. No, but it should be pointed out.
I just want to sidebar it because you're being quite modest about it. You wanted to do a comedy, and to the point that the studio wasn't sure, tell me if I've got this right or wrong, the studio wasn't sure that you could, that you were, you were such a bankable action star, but they weren't sure that you would be a bankable, you'd be able to open a comedy and you took a risk on yourself, which is what you've been known to do.
And you took nothing up front, and you just took a big piece of the box office, and Twins was your biggest payday ever by far because it was such a massive hit, and you bet on yourself, which is so fucking great because you've been betting on yourself your whole life, and it paid off. Am I right about that? You're absolutely right.
Very well researched, I have to say. You know all the details.
I love that. But I mean, the bottom line was the studios basically not only didn't believe that it could open a movie in a comedy, but they also said to me, they said to me, Arnold, tell me now why I would go and invest in a comedy when we're making all this money now with your action movies.
What do you think, we're stupid? And so I said, no, no, no, I totally understand it. So we had to figure out a way to kind of make it more appealing to them.
And so what Ivan Reitman then said was what we should all do is we should make the movie for $16.5 million and not take a salary. He says, I won't take a salary, Danny doesn't take a salary, and you don't take a salary, Arnold.
And what we do is in return we go and get 40% ownership together of the movie. They just don't give that anymore.
And so we then renegotiated, we renegotiated and they made it 37.5% because Tom Pollack was a good friend of Ivan Reitman and he felt kind of he got a beating from the studio to make that deal. So we gave him a 2.5% cut and we made it 37.5%.
But you're absolutely right. That made more money for me than anything.
Because worldwide, the movie grossed over $250, $260 million. So it was kind of like you have 40% of that.
You can imagine what a big chunk that is. And by the way, and rentals too.
Yeah, yeah, no. It was, you know, the plane.
When they sold the movie to the airlines. When they sold it to the TV, to network.
And to all the different. And I'm still getting residuals now.
That's amazing. Isn't that crazy? I was worried about you.
But I mean, anyway, the bottom line is that I was still, now I was like growing, I was doing Kindergarten Cop after that, Junior, and True Lies with Jim Cameron, and so they were all kind of like comedies and action and all that stuff. What do you think about this troublemaker son-in-law of yours, this fellow Chris Pratt? Yeah, Pratt.
He's this guy. We know him.
We know Pratt. He's an outlaw.
He's a troublemaker. He's a great friend of ours.
We love him. We play golf with him.
We laugh with him.

He talks very highly of you.

It gets me a little jealous.

It sounds like you guys have a great

family rhythm

going over there with getting together for

dinners and vacations and hanging out.

It just sounds like a really good thing.

You're right.

It is so much fun

when he and my daughter comes over here

to the house

and they come over like

Thank you. You're right.
I mean, it is so much fun when he and my daughter comes over here to the house and they come over like last week, they came over on Saturday. It's seven in the morning to help me feed the animals.
Sure. So, you know, which of course I have a miniature pony, I have a miniature donkey, I have a pig, I have three dogs.
I mean, there's animals all over the place. And so, of course, in the morning, I always feed them.
So I told Catherine, I said, you got to bring the kids over. Do you feed them like mini donuts and mini, do they have mini food? Or you just give them smaller portions? No, no, it's just a smaller portion.
How do you give a smaller portion to a pig yeah son of a bitch all the time i mean it's like wow you know you let it out it goes out in the grass and then it's grass all day long then it comes into the kitchen and everything that he sees in the kitchen that drops the pig wait the pig comes in the kitchen yeah the pig the pig sleeps at night in the kitchen here.

Yeah, absolutely.

So, I mean, you know, it depends on the way you deal with animals.

But my dogs come into the house.

The donkey comes into the house.

Come on.

The pony comes into the house.

This is why they're mini.

Yeah, I get it. They're mini, but I mean, even if it's a regular horse, I would have it brought.

I had a pison come into my kitchen here, a pison. You know, the big buffaloes, the pisons.
Yeah. So I opened up the double door here because we have every year a poker tournament here to raise money for after-school programs.
And last October, we raised $7 million with that.

Wow.

So the theme was Oktoberfest.

Everyone had to wear leatherhosen,

and the women wore dirndls and all that stuff.

And I have, as part of the entertainment,

I have all these animals coming over here.

So we had this bison standing outside.

So I said, let me just try it because I saw it online.

When you go online, you can see there's a farmer that raised his bison from the time he was like a little baby and fed it with a bottle and milk and all this stuff. And then he's still coming into the kitchen at this farmer's house.
He had to widen the door and increase the height of the door. So I tried to do the same thing.
I opened up the doors and i brought this bison into the kitchen i mean if this son of a bitch would have gone crazy would have destroyed the whole house because it was so big but anyway so yeah i i think it's cool when you bring animals into the kitchen and into the house and that they roam around so earlier when i think it was a question jason. When I was going, you know, you climb this mountain of achieving this bodybuilding greatness.
You'd climb this massive mountain of being a global international movie star. The biggest movie star we've ever had.
Yeah, ever. Nobody had done it that big before, Arnold.
Right, and then you climb this third mountain of being the governor of California. Is there a fourth mountain? Is there another chapter? Like, you know what, there's one more thing I really want to do.
I have my eyes set on blank. He's trying to get you to musical theater.
Just don't take the bait. That's funny, very funny.
But I mean, you know, the thing we sometimes kind of have a vision that we go after, like I did with bodybuilding and like I did with show business. But my vision was not to become governor.
Only later on, all of a sudden, when we had a recall, all of a sudden I kind of got obsessed with the whole idea. Yeah.
And I reigned for governor. But, I mean, now my vision is kind of like I want to go and help people become more successful.
I somehow got into these motivational speeches because I started giving a motivational speech, commencement speeches at universities. And then all of a sudden that kind of went wild.
It spread like wildfire and people started writing to me. Why don't you write a book and all that stuff? And so I kept then doing motivational speeches all over the world, kind of like the ex-presidents do.
They go on the speaking circuit, you know, and you make some good money with that and you can reach a lot of people. And out of that came then this book.
So this is the new thing now that I'm really into is how do we help people? Because there's so many people that are unhappy. There's so many people that are on drugs to get happier.
There's so many people that are lost, that don't have a real goal or a mission. And I just feel very, very strongly that when we have a mission, when you get up in the morning with a mission, and when you get up in the morning with a purpose, that we know what we're going after, what we're chasing, no matter how hard it is.
Because you mentioned earlier, but this is really hard to go in the gym or to work out. I look forward to that because I feel that our brain is kind of like a muscle.
The more resistance we give it and the more we struggle, the better we get and the stronger we get. And I think that's what it's all about.
So we don't wimp out on everything, but we can confront kind of challenges and confront also the wipeouts, the losses, because you fail. I failed many times in movies.
I failed in politics many times. But I always kind of get up and dust myself off and get stronger with that.
So I want to teach that to other people. How do they get happy and how do they become more successful? And that's what the book Be Useful is all about.
Yeah, Be Useful, Seven Tools for Life, which is amazing. And I would just say, Arnold, on the side, Jason just texted me and he said, do they make dumbbells in a one pound? Do they make them in the one pound? And I was like, what? That's crazy.
But I mean, he literally... I like to do a lot of reps.
It's so sad. I don't believe that Jason was asking that question.
No, it's true. Jason was probably asking the opposite question in saying, did they make dumbbells that are 150 pounds? All I do is cardio.
I use, I lift a lot of, I go to the gym a lot. You can't tell the lighting's not great here, but I do go to the gym a lot for, you know, you should just know.
Okay, the last thing I want to ask you, Arnold, I mean, honestly, there's just such an endless well of stuff that you've done that I'd love to talk to you about. Your friendship, potential friendship, but certainly working professional relationship with Jim Cameron.
When did you first meet James Cameron? What was that moment? Cause you guys obviously had an incredible run together. Yeah.
I mean, Jim at the time when I met him, he only has done one movie and, um, he pitched, you know, he talked to me about Terminator, the first Terminator. And, um, I was actually going for the interview to play Reese,

to play the heroic character.

And through some kind of,

I showed a little bit too much enthusiasm

about the character of Terminator

and kept saying to him, whoever plays that character,

because I think O.J. Simpson was cast,

not yet a contract signed, but was cast already to play the Terminator. Wow.
So he was trying to talk me into playing the Terminator and I said, no, I want to play Reese. And he says, no, no, you understand the Terminator.
You talk about that he has to walk like a machine and he has to kind of turn his head like a machine. He has to kind of like prep, taking the guns apart and putting them back together, blindfolded.
This is all great stuff, he says. That's exactly what he has to do.
And so anyway, he talked me into it. I played the Terminator.
Wow. And the rest is history.
The movie was highly successful and was, of course, very, very smartly written. He's a brilliant writer.
I mean, he self-described it as almost an indie film because he wrote part of it in his car. It was weird.
It was wild. Yeah, absolutely.
But anyway, so then we did a Terminator 2 that became the highest-grossing movie of the year. And we did then did then true lies and that also made like 450 million dollars worldwide so it was really i had a great great streak of of movies that we did together and he was an excellent director very demanding i have to say and very but very very smart he's one of those guys that if he wants to film something a way, but there is no equipment around like that, no camera that could do that, then he would develop it.
He would develop the camera. You know, it's like when he went down and he developed this kind of like submarine to go down the ocean to the Titanic and to look inside the Titanic.
He went with his vehicle inside the Titanic to go and to really be able to make the film Titanic in the best possible way. So that's the way he is.
He just develops it. I mean, he's just a genius in everything he does.
And he also helped me a lot with the environmental stuff that I did here in California and worldwide. We've given speeches about the environment.
He's really into the reducing of pollution

and to clean up the world and make the world a healthy place.

He's also very heavily into a vegan.

He's a vegan for the last 10 years already

and hasn't eaten any meat because he feels like

the producing of livestock creates the pollution.

28% of the pollution comes from...

He shouldn't come to your house then.

Yeah, he'd get run over by a vice.

I actually got off meat at least 70%.

Thank you. creates the pollution, 28% of the pollution.
He shouldn't come to your house then. Yeah, you get run over by a vice.
I actually got off meat at least 70% of the meat. I do eat steaks every so often still and Wienerschnitzel and stuff like that.
But I've reduced my meat intake considerably. It's much healthier because of it.
God, if I could listen to you say son of a bitch and Wienerschnitzel all day. I know, I know.
And get to the chopper. Arnold, you're a very busy man.
You have a lot of animals that you need to tend to. Go feed them.
But thank you for taking the time and talking to us and so much success and congratulations on everything, including your book, which is just amazing. Be Useful, Seven Tools for Life that's out now.
Just so happy for you. And again, just such an honor to have you here with us.
Yeah, thank you for doing this. Thanks for doing it, Tom.
Listen, guys, Jason, Sean, Will, I just want to tell you that it was such a pleasure to be interviewed by three brilliant actors like you. And so it was an honor for me to do this.
And I had a great time. I really enjoyed every minute of it.
So thank you very much. Thank you very, very much.
Good to see you. Bye-bye.
Be good. See you.
See you, pal. Bye.
Wow. How cool was that? Nice guest, Willie.
Wow. I know, right? That's pretty cool.

Sean, you know, I actually kind of didn't bring this up,

and I'm sure we have lots of fans who I was,

because I see sometimes in the comments like,

well, you got to mention that you know the thing

and you're such a know-it-all.

But I did meet him once at your house.

Oh, that's right.

Years ago.

Remember you had that poker tournament in your backyard?

Yeah, 1999 or 2000 or something like that. Something like that.
Something crazy. Wow.
It was crazy. Yeah, he came over and he, yeah.
No, 2004. 2004.
Oh, wow. I had it.
I think you could make a real argument that that's the biggest star we've ever had on this show. I mean.
I mean, like, name me one person more recognizable, more famous,

the biggest sort of like, sort of the quintessential star, you know?

That's known every country he goes to.

Like from the time that the three of us were teenagers into our late 20s,

and if anybody had said to us, like,

who's the biggest movie star in the world, you'd say Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Yeah, for sure.

It's crazy. What a career that guy has had.
I know. Unbelievable.
I know. Pretty remarkable.
He's very inspiring. From some lake in Austria becomes, like, you know, the most world-famous bodybuilder ever.
Then the governor, two times governor. Two-time governor.
Yeah, of this state. As he said, the fifth largest economy, blah, blah, blah.
Yeah. I mean, it's just...
And a guy who really was right down the middle of his politics. Yeah.
You know? It's just incredible. And everything he did, and yeah, it's pretty remarkable to watch.
And like you said, Jason, very humble beginnings, like doing like strongman competitions against the next town.

Yeah.

Like not even bodybuilding.

And but, you know, and I know he doesn't work out in the same way these days, but I bet you he's still got some pretty good looking biceps.

We all knew that one was coming.

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