- Arnold Schwarzenegger talks about his movie career.
- In 1969, Arnold found that casting was on for another Hercules movie. Arnold was not ready. They had to dub his voice, as he could not speak English properly. They changed his name to Arnold Strong. The movie bombed at the box office. For 5 years after that there were no offers for him.
Arnold was way too big and too muscular. He kept working on his substance and his acting ability. In 1974, Venice Beach, he got the script for "Stay Hungry" from Charles Gaines the author of the novel by the same name. Stay Hungry was written for a body builder, so Arnold was in the right place at the right time. Arnold got the part of Joe Santos. Bob Rafelson was the director. Bob asked Arnold to work with acting coach Eric Morris. From Eric, Arnold learned that he has to bring out his emotions to become a good actor.
Arnold gets the part. He also does a documentary on the world of bodybuilding called "Pumping Iron". This documentary introduced body building to the general public. It also made Arnold more accepted in the movie industry. In 1977, Arnold goes to Cannes where Pumping Iron becomes a sensation. Arnold was the talk of town and did magazine shoots, talk shows and so on. And then Stay Hungry came out. Arnold wins a Golden Globe for the best newcomer. Arnold now wants to be a star, and not just an actor.
Arnold struggled as well. He did a movie called The Villain, with Kurt Douglas and Ann-Margret. The reviews said that the horse had better facial expressions than Arnold. He struggled to find an agent who was willing to sell him to the producers. Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino are the hot actors. Arnold was a big real estate investor. He bought apartment buildings and office buildings in Santa Monica. He was a millionaire in the 70's. So, he did not have to take the silly roles.
Arnold was invited by Ethel Kennedy to participate in the celebrity tennis tournament. He met all the Kennedy's and Maria Shriver, daughter of Eunice Shriver Kennedy. Maria invited Arnold to Hyannis Port after the tournament. They spent the weekend together and Arnold fell in love with Maria. Maria also wanted to escape her life.
In 1978, an agent introduces Arnold to Dino De Laurentiis, a producer. Arnold makes fun of how little Dino is and is kicked out of his office. Ed Pressman bought the rights to Conan the Barbarian. Ed loved Arnold from Pumping Iron and knew that Arnold had the perfect personality for Conan. Dino was the producer, who didn't want Arnold. John Milius was the director and he convinced Dino to keep Arnold. John tells Dino that he will not do the movie without Arnold and Dino agrees. The shoot was tough. Arnold did all of his own stunts. He did Samurai training and learned how to handle swords. He learned horse riding.
Arnold traveled all over the world to promote the movie. He established himself as an international actor. The movie made $90 million worldwide. In 1983, Arnold became an American citizen after passing their test. In the 80's Ronald Reagan became the President and American started rising over the problems of the 60's and the 70's. The action movies were doing well in this period. Action heroes had a muscular body, including Sylvester Stallone.
Mike Medavoy is a producer who offers The Terminator to Arnold. James Cameron is the director. The movie was cast with OJ Simpson and Arnold, but James was not decided on who was playing which character. When James meets Arnold, he talks about the Terminator character. Everything about the character has to be like a machine. James asks Arnold to play the Terminator. Arnold didn't want to play Terminator as the character only had 26 lines. But eventually Arnold can visualize himself more and more as this character and agrees. Linda Hamilton played Sarah Connor. It was a low budget movie and not particularly impressive. Sarah can see that Arnold's peculiarities make him perfect for the part of an emotionless killing machine.
The original line was "I will come back", but James asked Arnold to read it as "I'll be back", and it became the most quoted movie line ever. The movie didn't do great at the box office but was picked as one of the top 10 movies of 1984. Sylvester Stallone was competing with Arnold in the 80's to win the race for the "definitive action hero". Arnold comes out with Commando to compete with Rambo. They could not stand in the same room with each other and had to be separated. They constantly tried to outdo each other in their movies. Bigger knives, bigger guns, more hateful villains. Arnold won.
In 1985, Arnold took Maria to Thal in Austria. He proposed to Maria. They married in Hyannis Port with 500 guests. Arnold then became a father to Katherine.
Arnold met Ivan Reitman in 1987 in Aspen. Ivan is the director of Ghostbusters. Ivan brings Danny DeVito and Arnold together for Twins. The Chemistry clicked and became Arnold's first movie to gross $100 million. It went to $183 million. Arnold started the cigar boom and cigar became a huge thing. He wore big watches and was involved in developing the first commercial hummer. Arnold became a brand.
Arnold then does Terminator 2, except this time he is the protector and he does not kill a single person in the movie. The movies grosses $466 million worldwide. But the Last Action Hero, bombed, right after Terminator 2. Arnold then does True Lies with James Cameron, based on a French Movie La Totale. His co-star is Jamie Lee Curtis. True Lies makes $378 million worldwide. Arnold gets his own star the Hollywood walk. Arnold does Junior, Eraser, Batman & Robin.
Arnold had heart surgery in 1997. He had some issues with the valves inside his heart and it took 2 back-to-back surgeries to fix it. The next year, his mother passed away. Arnold didn't work on movies for a year after his surgery and started losing projects. Arnold does "End of Days" and "Collateral Damage". He was the #1 movie star in the world. There was nothing left to conquer. It was repetitive and boring.
Through Maria, Arnold was exposed to politics. This was the next peak.
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