Arnold Schwarzenegger: Terminator, robbing Hollywood, leaving Austria

[Music] foreign up you had no Plumbing I don't think you had a toilet no shower you had the heat only from the stove what do you think not having much growing up taught you about money well I think uh more importantly is that growing up like the way I did poor and with none of those luxuries all of those things uh you know made you much more hungry for success so when you grow up like that you don't shy away from anything I mean working to me was kind of like never oh my God I have to work I loved working if it was in bodybuilding or making an endorsement here or an investment in an apartment building or starting a mail order business or getting into movies or doing this or doing that it's like wow this is really amazing but it took a lot of hard work but I never shied away from work and I think that my hunger and my desire and my fire in the belly and that nothing could stop me I think that comes from growing up the way it did whether directly or indirectly what do you think your father taught you about work ethic well my father was kind of like you know a plus and a minus you know is is one of those things that where my father really contributed a lot to my Hunger and my father contributed for me to wanting to get away from Austria and to get away from home because you know they were not like coming on or stay you can stay as long as you want no with 15 I already had to pay to live at home I mean I made 300 Shilling a month as an apprentice and a hundred Shilling I had to give my parents so I could get the food I mean not that the food was not worth much more than 100 Shilling but they made me contribute and I hated that I say to myself this is uncalled for because my friends didn't have to do that you know so it was it was that kind of a thing so I said I'm going to get away as fast as I can I will show you guys in order so it gave me the motivation to just leave and get out of there you wrote it I mean I read your book and it was great um you made a pointed comment about your dad in your book you said um quote every time he hit me every time he said my weight training was garbage that I should do something useful and go out and chop wood every time he disapproved of me or embarrassed me it put fuel on the fire in my belly that's right it was it was it was that upbringing so this is why I said there's the plus and then the the minus so the the miners was the immediate effect that it had that I felt like there was never really a compliment it was never really honored you to dwell on this there was never uh you know kind of like where he was supportive of my weight training or supportive of my ideas of my craziness of my dreams or anything like that it was always kind of like uh you can do better so it was always kind of that uh I mean there was everything was a compliment but this was not all negative but I tell you the majority of times it was negative and uh so the reason why I said that there is a plus and minus because there was the minus but the positive is that is what gave me the the fire in the belly so the more you you you kind of create resistance uh the person the stronger that person gets and the stronger your character gets and the more you can endure on the end so for that I think the world of what my father did but I don't think that was maybe the intentions it was just that he was always kind of a tough guy a military guy he helped me to get into the military and become a tank driver so there was those sides also but it was very helpful but he just re he meant so well and they meant to push me and to make me better in athletics and to make me better in school and to make me better as a person and always talk about being useful and don't waste your time and just looking at yourself in the mirror in a bodybuilding gym so he meant well but the way it came out that the immediate effect was quite different you seem to have had a unique relationship with tanks uh over the years what do you remember from the time you started up a tank in the garage well first of all let me just tell you that my fascination with tanks and with big trucks comes from that when I grew up as a kid we were occupied by the British it was after the second world war and so there were tanks driving by our house and big trucks driving by soldiers jumping out and surveying the area and looking through the binoculars and jumping back in again at orders and always kind of uh were very sweet to us kids you know they kind of put us up on the tank and we could stand on a tank and you know kind of play around and they would give us candies so they were trained because they were the occupiers they were trained on how to really reach out to the community and not make them make us look at them as in the Hostile way and they were very good at it and so by the way I saw this monster tank so so when I grew up and when I went into the army you know I said I want to be a tank driver but at the same time you know I was not a 21 year old guy I went in into the army early I was at the age of 18. so I was an 18 year old kid still really not yet ripe enough I would say to take on the responsibility of a 50 ton tank but there was I was going through the tank driving school and I would passed you know easily it was very very excited enthusiastic studied everything about the tank and then there I had my own tank and I started driving the tank and it was wonderful and the information driving and all this stuff but there were accidents that happened and one of them for instance was like I was inside the garage and did my daily routine of warming up the tank so which means that you could enter the tank you crawl in and then you pull the lever on the bottom of the of the seat and the the seed goes down so now you're gone now below um you can't really see out and now you're looking at the gauges and you're turning on the engine and the engages and you check out and to make sure the oil warms up and the engine warms up and over the step before you drive it you're supposed to check that the hand brakes are on you're supposed to check that the gear is out and all but that's of course stuff that was too busy thinking about and so I just ran this engine and somehow I got into the reverse gear and then started you know the cast of The the tanks started you know shaking and tested them is this kind of odd I'm sitting out on this and this is shaking and then all of a sudden you know and I'm trying to switch things around and then all of a sudden I felt dust coming down from the top and then all of a sudden I felt water then the smell of gas and so I literally ran with my tanks through the building through the wall and broke the gas pipes and the water pipes and everything that was there and Bricks were coming falling down and everything like that so then I stopped and I realized that I was in deep trouble so I stopped I got out of my tank I looked around and they said oh this is trouble so I said myself wait a minute there was an officer right down in the corner that the day this morning gave me this unbelievable compliments it's about snugger you're fantastic you're a great tank driver and all this kind of stuff maybe I have to go back to him now he will have sympathy he likes me so I went back to him and said you know sorry but I had this little accident can you check it out this ah don't worry about it Schwarzenegger yeah yeah you walked out of the thing he had no idea what that meant by little accident I thought that that just went into driving in the can or something like that and you looked like this and he started screaming I mean he started screaming he didn't he almost died he almost got a heart attack this is how how he freaked out so anyway so it was incidences like that that um that were not pretty and so I had my fair share of accidents with the tank I want to take you back to when you're growing up explain how you had a revelation about your future career during a Class essay writing assignment well in in school we had always you know there was like music one day and then there was uh guest speakers another day and then there was documentaries that they would show and it was usually say like eight millimeter documentaries a black and white and I remember that I saw on the screen you know a footage of New York and uh the high rises and by a State Building I saw you know the the highways and freeways and the bridges and everything seemed to me so huge it was like gigantic I mean in Austria when you lived in this little village uh you know you see everything little little Bridges little cars little four-cylinder cars you know one cylinder motorcycles and mopeds and stuff like that but there it was the Harley Davidson this huge motorcycle the huge in Cadillacs with the wings and all that stuff so everything was just gigantic and I just fell in love with that and I said to myself I got to get to America but I always for some reason or the other felt that I was in the wrong place I always I always felt out of place in Austria I felt kind of like um I mean it was a beautiful country and everything but it was kind of like I felt like it's too little for me I was much more attracted to America I felt that you know maybe even at an early age at a very early age it was almost kind of like uh it was one of those weird things you know this maybe I'm I'm the child of some American Soldier of some sort you know there was something some something going on you know that somehow I I belonged to America and um so I don't know why but that's just the way it was and um and and so I had this urge of coming to America I just couldn't figure out how and so that's why I think I started to be bodybuilding also because it was a very American Sport and it felt like well you know if I really do well in bodybuilding and if I could become like one of those guys like Steve Reeves a ridge park then that would be eventually invited to come to America and compete over there or whatever the movies were about my own little fantasy that there was always ways that I had to figure out how can I get the America well bodybuilding eventually was the way the ticket to America describe the significance of getting the telegram from Joe Weider well I um I want to miss the you know like I said Junior Mr Europe then I won't Mr Europe the next year then I came second in a Mr Universe competition I was run up at the age of 19 then I became Mr Universe the youngest Mr Universe with the age of 20 and then Joe weida started putting me on a cover of his magazines and I've heard from uh friends of mine in England that he has been acquiring about and trying to get information about me should he bring me over to America and all that I said was if this is really great I mean this is the publisher of all the magazines around the world that get translated notice different languages we had it in Austin in Germany also at the Wida magazine in German and uh that was kind of the Bible yeah it was the the magazine you know so I felt like this is really great this guy is trying to get information about me and he wants to bring me over I said this could really work I mean my plan my master plan is becoming a reality and um sure enough with the age of 21 when I won the second Mr Universe title all of a sudden I got a telegram and the telegram was just basically said we want to welcome you and uh you know invite you and and welcome you in America at the Mr Universe contest in Florida which is next week so I said myself this is fantastic so I got you know everyone to help so I can get the visa as quickly as possible and then come to America and compete in America the Mr Universe competition they know when they packed my gym bag in Munich where I was living at the time uh that I would never come back this apartment would never see me again you know it does yeah I knew it yeah so I backed my gym bag and just did very little in there just you know a few little things that you need for a few days of traveling to England and um um and I just had that bag continued on to the United States never went back and uh stayed there and never came back to the to Europe only on visits and and working and movies and stuff like that but not really moving back when you were in your early 20s why did you always feel your future was in business and how much easier did you find it to start a business in the states well you know there's some people are born with a certain talent and I don't know why I had a uh a feel for business to make you know money and to I was never shy of working I always loved working and I always kind of was good in figuring out on how to make money and even when I was a little kid at the age of 13 I was working at various different places and making my money so I could buy my gym outfits I could buy my training shoes I could buy myself a bicycle and all of those things I never had to ask my parents first of all my parents would have never bought it for me because they didn't have the money and so I bought it myself I went to work and they figured out how to make the money and how to make them pay me a lot of times as a grown-up even though I was like a 13 or 14 year old kid but they loved the idea so much like at some Factory I would work in the glass factory which is sweep up glass and you know and and get rid of it and you know they will pay me as a grown-up I mean you've been on the business front involved with everything from owning a 747 to construction to a mail order business to real estate what have you found obviously outside of acting that you've had most success in over the years I was very fortunate in real estate it for instance but again it's it you know you have a nose for it or you don't you have to you were a young kid who was just over in the states and you're just starting to make money in investing like it seemed like every dollar you could into real estate like how did you I would save I would save every single dollar that I made and I didn't make much money at all but I would save every single dollar that they made if it did a seminar somewhere or opposing exhibition um or my mail order business uh that I started really little um I will save everything and I remember that when I had twenty six thousand dollars or whatever it was I had in cash in the bank and um I was looking around like a fanatic for a apartment building and I felt very strongly that before I ever buy an apartment a condominium or a house I got to have income property first so and what was what happened was is that they bought then eventually a six unit apartment building and in the front it had the owner's unit which was like double the size of all the other apartments so that was perfect for me so there I had my my apartment and I had an apartment building and I remember I bought that apartment building for 235 for 240 000 and then you know two or three years later we sold it dig for double and uh so I made with this twenty six thousand dollars basically you know a hundred and fifty thousand dollars almost two hundred thousand dollars profit so think about what percentage of profit is over a period of just three years right so so this to me was very clear but you know I had I had the courage to do it to take all my money in other words on one single dollar left and put it in the end of this investment and that's what I always did and eventually I had like you know a hundred plus apartments uh and I had a great business and this was way before and then offices also started investing in offices and Main Street in Santa Monica and so before I ever did the film or got really heavily into the film business I already was a millionaire from the real estate deals today I've made and for all the success that in in real estate what do you recall from the collie you got after you made an appearance on Merv Griffin well first of all I think it was terrific that I was able through my personality to pass all of those pre-interviews when I did the talk show because when you did a talk show the first time you know they want to do a pre-interview to see if you really can talk on the talk show and open up your mouth or do you freeze and not say anything uh and so there's I passed through those kind of pre-interviews very easily and so when I did the first Merv Griffin Show which was Jackie green that was the interviewer he was the guest host and he is a great comedian and very funny guy and I think because he's a funny guy he kind of turned me on when I was out on that show to make me also funny and full of life and I know that and he complimented me during the show and all that and it was it was really terrific so that I was funny on that show and so the next day I got a phone call from Lucille Ball and she said that I'm doing happy anniversary and goodbye without Connie and with sounds and sounds and you mentioned all the the names Academy award-winning uh guys and the very famous women in that TV show and she said I want you to be doing a guest spot I want you to play the masseur the Italian monsieur I think it will be fantastic with your body and you are so funny Arnold you were so funny I did Merv Griffin show we were laughing I was sitting there with my husband to be with her and we were laughing and we wanted to come in and to read for this part and she's as big of the stars there was she was she was the you know 800 pound gorilla there's no no do-ways about it I mean she was like the monster of the entertainment industry you know uh also as a woman in those days that was very unique to if someone be that powerful and you rehearse with her for a week you obviously get the job uh take me to the live taping well I my English was not yet that good so I remembered that she kept saying the whole week when we rehearsed she says now you have to protect more you have to protect more I didn't really understand what project more means you know so uh but every day when we rehearsed she kept saying project and you know I want it to be louder and blah blah blah and this is great you're doing really well on that and all this stuff he says and then she said you know because on Friday where on Monday when we're shooting we're shooting live and then I said I'm gonna say okay great I had no idea what she meant about life and so I remember when India that day and we did again a little rehearsal before and she says now we're gonna go and go through the whole thing again your pad will come up in an hour and 17 minutes and blah blah blah I said okay so then they took me out and they said when you see the green light there that's when you go and ring the doorbell and that's when you go in just like we always did and so I rang the doorbell and then I heard already on the other side yeah who is it who who is that okay who is it you know and then she opened up the door and then as you know I said hi my name is in the chosanda and I'm the Missouri and all of a sudden I'm uh hearing this huge Applause and so I'm looking out and I'm realizing there is a life Warrior it was packed it was packed and she luckily saved my butt because she says well don't just stand around here with your massage table there I mean just to do something because I mean Frozen yeah I'm now looking at this audience kind of looking around to say wait a minute son of a you never told me that there is going to be an audience but of course she said it's live but I did not know what that meant you know so I just event like I said over my head it was so much fun doing this scene but it all kind of like started from doing the Merv Griffin Show and getting the attention from here because of the show and because of my personality I am Rico oh yes well won't you oh you are in the best advice she ever gave you would be what well I think that she uh always talked about how difficult it is to break into Hollywood and how to have a positive attitude and to just you know study hard and not to listen to the naysayers and all those kind of things and the the most amazing thing about Lucille Ball was as tough as she was she was really a sweetheart of a woman inside there was just a heart that was beyond belief because every single project I did I remember after that I did stay hungry she wrote me a letter and said I'm proud of you I saw the movie we just loved it you're such a great actor and we're so happy that we were the ones that got you started and then I went into pumping around you would write a letter again when they did you know the villain with Kirk Douglas sure I mean counter I mean she really was on top of it you know until she passed away uh always extremely supportive Terminator who was pretty much signed up to play the role when you first heard about it well when I got involved I remember they told me that it was O.J Simpson was The Terminator and I was supposed to play Rhys and then I was asked to have lunch with James Cameron and to talk about the movie and uh you know let's just hope that everything goes well because Jim needs to sign off for you to play Rhys and to play the hero and um as I was sitting there and having lunch for some reason or the other I started talking more and more about the Terminator why well when I read it it just happens to be that not too long ago I saw the movie Westworld with Joe Brenner who played the machine and he played this the toughest of the toughest you know your brain is a fantastic actor and he did the play The Fantastic the the toughest kind of cowboy and the shooter and when he was in the bar and I saw him the way he acted but there was everything was kind of off because it was not like a human being but you couldn't identify really there's something wrong here but you couldn't identify exactly what it was until later on when you saw that at night that took them apart and they fixed the machines said that's what it was I knew the way his eye movement was the way his head was kind of a little bit more jerky and every move was a little off so I remember all that and I was fascinated by that because I've never seen that on film someone acting like a machine so I told James Cameron I said look this is one thing that you got to make sure of is it that that whoever plays Terminator and I heard it's O.J Simpson I say but whoever he plays it I said you got to train them to be a machine not to act like a machine to be a machine is what do you mean is it what I said for instance I said there's sins in there with guns and weapons I see he cannot go and look down and have the magazine be put into the gun or look down when he puts the bullets into the magazine and all of this stuff I said he has this has to be done like a machine so therefore he has to train himself blindfolded he cannot see what he's doing so that while he's talking he has to be going on you can put it away you know just everything automatic the way he steps on the motorcycle there's not looking down on the stand to get the standard none of that can happen so I kept talking like that the whole lunch very enthusiastically like an expert so at the end of the lunch he says he says first of all I totally agree with everything he says he says but I have to say one thing I said there is no one they will understand the Terminator better than you he says therefore I think I think we're all in agreement that you should play The Terminator is it the gym excuse me I said I don't want the regress in my career I said because this guy only talks says 27 lines I don't want to go backwards I said I just did Conan I did this and I did counter number two I said I I want to have the other part where there's much more dialogue and much more challenging in those he says trust me I will shoot the character so that you're not only the number one villain that they've ever seen But the number one hero just the way I shoot it I know exactly how to do that and I said no no no no he says what you don't have to answer now he says take your time let me know the next few days so of course I go home and then from that point on or I thought about is visualizing myself as Terminator and then as Reese and all this back and forth and then eventually one day I woke up and I said to myself you know he's right it would be the most memorable character if it's played right and I promised Mr that I'm gonna go and study it and I'm gonna play it right and I'm gonna be the Terminator explain your idea for the Terminator to get a little drunk and your issue with I'll be back well you know I just saw uh E.T and I thought that it was such an appealing scene when did he goes to refrigerator and drink something it happens to be alcohol and then gets a little smashed it's all over the place I thought it was very endearing and very funny so I said to myself um I would be funny actually if the Terminator you know being this machine but they get smashed a little bit drinking alcohol but of course I didn't thank us deeply as Jim Cameron did when he wrote the script because when you write a script you really get to understand the character 100 otherwise you screw up and so he came to me and says Arnold first of all it says you're a machine the machines don't get drunk okay so that's this is no one knows that we're having this discussion he looked around always and he says number two don't tell me how to write my script okay I don't tell you how to act it didn't tell me how to write so this is how we kind of settled that conversation very quickly I'll be back oh yeah but that was an argument in front of people because otherwise it did to me I'll be back if this sounds weak I say I will be back and he said no he just say I'll be back and they said but when I say Al this oh ow this is it's it's weak it doesn't sound like a machine I said I would say I will be back and he says just say I'll be back God damn it it says don't rewrite my screen you know just say it you know then we agreed that he would um shoot it um you know do 10 takes and let me choose to take and that's exactly what we did we didn't say it 10 times the different ways what dramatic less dramatic and all this kind of stuff and then we picked one with the movie Twins and obviously this turned out to be an amazing decision but what led you at the time to deciding to take no salary well you have to understand I was so convinced that I would be great in a comedy but I also understood the Dilemma that the studios were in because the studio saw me every time I do a movie the movies make huge money so it was natural to offer me another action movie to play safe let's get another action movie for Schwarzenegger the last one did great let's take let's take him this time to the Jungle let's take him to Russia let's take him there and let's take him there there was like you know so it was all working for that let's have him be a machine so it was like whatever it was let's be an action movie and it would do well and you were hyper sensitive about being Typecast well it wasn't hypersensitive I was just I said to myself I understand that this is what the audience wants me to do me to go out and do Kick-Ass and to be the guy that is you know wiping out evil and all the bad people and all the stuff and did I protect everyone else and them the good guy and all this kind of stuff so I understood that so I felt like that the only way that we maybe can go beyond that and make a studio feel it all comfortable is his Bermuda saying hey you don't have to be the only one that is investing in me I invest in myself too don't give me any money nothing just pay for the production and test it you know and so that's what I basically said to Ivan Reitman and when Ivan Reitman and I had uh you know dinner in Aspen and Snowmass with Robin Williams and that's where actually Ivan Reitman the director of Ghostbusters said do you have funny and there's so many things about you that I've never seen in the movies is I would like to see that in a movie and I said Ivan why don't you go and come up with a project for us I said you've just done Ghostbusters I said I would love to do to be directed by you in a comedy I said but no one wants wants to do a comedy with me because I'm the action star and he says okay let me come up with something and he said he came up with five ideas and we picked out of those five ideas uh uh the idea of the experiment which then was changed to Twins and you know so I understood that that the students shouldn't be the one responsible for taking the risk so we we were able to then make the deal very easily because Danny DeVito decided not to take a salary Ivan Reitman decided not to take a salary and I decided on a big one but did we take a big chunk of the back end and of course that was the best investment we've ever made every one of us says that because the student never ever it became such a historic deal that the studio would never ever make that deal again no matter who it is no absolutely not because they just got a percentage we got the bigger chunk and that does not float well with the studio let me tell you as a matter of fact I remember that whoever the studio executive was then uh after the movie came out and after we made all the money he says you know what you guys did to me and uh he turned around and he uh pulled out his pockets and he says you know you robbed me blind and you me you know I depend over like that so that's that's uh exactly insane so you know it was like I said the historic deal but for 16 and a half million dollars that's what the budget was of the movie because we do no salary otherwise it would have been uh 50 million dollars you know because Ivan was getting a huge salad Danny and I was getting a huge salary at that point so we just you know it didn't take any because there was a very low budget uh for this kind of a movie and it made I think worldwide to 260 270 million dollars so I mean it was a huge huge winner what happened after filming True Lies that made you realize you needed a heart operation but first of all when you talk about the heart operation my mother had a heart problem and so I took it to UCLA one day it was in the late 70s where they told her that she has a valve problem as a matter of fact two of her valves didn't really work well and that she made down the line need a valve replacement and they also told her to ask her I said did your mother or someone in your family have that and she said which was the first time I kind of heard that was yeah my mother had a valve problem and she died with the age of 67. and so they said they said well you know it's obviously something that is being passed down as it Arnold you better get your heart checked regularly because this could also happen to you and so from that point on every year I had my heart checked when I had my physical and so when I was finished with uh with the True Lies I remember the dark that that physical said you know the time is coming up where I see your heart the performance going down that you need soon a valve replacement so I said to him I said well you know why not that just do uh let's do it in two years from now and he says it's fine so right after the Batman and Robin movie I went into the hospital and uh got the valve replacement because both valves replaced the wedding valve and the pulmonary valve what was the risk involved with that and what did the doctor come into your room and say at 3am the morning after surgery well because I got the Ross procedure which is where they take one of your own valves and put it in the aortic position so the pulmonary valve is really normally not strong enough to to take over the aortic position and that pressure blood pressure so it was clear clear that at that point there's a 60 chance that it works in the 40 chance that it won't work so what happened was is that the the the pressure was too enormous and my body was too big and too strong and um and it also didn't help that right after I woke up from the surgery I went on the life cycle instead of writing the life cycle with all the machines you know still connected to me so that didn't help either but I mean it said but the bottom line was that it failed and that it started coughing and I I started kind of you know choking and not getting in the air and there was fluid going in the lungs and there isn't it three in the morning the doctor came to me and said you know the surgery failed that in two hours from now we have to do it again and now it gets very dangerous because they do two surgeries within a 24 hours like that you know it's like uh first to tell you there's a six percent chance of failure that you wipe out and now all of a sudden that doubles because 12 so I don't have to tell you that if you have a a gun to your head that has you know a hundred Chambers and there's 12 bullets in there I don't think anyone wants to take the risk when you spin it that you know it's going to be clean so it was it was a wild thing to be a a situation to be in but being under the amount of drugs that you own the at that point you really don't care you know it's like I say okay well just do it and do you think there was a chance that could be it yeah absolutely it was a disaster situation to be in nevertheless and I could see when they prepped me for the surgery uh at five in the morning that their attitude was quite different than the day before when they prepped me for the first surgery but it was all kind of like easy going and the dancing around and being funny it oriented the operation room with the music is on and all that stuff this time it was serious serious business I could feel that even though I was high on drugs and so luckily it all turned out well and he did the Dr stance it did a great job in redoing it and now 19 years later I still have the same valves and that everything is standing fine Bush senior uh how neat was it when he was in office to pretty much have an open invitation to come to the White House whenever you were in DC well first of all let me just say that I made a lot of politicians obviously in my life and there is nothing that I've ever met democrat or republican alike that ever comes close to push one he was a very unique man he is a very unique man and he was just extremely gracious and his mannerism and everything was just like a gentleman so then when I became the chairman of the president's Council and physical fitness and sports I had great access always to the Oval Office and he will bring me in and he will have me hang out and and then explain to me everything and that was kind of a point where I started really getting turned on to politics and to wow it would be great for me one day to do something like that and and then I I was invited up to Camp David I mean a lot of times he wanted me up there I mean all the time really oh he called me and the White House called me and Barbara called us and invited us up there and they just were fantastic they loved going up to Camp David and so we went up there in the summertime in the spring fall winter sledding up there and skid and trap shooting horseshoes I mean we would do Sports literally all day long I was so exhausted he just was like he just was really athletic I mean he was really in shape that guy and then on Sunday I remember a lot of the people came up there and then they worked did a lot of work and stuff like that and then of course it was also getting at one point it was getting very close to the Iraqi War and I would had the chance to watch that whole thing unfold and um so it was just fantastic to watch it but he was like the the kindness that is played and and he really also noticed that I was very passionate about Fitness and so he when I asked him to do the Great American workout in front of the at the South lawn of the White House in front of the White House just like Kennedy used to do in the 60s when he had in a sports activities in the spring obviously it was kind of a fitness day to redo that and to do this kind of idea but bigger and um you know even though every lawyer in his White House said no when I went to him and I said look there's too many nose here I mean it's like crazy I I don't even know how you get things done around here and he says let me talk to them but then all of a sudden he made it happen and so every year we had the Great American workout usually and and on the first of May and it was all because he believed in me and he knew that I would stage the greatest American workout in front of the White House with all the Press there and and and and sports celebrities in the different stations and exercises and different sports and all that he could be proud of the event President Nixon explained the situation that led to him actually being the first person to seriously suggest you one day run for governor yeah I um came to remember exactly the year it was but I mean I was invited down to come to the Nixon Library and um and I always felt kind of like he was the one that made me become a republican because when he was campaigning in 1968 just when I came to America there was a month of campaigns still left to November because it was in October when they came up with America I had a friend of mine that spoke German in English they translated for me the debates and the the discussions and everything like that and whenever I heard Humphrey talk about politics it sounded to me like you know I'm back in Austria socialism you know give away everything and you know have government be involved in everything and all of a sudden they say okay that's not what we need I just came from that and uh when Nixon talked it was refreshing you know talking about you know the world is is our you know business place and we should trade around the world and we should sell our Goods around the world and we should have you know at the world sell their stuff to us and open up the borders and talking about Good the military is strong and law enforcement strong law enforcement and love that and get government off your back I said wow that sounds really great you know lower the taxes that sounds also great you know and on and on so whatever he said it just sounded fantastic and I said to myself so you know so I I said to myself I said what party is he from and my friend said my friend was a Democrat and he says it's disgusting it says he's a Republican and I said well you know something then I'm a republican I said because I love what this guy says so I always contributed me becoming a republican uh Nixon you know when he was the one that really turned me on and that really articulated it the right way um and so when I was invited to the Nixon Library of course it jumped at the opportunity and then I heard when I got there that actually Nixon is going to be there they said wow this is wild and so I went there and it didn't take long they brought me over to him and they introduced me to him and then he started talking to me very enthusiastically and he was excited to meet me and then he talked to me for another five minutes alone in his office and it was fantastic the conversation and everything and then he said to me he says you know [Music] um you have political instincts it says you should run for governor out of nowhere now like I said this was way before I ever thought about doing anything in politics and so then he was told that he should go and give a toast and there was you know it was packed and he went up on stage I remember and he gave a toast and he gave a little speech and talked very enthusiastically and very very eloquently and thanked everyone in all this and that and he said Now ladies and gentlemen I want to welcome up a great act that Entertainer with you know someone that really knows about politics uh Arnold Schwarzenegger now he of course didn't tell me at all that he's going to call me up or do you mind if I have you come up and say a few words I mean nothing so it was the last thing that I was you know kind of ready for but for some reason or the other the more organic you are the better chance you have to shine so I just basically told the people I said was it the only thing I can really say at this point is to tell them the story how I became a a fan of Nixon and told them the story about the campaign and how I watched him every day when he was campaigning these speeches and this and that and Humphries and it kind of told us and it was a huge Applause and then afterwards he came to me says I'm turning around if you ever run I wouldn't trust you you know and it was like uh it was like kind of like I said to himself this is unbelievable and then he signed he sent me photographs uh you know that we took together at the Nixon Library I remember Bob Hope was also there and other celebrities and he would sign it then I still have to photograph in my office tell about uh your meeting with then White House Deputy Chief of Staff Carl robe where you were innocently asking about uh the governorship and then the later time you ran into him after you were elected well um I started thinking more and more in the late 90s early 2000s about the idea of running gray Davies uh was just elected to be our governor and all that stuff so it was kind of brewing in my head and so all of a sudden was the talk about a recall in California to recall Gray Davis he was now elected the second time and uh as soon as he was elected you know there were of course economic downturns which you know is no one's fault really not one person's fault uh but then there were the Lights Went Out in California and uh you know so people felt like what kind of a governor do we have economy is going down we cannot even keep our lights on it was all kinds of things that started mounting to anger in California and all of a sudden there was a recall now I was just finished off Terminator 3 and I was now about to go under promotion to a worldwide to promote the movie Terminator 3. and those that was traveling around they read the news it's just that there's Gathering signatures and they're now having enough signatures and they're now uh giving me sending it to the Secretary of State and the secretary of state is calling now for an election for recall election so that was basically I said to myself that is a clear signal from somewhere above that if I want to run this is the time to run because you have Democrats and Republicans voting together and I don't have to go through a Republican primary and so I jumped into the race and you see but you go to see Karl Rove well what happened is is that before orders since I was very heavily involved in after school programs so we had a big after school program summed in Washington so which was you know kind of worked together we worked together me and the Bush Administration uh worked on this after school program Summit and so it was natural that afterwards I went over there with the Secretary of Education appointed by Bush to go with the White House with her and to just drop by and say hi to the president and also then to go upstairs and say hi to Karl roof and uh so I said to Karl roof so tell me I mean this whole thing now they're Gathering signatures uh do you think they talk about the record you think this is going to happen and he says to me you know Donald they're a crazy in California California does crazy things I mean I wouldn't count on that at all I mean they talk about it in Disney it's a wacky State no one is going to recall Gray Davis this is the craziest thing is it so I wouldn't even pay much attention to that now this is the the number one expert in politics talking and uh I said to myself I don't know why he's saying that because it seems to me that the feeling I get in California that people really want to have the Recall why is he so often that one so it didn't take long we are schmoozing upstairs in his office and he says now he says um oh let's go downstairs I just got the message let's go downstairs you will meet someone that will be really an interesting candidate for 2006. that if you by the way if you ever want to run that will be the candidate that you have to beat so we go downstairs and then all of a sudden there's Condoleezza Rice Secretary of State coming our way and she's all Smiley and very friendly and that's Hey Arnold how are you it's good to see you and as a you know thank you it's nice to see you also I said that you know congratulations on a great job that you're doing and all is that and Karl roof says that is the candidate for 2006. that is the person that you would have to beat if you happen to want to run she was totally uncomfortable so she did not know that he's going to say that I mean she's a wonderful sweet woman and very smart and everything and she would make a great Governor there's no two ways about that and would have been a tough Contender obviously but he had no idea that my thinking was I'm going to run Carl I'm going to run way before 2006. and I will prove to you how off you are and true enough a few months later I was governor of the state of California they called the election in in in August beginning of August and August 6th I announced under the Night Show a bit Jay Leno my candidacy and then exactly two months later on October 7th I was governor of the state of California and then swung in on November 17th of 2003. and fast forward to the next time you see him President Bush came out to California to visit and uh maybe due to some fundraising whatever but I remember they asked me to meet up with the President Bush uh in the Inland Empire and he was staying there at a hotel and they asked me to go up there to this hotel and so I then met bush who I knew very well uh because like I said from Camp David and you know we hung out together a lot of times but he then said to Karo if he says Carl why don't you leave us alone and so Karl Rove walked out okay bye you know kind of sheepishly and he left and then I talked to Bush around then Bush said to me basically is you know hey don't hold any crutches against Karl roof because he didn't you know believe that this would happen because I say kidding me I say I love the guy I think he has done the most unbelievable job for you I said and that he didn't believe in it I said a lot of other people didn't believe that there would be a recall and a lot of people didn't believe that I would be running for governor or the devil be Governor eventually and all that stuff I said I have nothing against Carl you can bring him back so anyway he came back and then we all were laughing and having a good time and like I said you know we had a wonderful working relationship after that when there was a governor and Kyle was very supportive and the president was very supportive and all that explain how the narrative uh within your family changed from the first time you brought up the possibility of running with your wife when you both were in the jacuzzi to then day of Jay Leno well it was um I did not know after all of the years of knowing Maria that how much she in a way despised politics so all of this started unfolding kind of when I told her in a Jacuzzi I said I said you know what do you think about the idea of me running for governor very casual question and she said you know he would look at me like the bottom just fell out and she says you're not thinking about that huh are you and I said yeah I was thinking about is it look I said this is such chaos in California I said the politicians are such idiots I said look what they do with this state this is the number one state the number one place in the world they're destroying it I say I feel that I can do a better job than they do I don't have to experience or anything like this is it but I can do a better job than they do I say I feel inside me that I have to go and do that and she just freaked out and so then I said well look I don't want to cause a scene or anything like this you know uh if if it's upsetting I just forget about the whole idea and uh but yeah so then there was the idea that dick ridden is going to run and he's going to go and represent the Republican party on Earth but the bottom line was that you know Maria then you know changed her mind and she thought you know she shouldn't be in my way and I remembered that morning before I went to the night show should have the message and says you know if you want to run it's okay I understand here's what you should say if you want to run and here's what you should say if you don't want the run and had you really not made up your mind no what happened was we had meetings with dick ridden about it and he then all of a sudden what really tip did the whole thing was that dick ridden said I don't have to fire in a belly I think you should run so that's when I kind of came back with my thought and this is when I said to Maria I said look he's not going to run and so anyway so the whole thing I I went into the night show and there I announced exactly what was really in me which was that I have to run they'd have to jump in there no matter what happens and so when I came home that night after the night show I didn't see my wife the whole day she was out filming and doing her because she was having her own show in NBC and doing an interview with somebody and so I didn't really talk to her the whole day so she had no idea which way I'm gonna go and so anyway and the night show I announced and so of course her friends that worked under the at the NBC over there called her immediately a second later she knew and by the time I came home she was like freaking out so I said to myself this is beyond me beyond my comprehension because I now for the first time really did not understand life I said how could someone grow up in a family in a political family and not like the idea of the husband running for governor but I was only thinking about the one dimension but the other dimension that I did not think about was was that she as a child was dragged along the orders political campaigns if she wanted it or not so she hated it and she hated that she never really had the ultimate privacy that everything was always reported how much money they spent what they did on the weekend in Disneyland and she was dragged with all the other kids uh in front of the press so but I that never was really explained to me so that they knew that so then later on as time went on I think she uh Maria articulated that much better and then I understood why there was pain and why there was discomfort and she felt like you know who knows what stuff will come out and everyone has skeletons in the closet and I don't want to be embarrassed again like I was with my family and this whole thing you know with the whatever you know they discovered whenever any one of the family members were answered it was always embarrassing so which I totally understood but at that point I felt like quite the opposite he says whatever defined I take that risk and I'm gonna dive in it was all nothing at this point it felt like it's all or nothing and I felt so convinced that I need to be and have to be the governor and this is exactly the way it all played out you wrote in your book being governor was more complex and challenging than you imagined in what ways well because the only time you find out how complex the job is when you sit there there's no training class for being Governor even when you're a state senator even when you're lieutenant governor you really never know until you sit there and until you really get hit by challenges that are unexpected because remember that we were hit by a secondary session with a much within a much shorter period of time than it normally happens normally it's like 10 years or so within six years I mean be balanced our budget in 2006 in 2007 we saw the revenue is going down by 2008 we were 20 billion dollars short of revenues so to then figure out what to do and as a state you cannot have a a deficit you have to somehow balance the budget so the obviously have 20 billion dollars short this year 20 billion the next year 20 billion the next so you're getting into a disaster situation so there were tremendous challenges that I faced also when you get phone calls at nine in the evening that we have 500 fires all over the state and then you get another phone call at three in the morning that now there's 1500 files and then it when you get up in the morning you get another phone going says now we have 2 000 and 13 fires in California all at one time and you know that your resources are not available kind of like this is complicated and but with a good team and with a lot of cuts you know you make decisions very quickly and you have good partners like we had with the federal government the military and the National Guard and everyone coming together so there were a lot of challenges like that you know I remember the first after year and a half of being in office I caught a special election to solve some of the major fiscal problems that we had in California and some of the problems we had with their education and I lost I remember all four of the initiatives that are put on the ballot so that was kind of also a huge beating because labor raised 167 million dollars and we raised only 87. so there's wild stuff like that that went down but then a year later I came back and then when the governorship again and or said it was like it's kind of like you know some days it's fantastic and everything goes well and you balance the budget and you have made a deal with Democrats and Republicans to build the infrastructure and do to pass great environmental laws and we pass the most unbelievable environment laws we became kind of the example for the rest of the world uh and and all this so with those wonderful things and then there's also tough times and so I experienced both but I would not ever uh exchange it with anything else it was the most uh challenging but the most rewarding and pleasurable thing to do it was I I have to tell you that I'm so fortunate that in my life I was able out of all of the things to be a bodybuilding champion and then movie star and all this kind of stuff but they was able to serve you know almost 40 million people in California that was like unbelievable our visit to Hong Kong coincided with the debut of the Arnold sports festival in Asia the sixth and final continent the event has reached since starting in 1989. the weekend featured 5 000 athletes in 28 different sports from nearly 50 countries and continues Schwarzenegger's mission to spread Fitness and Nutrition awareness throughout the world what's most impressed you about the growth of the Arnold Classics over the years well you know you have a vision and promoting bodybuilding but then out of that the the division got bigger the same as if I should not just promote bodybuilding I should promote Fitness I should promote Health but the work has to continue on because those Fitness festivals have to get bigger and bigger and uh you know uh as I always say too big is not big enough [Music] this is really so exciting for me and for the Arnold Classic to be here in Hong Kong and to finally be here in Asia what do you think of the first one in Hong Kong so far well it's great the idea is to walk into watch the different sports and the different activities they're doing because it makes them feel good if I come by and watch them and then my way out what they're doing and all this is all part of it nice oh man this is too easy and watch those arms and the shoulders look at the technique go come on very nice [Music] a lot of times when they go to the old classics and walk around and show them that I'm interested in what they're doing and whatever the sport it is boxing or the jumping rope or pole dancing or whatever it may be let's see a pose I mean come and indulge me a little bit here yeah look at this nice can you believe that how quickly those guys are look at how agile man I would love to be able to do just 10 of this wow you can do it faster yes oh man you're going 30 miles an hour you're going up to 40 miles an hour unbelievable man fantastic give me five congratulations and I hope that you say I'll be back I'll be back very nice thank you very much thank you [Music]

Channel: Graham Bensinger

Views: 914,093

Keywords: Graham Bensinger, In Depth with Graham Bensinger, Feature Interview, arnold schwarzenegger, actor, hollywood, california politics

Id: nAt0WSzHtOo

Length: 66min 24sec (3984 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 24 2022

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