Arnold Schwarzenegger Talks New ‘Be Useful’ Book, Terminator & More with Rich Eisen | Full Interview

well this is all kinds of awesome we are so excited to have here in studio in the flesh the author of be useful seven tools for life also just happens to be the world's greatest bodybuilder one of the greatest movie stars of all time and the leader of the world's sixth largest economy back in the day the great Arnold Schwarz and Egger here on the Rich Eisen show good to see you wow look at the standing ovation it's amazing where do you where do you get this audience from it's Fant standing ovation nice and by the way you are uh a first of in the history of our show or in year 10 um nobody's ever said hey that chair what did you call it a baby chair is that what you call it when you saw our chairs yeah so what happens is yes um it's just psychological okay that if I sit low or it is a chair that leans back which means comfortable chair I lose energy we don't want that and uh so I know myself if I sit up straight mhm then I keep my energy level okay and so it's just a psychological thing so whenever I see in a lot of times they do speeches and q&as in front of huge audiences and then just before I go out they have to kind of rearrange the chairs because that's just want a regular Hotel chair just some dining room chair of something and they had this beautiful couch and a beautiful sofa and all stuff and I say get rid of it I fall asleep on that couch well we can't have that here God forbid I mean it's so so you you went you took Chris brockman's chair my colleague across the way you took his chair first for everything rich but is and and by the way he was nice he was nice he says please take it that's exactly what am I going to fight you abely not got to tell you he looks better in your chair no fense chair looks better under him does that make sense um so and and I see again you're wear you're wearing is this an original uh Governor's uh zip up this is the original Governor's check do you get one of those when you become governor or or did you have to no no I just got it made you know I got made all kinds of things the governor's seal on it and a lot as matter I got made I think five or six of them and uh the rest of them I auctioned off MH because they really they go for a lot of money so I always raise a lot of money for after school programs and uh so we had just uh a month and a half two months ago we had a fundraiser at the house where we had a poker tournament uhhuh and um so we rais around you know $2 and5 million with the poker tournament and then we auction off items mhm and so we went up to $7 million this year uh for after school program so the kids have a program after school after 3:00 between 3 and 6 and uh one of the things that the auction off was one of those jackets and it went for $50,000 and I said to myself well it cost me $300 or $200 so now we auction it off for for $50,000 I mean so this but it's really crazy those auctions because people come there they have a lot of money and they're very giving so they're very generous uh they know this doesn't really have that value like for instance I I auction of a humodor that looked kind of like the White House and it auctioned off kind of like a uh you know beautiful with 500 cigars inside and all the label were presidential label and stuff like so very well thought out I designed the whole thing and came up with the idea and it sold for $250,000 w wow so just to give you an idea so we do this I think about it throughout the whole year of you know what can we create that will be a great auction item you know sometimes we auction of dumbbells that someone gave me that has the Terminator face on it on the outside that I really don't need anymore you know there like 80 PB dumbles I mean I don't use 80b dumbles anymore M I go to 50 maybe if I'm lucky but I mean in any case this is the kind of stuff that we do um and it's also one of the things I talk about in the book to give something back to the community and to your country be useful seven tools for life so um why why write the book right now AR you know it was a total uh fluke because I started 10 12 years ago doing commencement speeches and I said to myself I got the kind of teach kids something that they need to know how to be more successful rather than just do a regular speech and so I did it USC the commencement speech and uh after that the reaction was really great which was kind of like here the five of six things that they wish have known and um and I gave them the the kind of the tools to success and then I got a really positive reaction and then other universities asked me to give speeches and commencement speeches then then I was asked to do uh motivational speeches so all of a sudden I was in a speaking circuit doing motivational speeches so as if this the craziest thing I never ever thought of myself as a motivational speaker or anything and then Publishers started uh getting in touch with me and saying you know you should do a motivational book and then my agent finally said look I think that we can really find a great publishing house that will understand the things that you're trying to accomplish motivating people helping them to be more successful helping them to be happier uh with their progress in life in order in the direction they go and so on and so uh let's go and find a good publishing house and so we found penguin in America and in England and we made the deal you made the deal and it just seems that at this day and age too Arnold that you know any any help in trying to figure out how you can be part of something and the community can come together and be made better it just seems like right now we need that more than ever quite frankly yes absolutely but you know it's it's really uh uh wild if you think about it how many people are unhappy how many people are angry uh because of the lack of success or because they're not really doing the things that they want to do in life and uh so uh what I always felt was that I was always happy happy mhm I was always happy with the job that I was doing when I was training 5 hours a day for bodybuilding I was happy because I knew what I'm shooting for I knew that this is the goal here's my vision to be Mr Universe to be the greatest bodybuilder of all time that's what I'm shooting for so I was happy going to the gym and doing the sets and the Reps and the weights and off those kind of things rather than kind of feeling oh my God another day of training I always there was always was a purpose there so I feel like that if people wake up in the morning and there's a purpose there's a reason and there is you know you're passionate about something that you're chasing it makes life so much better and you are so much happier because so many people get up in the morning and they have no goal they have nothing so that's why you have 78% of the people in America hate their jobs and I think this is just a miserable number if you think about it uh because that's why people can't wait to retire I mean I do the opposite that try to do everything I can not to retire right I mean so that's because I'm happy what I do I'm happy with the acting I happy I was really happy when I was the governor of California and I was sitting up there in the capital and learning every day all the policy stuff and how to bring people together how to negotiate how to be inclusive and how to get things done and then how to sell this idea IDE to the people of California bring them in make them understand what we were trying to do in order of it was so challenging it was so much fun to represent 40 million people and it was the greatest job I've ever had Arnold Schwarzenegger here on the rich eyes and show be useful seven tools for life it's a number one New York time bestseller already uh I'm I'm so excited for you to be here because I am such a fan and I've been such a great fan of so much of of what you've done and what we do here on our program is we have a construct called celebrity true or false where we ask questions about your work and you tell us what's been written or what's been said is true or false if you don't mind okay and we have actually this is and hopefully you appreciate this production value I think it's like a tent pole movie check it out right here here we go celebrity true or false you can't handle the truth that's it that's all it is right there what do you think Arnold what do you think of our production value right there I don't even know how you can afford this stuff I know that I mean this is goes beyond Spielberg and all of those Geniuses Jim Cameron production agree it is a Cameron type it's Avatar and Jaws all together in one I appreciate no I you and you I I know you appreciate the the finest stuff so I that's why I wanted to ask how do you do it well you know what I just you know I just uh take it one segment at a time hope for the best you know that sort of thing but you must have a great vision oh that's why I wear these glasses and this is why I talk about it as the first chapter in the book have a vision so you have that Vision guys do I have Vision you by the way I'm not these are not yes men okay they they will tell me if I'm wrong oh absolutely very honest kind of people I'm not surrounded by that good Vision okay Arnold Richard Rich also has the shme going for him oh good you know he's got the that's it so Brothers all right first up celebrity true or false with Arnold schwarzeneger in studio all right first up true or false Terminator producers originally wanted you to play the Kyle ree role and OJ Simpson is The Terminator is that true that's correct so and um and the end when they met me they felt like oh I think that this guy will be better as Terminator because he looks much more believable as a killing machine they thought that OJ didn't look like a killing machine and so they passed on him and they asked me to play the terminate and uh then the rest is history the rest is history exactly isn't that interesting yeah yeah but now of course everyone in the studio system denies that this ever happened you know they say no no I I never wanted OJ and I I there was no discussion about about the Jim Cameron and I we know we both know that that is a fact what a what a what a huge moment I think in in obviously movie history right there uh true or false the original I'll be backline and the Terminator was written as I'll come back and you had to convince James Cameron to change it wrong okay so Jim Cameron wrote I'll be back M and I said to him I said I don't like the way I sound when I say I'll be back I didn't quite understand the L thing okay uh being German speaking and uh he said well just say the way it says I'll be back and I said well I'd rather say I will be back mhm sounds more machine like and he says a wrer says but I mean are you the writer or am I the writer of the script and he says well you're the writer he says well then don't tell me how to write he says I don't tell you how the act let's just keep that going like that it says just let's do 10 takes of I'll be back and you pick the one that you like and uh that's the one that we do and that's the one we that we keep in the mov and that's exactly what we did but the interesting thing about it was no matter how much we argued about this which we had daily kind of talks like that um it was a line that no one thought would be ever repeated again really no no no one thought this is going to be one of those lines that people will repeat and so when when the movie came out I remember I was in New York and the guy came up to me uh after the screening he says oh Arnold Arnold I'm a big fan of yours I love your bodybuilding career is can you repeat the line I'll be back and I said I'll be back and he says no no no no the way you say it in the movie and then said I'll be back he said yeah yeah yeah oh my God and he ran off I mean like a crazy guy right and then it happened again and again and the next day again and all of a sudden I said to myself wow this is kind of weird so I I called Jim Cameron I said this I'll be backline I said I think he was so right I said because it wouldn't have been that cool if I would have said I will be back right and uh he said I told her they will work and he says but it's going to be the most repeated line I think in history and then it has become really one of the most repeated lines yeah and then just and who who knew that you were drilling down on what's the right thing to say what's not and that you were handling the most one of the most famous lines in the history yeah of movies unbelievable all right uh another one true or false Arnold Schwarzenegger you originally disliked the Terminator 2 script because your character didn't kill anybody um I love the script I just didn't like my Chara because I said to myself wait a minute Are We Now turning kind of liberal here mhm I say what's going on here politically speaking I said that all of a sudden the Terminator becomes a softy and all that and um you know politically correct uh because maybe action movies are going out of violence and the movies goes out or something like that so there was all kinds of things that went through my mind is that what it was do you think okay all it was brilliant brilliant writing by Jim Cameron because what he did was he put that twist in there that the Terminator comes back but this time to protect you know Sakana and also her son um and so I was the protector and so the kid says to me he says but you can't go around killing people and then he I say I won't and he says you have to promise me and I say I swear I will not kill anyone and so you know so therefore I shoot people but I don't kill them I shoot them in the need right away like a minute a second later was a scene where the god comes out of the God house and they just take the gun boom boom and he falls down in front of us he says you told me that you're not going to do that said uh he will live you know and then we we move on so I really don't kill anybody so I was kind of shocked on the beginning but then when he explained it to me I was all in and uh brilliant brilliant writing I a few more of these but I want to pause and uh well still it's about true or false or not what is the movie you get the most that people say they love the most of your when when they stop you or they meet you say I love this movie is it determinat dep of where I go you know I could go through some a place um and people would say I love Kindergarten Cop it's my favorite movie um others would say they're like twins mhm with individual those and then of course a lot of people say you know Terminator 1 Terminator 2 uh some of them say Predator so it really depends that's why I I always have a difficult time when people say what was your favorite movie I've ever done oh sure how do you pick that no I between Twins and Terminator 2 and predator and True Lies and all of those movies I mean it's it's it's crazy so I just tell him I said look the movies that have been highly successful because of their success in the box office and then there's movies that maybe were not as successful but I had the greatest time doing them you know so it really depends in which way you look at it what is my favorite well you named a bunch of movies but not my favorite of yours The Running Man The Running Man is my favorite movie of yours oh thank you I don't know how is that a rarity that you get that or you get that a lot or yeah yeah but I mean because the Running Man there used to be a time where people said The Running Man is my favorite but then it was outdone clearly with the Terminator 2 and with the True Lies and and those movies so but in any case I'm happy because now I've heard that they want to do a remake of running M that's what I've heard I've read that yes and so we will see what happens do you have the unitard to still the Richard unitard to still wear it right now uh I I would not be the doing playing that same character okay um but I mean um nor am I interested in being in it ah okay I mean but you give your blessing to the Remake they can do whatever they want okay very good it's your project so I I just love the movie I thought it was I've seen it a million times over and you know me being an NFL guy do you have a Jim Brown story from that from the shoot at all well Jim Brown was fantastic on the set and when he did the fight scenes and all that stuff he didn't need any stunned people to to to double him I mean he's like dirty dozen like come on now right it right I mean the man is made out of steel no he did not use a stump double running man no I mean he just he just was doing the fight scenes he was doing threw himself around and he was you know he he just is a extraordinary athlete as you know right and uh so I think that's the advantage the same is also true like with guys like U uh Will Chamberlain when I did con number two with him there was no stunt guy who was 7 foot2 I mean this it's crazy and there were no stun guys for me either because no one at that point at that time was that muscular now of course there is a lot of stunned people that are very muscular and there's a lot of actors that are very muscular so this whole thing caught uh really on and uh everyone Now is working out but in those days this was a reality yeah and then put up the photograph Mike Hoskins let's just check this one out too um I mean look at that picture yeah so this Andre the Giant you andam I mean look at I weighed 200 I weighed at that point 235 lbs but it looked like a I look like the D the Dy Devo among among those guys it's crazy it's absolutely crazy yeah and what was Andre Andre the Giant he was there wrestling yeah so he was in Mexico City we were filming in Mexico City yeah and so he was wrestling and so uh W and I would go to his wrestling matches yeah so we would go to his wrestling matches and then after that Andre would take me out for dinner and um he would take me to this spectacular Mexican restaurant and we had a wonderful you know meal and then afterwards I puted up my wallet and I wanted to pay mhm and he says no no no I pay so I said no Andre I mean look this is so unbelievable that you got me to see you wrestle you got us the front row seats and everything like that so let me do my share I'm paying he says no I pay I said no I'm insisting he grabs me like this and he lifts me up like a little kid and he puts me on top of a cabinet of some credena up there and I'm sitting up there and he then goes and pays the bill he put you on a shelf like an elf is absolutely hilarious I tell you that he by just it shows you his hands were just like three times the size of my hands and uh he just grabbed me like nothing and just while he was talking he was Lifting me up so this is this was a really really powerful guy all right three last ones for you Arnold Schwarzenegger celebrity true or false true or false you turned down the role of John mlan and die hard um I couldn't do the film because of another obligation that I had so I already was booked for that time when they wanted to shoot the movie so I couldn't do it so but they reached out to you to do it beginning but because charel Silva yes who was the producer was the producer also of Commando and of Predator yes a spectacular producer I mean he was really really good and so of course I wanted to work with him again but it just somehow didn't work out and he had to go and start shooting the film so therefore it didn't work out okay two more uh true or false while filming twins you had inadvertently smoked a cigar spiked with marijuana given to you by Danny DeVito is that true that's true what what happened he just he spiked it and handed it to you as a gag he did to me what I normally do the people so he just turned it around and uh and that son of a got got me to to really fall for it you know he is arold I make some pasta for lunch he makes really good pasta okay he's really into the cooking sure and um I said okay he says come to my trailer and we have we have lunch then so he made the lunch and then he surfed it outside we were sitting outside his motor home and we were doing he says now he says I have some cheesecake oh Italian cheesecake is fantastic and so they came out with the cheesecake and then with the espresso you know with the finger lifted out the little finger the way they do in Europe the way they serve these little CBS one finger out this is how you drink and so he comes out with his coffee and I drink it and it's fantastic he says he says he says what's you always give me good stoies I am always a stingy bastard he says I never give you any stoies I have a really good stoy Mony Christal number two look at this look at the shape of this huh you know this like a topo shaped kind of like Churchill used to smoke those number number two so he knew that that my saliva was running together you know kind of like I was like looking for that getting my that cigar into my mouth as quickly as possible and he says he says let me light it for you he says let me cut it first and he cut the end and he did the whole treatment so it didn't look weird that he's on it and then he he put it in my mouth and he says okay let me light it he lit it uh like this and uh then all of a sudden I said smoke sming it and then uh it was a really really good cigar so he says he say how you feeling I said great really great we go back to the set to continue on the scene that we stopped before lunch which was my closeup and he was standing there next to the camera and then over a sudden he said he's lying and I said uh uh uh uh can anyone help me here what's the line and then someone F me the line and it sounded like literally like I've never even heard that line before it was not like kind of like I just had to be kind of reminded of something so anyway I said they hold it I said guys there's something off here I cannot remember the you know the lines I says so can you give me so the script supervisor comes to me and she says well here's the scene you started this morning here and I'm looking at the scene that we already did in the morning where we started and I couldn't remember that either anymore they never even shot the scene so it was just not it was just not in there it was a craziest thing so so then I just said okay look Danel why don't you do the close-ups and I'm on this side of the camera and then hopefully this passes and sure enough after an hour it passed so he did this closeup and then an hour later then we turned around again and all of a sudden I started remembering everything again he came back and we did the scenes and then uh good stogy Danny would say to me good stogy huh so that's when I got it finally good son of a gun oh my me yeah last one then uh true or false Arnold you suffered broken fingers in multiple stitches on more than one occasion while filming Total Recall that's true yeah so broken fingers from the fight scene SC I was I had my hand at the wrong place when the guy kicked me in the face you know I tried to block it rather than to just take the take the hit and um and so he he broke my finger and then um you know a week later I was chasing the train at the train station and the idea was I was running after the train as it was taking off and I had a gun in a hand and then I smashed window and so as I smash the window the guy is sitting inside the the special effects guy and he presses the button of the explosion so that as soon as they go and hit the window the window explodes and my hand can go through or it didn't work and so my hand went the ACT through actual class and then I cut everything down here W and I was bleeding like crazy all the way down to the tendon but I tell you something yes you know we have certain kind of images of Mexico go say I don't want to be called with with this kind of injuries in the middle of the night they had a doctor a young doctor he maybe was early 30s on a said that guy was so good he stitched me up he put a bandid on it and literally an hour later I was chasing the train again and smashing into the window wow it was like a really amazing how uh efficient those guys were down the medical team and all that stuff when there were injuries like that yeah well we could go on and on and on and on we've hardly even scratched the surface of your filmography uh so uh hopefully you'll come back and we'll we'll do this again I'm we're we're all thrilled to have you here on well it's great to do to be hon and you know it's it's I love doing it because each one of those podcasts is different and it's a really great way to promote the book yeah because you know to me the the important thing is to keep the book alive not to just promote it like a movie when it comes out yes but to to make the book have legs and it's like going up and up and up in the sales so I'm ecstatic about it and you should be uh be useful seven tools for Life by Arnold Schwarz and AER go get it where all books are sold certainly in time for the holidays a perfect gift for anybody that wants to make a difference and can I ask you a question I'm here for you sir yes okay good what is it that you enjoy the most about your podcast and about interviewing people uh I'd love to meet people I really do and that's why this show is also radio show cuz I love giving out the phone number and having people call in and get to meet them and get to chat I used to be a standup comic in college i' always love the back and forth I love the reaction from people and I don't get that you know in a Studios environment right so and I just love tell you know I I I love hearing people tell stories I love eliciting stories I love uh making people feel comfortable um and and I love all of that I really do you're doing a great job with it and what I detected is that you're curious and I think that in your your job yes when you're curious half of the battle is won because you're curious about people you're curious about their stories and then comes out when you do the interview I'm honored for you to say that so thank you for saying that too and one thing that I learned you know over doing this for as long as I am the toughest part is listening you know cuz I'm always thinking like what's the next question whatever one of my chapters in the book open your mind and shut your mouth exactly yeah know because God gave us two ears and only one mouth right so let's listen twice as much for sure be useful uh seven tools for life again where all books are sold the great Arnold Schwarzenegger here on the Rich Eisen show thank you catch the Rich Eisen show every single day on the Roku Channel 12 to3 Eastern for free

Channel: The Rich Eisen Show

Views: 62,321

Keywords: Rich Eisen, Rich Eisen Show, sports, NFL, football, college football, CFP, NBA, basketball, MLB, baseball, pop culture, Roku, NFL Network, Super Bowl, NFL Draft, Football, CFB, College Football, Baseball, Arnold Schwarzenegger, governator, Terminator, T2, predator, Body Building, Mr. Universe, Danny DeVito, Twins movie, Kindergarten Cop, True Lies, Bruce Willis, Die Hard, OJ Simpson, Total Recall, Running Man, Wilt Chamberlain, Andre the Giant, wrestling, Conan the Barbarian

Id: tojXb3aApD4

Length: 28min 51sec (1731 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 09 2023