Schwarzenneger’s
high profile took
bodybuilding into
the mainstream.Big muscle made
for big hits
in Conan and
Predator.Green with
envy:
Pumping Iron
saw Arnie fend
off Lou “the
Incredible
Hulk” Ferrigno.APRIL 2016^77FITN SSAfter seeing a rough cut ofPumping Iron
in 1976, producers Edward R. Pressman
and Edward Summer approached
Schwarzenegger to appear in their
adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s Conan
stories, paying him $250,000 and putting
him on a retainer. When Conan The
Barbarian opened in 1982, it announced
its muscular hero as an international star.
Two years later, having secured the lead
role in James Cameron’s The Terminator
(after the studio’s original choice, O.J.
Simpson, was rejected on the grounds
that he was considered too nice to play a
killer) Schwarzenegger was established
in the top rank of action movie stars.match. N ever b efore in my li fe
have I had the nerve to ask
someb o d y the size of his
cock. That was not, of course,
my first question.
Butler: I saw him open his mail
once. Except he didn’t open it. He
sat at his desk and looked at his
letters against a bright lightbulb. If
there was no money in it, he would
just throw it in the wastebasket.
Sylvester Stallone (friend):
I remember him at the [1977]
Golden Globes and I said, “Who is
this guy?” As big as the whole
t able. K ind of r ained on my par ade.
Rocky was Best Picture and he
was B es t N ewc omer (for 1976 ’s
Stay Hungry) and he kept staring at
me, getting bigger and bigger. And
finally, they said, “Best Newcomer,
Arnold Schwarzenegger” and I was
like, “Come on, he’s a joke, no one
has a name like that. He’s doomed,
over, flash in the pan.” Then Rocky
won Best Picture and I jump up like
an idiot and there was this bowl of
flowers and I throw them up in the
air and they landed all over his
shoulders and I could see him
thinking, “Am I going to cross-
pollinate this guy?”
Milius: Back when I made Conan,
no one had ever made a movie
like that with real athletes. Sandahl
[Bergman] was a dancer and
Gerry [Lopez] was a surfer, and
Arnold was Mr. Olympia. They are
serious, hard-working people;
they wor k harder than anyone.James Cameron (director of
Terminator 1 & 2 ): We did the first
Terminator for the price of Arnold’s
mobile home in the second.Linda Hamilton (co-star in
Terminator 1 & 2 ): We almost
didn’t act together in T1 becauseACT^2
:THE BIGGEST
TALENT IN
HOLLYWOOD
(1982-1992)
he chased me continuously. When
he finally caught up he was an
endoskeleton! Arnold hung around
the set a lot, though, and was a
good sport. He still is. I don’t think
any of us guessed how big a mega-
star he would become. But he’s a
team player, doesn’t keep you
waiting and was very generous with
his personal gym and aeroplane.Cameron: He was put forward for
the role of Reese, ultimately played
by Michael Biehn, and it’s a very
verbal character and he basically
explains the entire future world
with about 20 pages of expository
dialogue. When I went to meet
w i th A r no ld i t was to basic all y
derail that. But when I met him he
was incredibly charismatic and
focused and smart. While I was
sitting there, I started thinking, he
would make an incredible
Terminator. So maybe let’s just
hang a left turn and explore that
idea. We pitched the idea of Arnold
as The Terminator to his agent (Lou
Pitt) and the agent turned us down.
Then Arnold fired him the same
day and we had a deal the next
day. Actually, he hired the guy
back. He just fired him to teach him
a lesson.>CAREER