At 76 years old, life finds him in a very particular place. On the one hand, he has spent the last few months celebrating his amazing career with a documentary film, Arnold, which can be seen on Netflix, a memoir to be published in October, Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life, and a luxurious edition of Taschen full of photographs. On the other, he continues to work hard. He has recently made his television debut with a series, also on Netflix, Fubar, which has had an enthusiastic enough response that a second season is already underway, and in November Kung Fury 2 will hit screens around the world: The Movie, an animated film in whose original version he gives the voice to one of the main characters. And while the writers’ and actors’ strike casts doubt on when filming will begin, he has a movie in pre-production, Breakout, with which he will return to his favorite genre, action cinema.
In addition, Schwarzenegger has a strong presence on social networks, which he uses as if it were his own television channel: “It is a luxury that I can afford because I have direct access to my followers,” he explained at the presentation of Taschen’s book that he had takes place in June in the huge auditorium of the Academy Museum in Hollywood. Years ago he had to call a press conference for journalists to tell their readers what I wanted to say. Now everything is more direct. I can tell people what I want knowing who I want to talk to and what I’m looking to achieve. I have been able to tell you about my trip to the Auschwitz concentration camp, or say what I think about Russia’s war against Ukraine. The last video I made had 5 billion views.” He also adds “If I did non-stop interviews with the media, I would never reach the same level of diffusion. Technology has its downside, but it has also advanced to give us this possibility.”
Schwarzenegger is well aware that he is one of the most recognizable figures on the planet today, which he says is because he has been a public figure for most of his life. “A lot of people around the world followed me when I was a bodybuilding champion, then I got into acting, which brought me a lot of fans of my action movies, and also of the comedies,” he reviews before the attentive audience, later emphasizing: “I later entered politics, which allowed me to serve the community as Governor of California. I then became involved in environmental issues and government reform. That led to everyone knowing me, no matter what generation belong”.
Taschen’s book, which is simply titled Arnold and is intended as a luxury object, to the point that the Capitol edition, at a cost of 2,500 euros, brings its own lectern to put its two volumes on display, is the result of work 10 years old, who collects photos from his childhood in poverty to the present, going through all the stages that took him from the gyms to the sets, and also to the government house in Sacramento. “I often say that mine is the typical success story in the United States. However, they are wrong when they say that I made myself, because I am the product of millions of people who have helped me. When I became governor, 5 and a half million people voted for me in California. They were the ones who gave me that position,” he jokingly pointed out just after the massive event had begun in which the president and founder of the publishing house, the German Benedikt Taschen, first had the floor.
Arnold then spoke about that childhood in which he had nothing. “I was born in Austria two years after the war ended,” he recalled, later recounting: “The country was in a disastrous situation. We were occupied by soldiers from 4 countries, the French, the Americans, the British and the Russians. The area where I was born belonged to the British. There was no food. My mother went from town to town asking for food from different farmers, just so my family wouldn’t go hungry. The men were depressed because they had just lost the war. They were still getting licking the wounds.”
Ever since watching a movie about America in school, Arnold became obsessed with emigrating there, which in turn set him on the path of bodybuilding. “From very early on it was clear to me that the soccer I played almost every day was not going to help me move to the United States, even if it made me the best player in Austria. I had some friends who did bodybuilding by the lake from the town I grew up in. And I realized that bodybuilding was an American sport, so I felt like I could be another Steve Reeves, who later did the Hercules movies, or Reg Park, who was also Mr. Universe and then he played that same character”, he revealed, showing that he was very clear about the path before taking the plane that took him to the promised land in 1968, when he was barely 21 years old.
