Few challenges have resisted Arnold Schwarzenegger. Before jumping to the big screen, he succeeded as a bodybuilder. He won the Mr. Universe title. And he became an icon of this sport, for which he also published a book. In the 1980s, he made the leap to Hollywood. He soon became a benchmark for action movies and movies like Terminator remain to be remembered.
Schwarzenegger also dared with politics. In 2003, he became the 38th governor of California and the second actor, after Ronald Reagan, to lead the most populous and richest state in the country. However, his career has not been without its ups and downs in his family life and gestures that he regrets, as he now acknowledges in Arnold, the documentary series that premieres this Wednesday on Netflix.
This three-part documentary chronicles Arnold Schwarzenegger’s journey from rural Austria to the highest echelon of the American dream. Throughout several interviews, the actor and his closest circle recall the most successful and controversial episodes of the California governor, such as the accusations of abuse of women a few days before the elections in that state.
Shortly before his re-election as California governor, the Los Angeles Times published a report detailing allegations of groping by six women over three decades. Schwarzenegger now recognizes in his series that these touching existed. “It’s true that I was on rowdy movie sets and did things that weren’t right, which I thought at the time was a joke,” reports The Guardian.
Before, he used any excuse to justify himself: the situation or that it was other times. Now, the actor acknowledges that he “offended those people”: “I want to tell you that I am deeply sorry and I apologize because that is not what I am trying to do.” “Forget all the excuses, it was wrong,” he goes on to say.
The premiere of Arnold, which also includes unpublished testimonials about his career, coincides with the premiere of the new action series Fubar, also on Netflix.