#587 - Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold Schwarzenegger is an actor, bodybuilding legend, best-selling author, entrepreneur and former Governor of California. Season 2 of his show ‘Fubar’ premieres on Netflix June 12th. Arnold invites Theo to his office to talk about leaving Austria to turn his American dream into a reality, what he learned about politics when he was Governor of California, and why a mindset is all you need to succeed at your goals. Arnold Schwarzenegger: https://www.instagram.com/schwarzenegger/ ------------------------------------------------ Tour Dates! https://theovon.com/tour New Merch: https://www.theovonstore.com ------------------------------------------------- Sponsored By: Celsius: Go to the Celsius Amazon store to check out all of their flavors. #CELSIUSBrandPartner #CELSIUSLiveFit https://amzn.to/3HbAtPJ DraftKings: Pick 6 from DraftKings is the most fun way to play fantasy sports. Download the DraftKings Pick Six app NOW and use code THEO. That’s code THEO for new customers to play $5, get $50 in bonus picks. Better payouts. Bigger wins. Only with Pick6 from DraftKings. The Crown is yours. https://draftkings.com ". Moonpay: Head over to https://www.moonpay.com/theo to sign up Oracle: Go to http://oracle.com/THEO to try OCI for free. ------------------------------------------------- Gambling Problem? Call one eight hundred gambler. Help is available for problem gambling. Call eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven, or visit c c p g dot org in Connecticut. Must be eighteen plus, age and eligibility restrictions vary by jurisdiction. Pick6 not available everywhere, including New York and Ontario. Void where prohibited. One per new customer. Bonus awarded as non-withdrawable Pick Six Bonus Picks that expire in fourteen days. Limited time offer. Terms at pick six dot draftkings dot com slash promos. ------------------------------------------------- Music: “Shine” by Bishop Gunn Bishop Gunn - Shine ------------------------------------------------ Submit your funny videos, TikToks, questions and topics you'd like to hear on the podcast to: [email protected] Hit the Hotline: 985-664-9503 Video Hotline for Theo Upload here: https://www.theovon.com/fan-upload Send mail to: This Past Weekend 1906 Glen Echo Rd PO Box #159359 Nashville, TN 37215 ------------------------------------------------ Find Theo: Website: https://theovon.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/theovon Facebook: https://facebook.com/theovon Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thispastweekend Twitter: https://twitter.com/theovon YouTube: https://youtube.com/theovon Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheoVonClips Shorts Channel: https://bit.ly/3ClUj8z ------------------------------------------------ Producer: Zach https://www.instagram.com/zachdpowers Producer: Trevyn https://www.instagram.com/trevyn.s/ Producer: Nick https://www.instagram.com/realnickdavis/ Producer: Colin https://www.instagram.com/colin_reiner/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Theo Von?

  You ever realize that you spent your entire morning thinking about lunch? It's 9 a.m. and somehow I'm already in negotiations with myself about how I'm gonna spend $20 on a sandwich at noon. And then I eat it, or you eat it, or somebody eats it, and then an hour later, you're just standing in the kitchen worrying about what you'll do for dinner. And that's one reason why I've been into Huell. The Black Edition Powder is a complete meal you have instead of food, not a shake on top of food. Their powder starts at less than $3 per meal, has 40 grams of protein, and mixes with water or milk in about 30 seconds. I like Huell's shakes because they're clean and it's quick.

• 0:41Theo Von?

  I just want to make sure I have everything I need to keep going the way I want to keep going in a healthy manner. So with Huell, basically, lunch went from a daily logistical problem to a thing I can solve in about 30 seconds. Make healthy eating simple. New customers get an exclusive offer of 15% off online with my code WEEKEND at huell.com/weekend. That's H-U-E-L dot com slash weekend. Thank you to Huell for partnering and supporting our show. Today's guest is a legendary actor, bodybuilder, tastemaker, really, in the world of bodybuilding. He was the governor of California.

• 1:24Theo Von?

  When you think of the American dream, he is pretty much it. The second season of his Netflix show, Foo Bar, is dropping soon. We're gonna talk about that and a lot more. I'm honored to sit down with the one and only Mr. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

• 1:58Speaker 01

  So where do you, you work out of, where do you work out of?

• 2:02Theo Von?

  I live in Nashville, Tennessee now.

• 2:04Speaker 01

  Tennessee?

• 2:04Theo Von?

  Yeah, I lived here for about 12 years.

• 2:06Speaker 01

  That's a growing city now, isn't it?

• 2:08Theo Von?

  Yeah, it's growing fast because it's safe. They have, um, you can have a weapon if you need to. So you can, you know, I think there's that semblance of you can take care of yourself type of energy.

• 2:19Speaker 01

  Right.

• 2:20Theo Von?

  And so, uh, and it's a friendly community and it's very safe, you know, it's like a lot of cities, some of them get kind of dangerous.

• 2:26Speaker 01

  It's known for its country music, right?

• 2:28Theo Von?

  Yeah. Did you ever listen to country music growing up?

• 2:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, that's, well, not growing up. Growing up was kind of rock and roll, into the 50s, rock and roll.

• 2:42Theo Von?

  Did they have any, uh, cause you grew up in Austria, right? Or to what age?

• 2:45Speaker 01

  Austria, yeah. I was in Austria until I was 19.

• 2:48Theo Von?

  Oh.

• 2:49Speaker 01

  And, um, so we were, there was a program that was called Hit Parade. And the Hit Parade.

• 2:59Theo Von?

  A television show?

• 3:00Speaker 01

  No, no, we didn't have television. Um, so we just had the radio at home, but I had then bought, I was like 15 and I just bought my first transistor radio.

• 3:12Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 3:13Speaker 01

  In a little plastic box, right? And, uh, I paid off like, uh, 50 shilling a month until it was paid off a year later. But then that I always took down to the lake where I grew up, that we were sitting around, the, the boys from a village. And we were listening to this hit parade. It was from seven to eight at night on Wednesdays. And there was like Little Richard and Chuck Berry and all of those guys that were, you know, big in the 50s and 60s. Exactly. And so I grew up with that. And that's why I have that station in my radio 50s at all times.

• 3:52Theo Von?

  Oh, so you still listen to it?

• 3:53Speaker 01

  It just listens. I just love it, right? Then when I came over here, I, I became aware of a little bit of the country, western kind of music.

• 4:02Theo Von?

  Did you go to a concert in Austria? Was there a concert you ever went to before you came here?

• 4:05Speaker 01

  I could never afford a concert. Are you kidding me? I had no money, but I mean, I, I, when I came over here. I then became aware of the country western songs, especially Johnny Cash. He did a television show, a weekly television show. And it was great, great music and so I fell in love with that. And then friends of mine here in America then took me to concerts. You know, it was like a jazz concert or a country western concert and all of this stuff. And so that's when I started really getting into it. But I mean, I loved the music, but I mean, you grow up in Austria, then most of the stuff that you hear is really Austrian music.

• 4:49Speaker 01

  You know, the Opa la, Opa de la ley and all this kind of thing. Is it beautiful music? Beautiful music, but I mean, that's what you hear on public radio and public television also, that's what you see. And you see operas and you hear concerts. And my father himself was a musician. He played six instruments. Six instruments? Yeah. Wow. All kind of like flugelhahn, trumpet, saxophone, clarinet, all of the stuff like that. A lot of traditional music he would play? Yeah, yeah, very traditional because he was the conductor of the chanteur Marie music, which is the police, the country police, like the sheriff's. Chante Marie it's called? Yeah, chante Marie is a French word, chanteur.

• 5:33Speaker 01

  And so he was, he was a chanteur, he was a police officer. And so he played in that chanteur Marie music. Would he play at home or where would he play at? He practiced at home. You know, while I was training, I remember I was doing my workouts and he would be standing, the window would be open up at our house and he would be kind of playing out to the window, out the window. And there was a kid, that was my age. That lived a hundred and fifty yards away from us. It was one of my best friends and he also learned how to play the trumpet with the age of like thirteen

• 6:16Speaker 01

  or fourteen. So he would play over there and then my dad would play over here and they were going back and forth like that. It was really fun.

• 6:24Theo Von?

  Like a couple of birds almost.

• 6:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, but I never for some reason or the other, my dad always wanted me to get into music. Not as professional, but the men.

• 6:32Theo Von?

  Did you try it at all?

• 6:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, I tried it. It just didn't work.

• 6:35Theo Von?

  What instrument?

• 6:36Speaker 01

  Well, he tried with trumpet, obviously. Then he thought that he can seduce me kind of into the music because I liked Elvis. So he said, well, why don't you learn how to play the guitar?

• 6:50Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 6:50Speaker 01

  I don't play the guitar, he says, but there's a farmer that is a hundred yards up the road. He plays the guitar and he can teach you. He's also a teacher. And so I would go to him, but it just, you know, I just could see right away that that was not meant for me.

• 7:06Theo Von?

  Was there a lot of like when you were a child in Austria, was there a lot of like individualism? Or was it, were things very like regimented? Like in America, you could like, you can be an individual, right? But some countries, it's a little bit harder to kind of like, you know, be an individual and have a voice. I'm just wondering, what was it like there when you were young? Did it feel like things were regimented or it was okay to be rebellious? What was it like there?

• 7:29Speaker 01

  Well, I was rebellious in a way because, I mean, think about it, soccer and track and field, they were kind of like the in sports. But when I was exposed to weightlifting and to powerlifting and to bodybuilding, I fell in love with that. And also because my heroes like Reg Park and Steve Reeves, they were doing Hercules movies and I just started looking at those movies, right? And so I said, I want to be like that. I don't want to be a top soccer player. I want to be like that. I want to have the muscles like that. And I want to get into movies like that. And that all of a sudden became my dream. So you really wanted to be like this? Yeah. So I was fixated.

• 8:14Speaker 01

  Uh, you know, it was, I was like, kind of like concentrating that I kind of put visually my head on Reg Park's body. And there was a picture, a famous picture where he won the Mr. Universe Contest in London in nineteen fifty-one. And when I saw that picture, it was like him holding the trophy, flexing his bicep. Yeah. And then I said to myself, can you imagine if this is me? I'm gonna make this me. And so that's what I was training for. So my parents thought that it was kind of, what is that all about? Where did that come from? And the whole neighborhood was kind of like, uh, wondering, what is this guy doing?

• 8:59Speaker 01

  Training every day, two hours, three hours a day? I came home and instead of having lunch, I would put my sit-up board up on the kitchen table and I would be doing sit-ups. Yeah. Five hundred sit-ups during lunch. So you were addicted to it? Totally, totally addicted. Because I was driven by my vision. You know, so it was always there. Yeah. Even when I was in school, I would sometimes just wander off when the teacher was teaching out there, writing up something on the blackboard. And I would be looking at that and then all of a sudden, he could see that I was just kind of like staring off. Yeah. And then all of a sudden, he threw a chalk at my head and bang.

• 9:40Speaker 01

  And I looked back again and he says, Arnold, I'm up here. I mean, I know you're looking at the beautiful trees out there. They're more beautiful maybe than me, but you got to listen to what I'm saying. So I've noticed I was always kind of drifting off. Hmm. And, uh, Daydreaming, huh? Visualizing my dreams. Always visualizing my dreams. Being on that stage, the Mr. Universe Contest, doing maybe Hercules movies, going to America and all of that. So it was very different. So that was not the norm. So I did step out of the norm and because everyone else was talking about, oh, I'm gonna go and get a job with the government. Because I want to make sure that I collect my pension when I was sixty five and all this.

• 10:24Speaker 01

  I had no interest in any of that pension. I mean, what are we talking about that? The age of eighteen, we start talking about pensions. I mean, it's crazy, right? But that's the European way. Everyone looks for stability, especially in those times where government was really ruling. And so then that's also, I think, an explanation of why when I came over here to America in nineteen sixty eight and I saw Hubert Humphrey and Nixon campaigning.

• 10:52Theo Von?

  Who is Hubert Humphrey?

• 10:53Speaker 01

  He was the vice president under Johnson.

• 10:55Theo Von?

  Okay.

• 10:56Speaker 01

  And so he was campaigning to become, well, Johnson was after Kennedy. Then Hubert Humphrey was his vice president. So he was running for president.

• 11:06Theo Von?

  Oh, yeah. Looks like he eats gumdrops, that guy.

• 11:09Speaker 01

  And so it was really interesting when I listened to the debates and I didn't understand maybe three quarter of it. But I had a friend that spoke German and he translated for me. And when I heard of what Nixon said, it was so opposite of what I grew up with, which I didn't like. The government was in kind of in charge of everything.

• 11:33Theo Von?

  In Austria?

• 11:34Speaker 01

  In Austria, yeah, exactly. And so I was in Germany and in all those countries over there in Europe. Socialism was the system that I grew up in. So when Nixon spoke, I felt like, wow, get government off your back.

• 11:50Theo Von?

  Get the government off your back.

• 11:51Speaker 01

  Great. Wow. And lowering, lowering the taxes. Strong military, strong police force, strong this, strong that, and a strong economy. Let the people be free, let them shop all around the world and blah, blah, blah. And I said to myself, this is like unbelievable. And then when Humphrey spoke, it was like I was back in Austria. You know, so then I said to myself, what are the parties here? Because I didn't understand really the parties here.

• 12:21Theo Von?

  Why? What was it about Humphrey's that made it feel like you were back in Austria?

• 12:23Speaker 01

  Well, he said government is the solution.

• 12:25Theo Von?

  Oh, I see. So he was more like the cage.

• 12:28Speaker 01

  We all know that the government is not the solution. I mean, it's like the free enterprise, the economy and all this. You got to let people be free and not be controlled by government. Government is good, but you have to find kind of the middle ground of all this stuff.

• 12:41Theo Von?

  Yeah, you can't, if you rely solely on the government for your life, then you'll just be a, you'll be a part of the government, basically.

• 12:47Speaker 01

  And you become a vegetable.

• 12:48Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 12:48Speaker 01

  Because you, they create the safety net, then you don't have the will to really kind of make it on your own. So what the, the big advantage of coming to America was that there was no safety net. So I was on my own.

• 13:02Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 13:02Speaker 01

  So I had to get really creative. Okay, how can I go and go to school and educate myself? How can I go and get more English classes? How can I go to Santa Monica City College and at the same time work? And at the same time, train five hours a day and do all of those kind of things. So this is, but it was up to me now to be successful, not up to the government.

• 13:23Theo Von?

  Oh, I like that.

• 13:23Speaker 01

  You know, so government was providing the opportunities.

• 13:26Theo Von?

  The structure.

• 13:27Speaker 01

  The structure, but that is what I enjoyed. And so this is why I became kind of like a Nixon Republican. And people always were kind of like, you know, especially in California, which is a much more liberal state. Yeah, so, so I, I, I really enjoyed it. Nixon, of course, came from California.

• 13:42Theo Von?

  Um, question, Arnold.

• 13:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:43Theo Von?

  Was it scary to tell your parents that, to leave Austria? Did people do that at the time? I'm just a little bit curious on what it was like to say, I'm leaving here and I'm going to go to America. Was it even a popular path for people to go?

• 13:54Speaker 01

  Well, remember, I started saying this when I was 10.

• 13:58Theo Von?

  Ah, I see. So it had been, your parents knew it was in your head.

• 14:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. So I saw a documentary, a black and white documentary in a school. They showed always those films with this eight millimeters, whatever, films on the little screen. And like I said, television was not the common thing at that time in Austria. So we didn't grow up with that. And, uh, but they showed the film and I saw a documentary about America.

• 14:25Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 14:25Speaker 01

  Now I see the Empire State Building.

• 14:29Speaker 01

  I said, wait a minute. This building is like, you know, a hundred times taller than any of the buildings in Graz, where I grew up, right? In Austria. And then I saw the Golden Gate Bridge, then I saw the Pacific Coast Highway. I saw all of this kind of, you know, great, great things. I saw the six-lane highways. I saw the big Cadillacs, you know, with the big fins sticking out, you know? The ladies, too. And then we had all these little kind of cars in Musselbeek and all of this stuff that did Hollywood. I said, I gotta go to America, go to America. This Austria is not the place. It was almost kind of like that my gene was over here. Hmm. You know, so this is, so it kind of, I gravitated to America.

• 15:14Speaker 01

  Not that I hated Austria, but I just wanted to leave and go do something different. So my parents always saw me as being different. So it was not a surprise to them that I wanted to go as soon as I was through with high school and trade school, that I want to go into the military. So I went in the military because after you go and serve in the military, then you can get your passport and you can travel. So you had, you had to go to the military to get your passport in Austria? That's right, yeah. Is it still that way? No, I don't think it's different now. Everything is different because, you know, everything has changed. Yeah, and you had a brother as well, right? Was he, did he go in the military? He was in the military and Was he older than or younger? He was a year older. Oh, cool. What's his name? He was a year mine hut. Mine hut. Mine hut, yeah, exactly.

• 15:57Speaker 01

  So he was a year earlier, but he passed away, as you know. I didn't know it. Yeah, at a very, at the age of twenty-four. Oh, I didn't know that. Passed away, yeah, it was like a drunk. That's him right there? Yeah. No, this is Dish, this is Franz Dishinger. He was my training partner in Munich. So when I went, I went first, so aft, after the army, the Austrian army, I immediately left to go to Munich because I got an offer because now I, at that meantime, I became the European champion in bodybuilding in the junior division. Okay, so you go through the military. So, yeah, so I became this, while I was in the military, I won this title, you know, best build man of Europe, junior. And I was eighteen years old. So now I get this offer in Munich, it's the biggest gym, to go and become a trainer.

• 16:42Speaker 01

  So I said, okay, I'm gonna serve out my term here, get out of here a year later, and then I go to Munich and I become a trainer there, not then. I can train anytime twenty four hours a day because I actually lived in the gym. So I could get up to literally if I wake up at three in the morning and you know, I can't let's say I can fall back to sleep. I go out to the gym.

• 17:07Theo Von?

  How did you live in there? Like where they just had a bed in the side or something?

• 17:10Speaker 01

  Exactly. It was a little room. It was from here to there where you sit and a bed and just a little kind of a thing with a cabinet with drawers. I put my stuff in. That was it. That was it. And then I walked out of it. It used to be an office there for the gym. And I just moved in there because I had no money.

• 17:29Theo Von?

  And you were like, this is what I do all the time. Anyway, this is like.

• 17:31Speaker 01

  Yeah. So I was I was in heaven.

• 17:33Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 17:33Speaker 01

  Are you kidding me? I mean, I went out there, turned on the lights and I was posing with the all the overhead lights. Notice I was posing in the mirror. All the time at night I would wake up and I would go out there posing and stuff like.

• 17:43Theo Von?

  Pose in the middle of the night?

• 17:44Speaker 01

  You know, very intense.

• 17:45Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 17:46Speaker 01

  And very uh passionate about bodybuilding and perfecting my body and going to London. Did that very same contest that Reg Park won the Mr. Universe. And that that very same year when I went out to Munich nineteen sixty six, I became now Mr. Europe. Literally two months later and then best buildman of Europe. And then I went to the Mr. Universe contest with the age of nineteen.

• 18:09Theo Von?

  Oh.

• 18:10Speaker 01

  I was the youngest competitor and I came second.

• 18:13Theo Von?

  And where was that held at?

• 18:14Speaker 01

  It was in London, the same stage as Reg Park.

• 18:17Theo Von?

  So you still hadn't made it to the US yet?

• 18:19Speaker 01

  No, no, not yet. No, no.

• 18:20Theo Von?

  And was your brother also lifting weights? Was he a weight lifter?

• 18:23Speaker 01

  No, he was not interested in that. He was much more, I think, academic, I would say. Because he read a lot and he started out, he was really good in school. I was not that good in school. It's just so, so.

• 18:37Theo Von?

  Did you guys get along pretty well? Is that him or no?

• 18:39Speaker 01

  That's him. Yeah, that's mine hot.

• 18:41Theo Von?

  Oh, that's a cool. What is mine? Mine hot?

• 18:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, mine hot. Yeah.

• 18:44Theo Von?

  I just wonder what it would be like because I have a brother too. So I'm just thinking sometimes like it would be um. Yeah, I just think about my brother a lot. So I guess I was just curious what it was like, um, what your brother was like.

• 18:55Speaker 01

  Well, he was different than me, but we did hang out together. He did come to the gym every so often and he worked out with me, but he was not into it.

• 19:03Theo Von?

  He wasn't passionate.

• 19:03Speaker 01

  He is naturally he had a better body than I had.

• 19:06Theo Von?

  Oh, really?

• 19:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, he had a really V shaped body, had wide shoulders, a very, very small waist.

• 19:12Theo Von?

  God, they always give it to the person that doesn't want it.

• 19:14Speaker 01

  I know.

• 19:14Theo Von?

  Yeah. We had a guy like that.

• 19:16Speaker 01

  But that's I think. What is interesting about it is that you struggle much more in the beginning and to catch up. And then all of a sudden, you know, you see your own potential.

• 19:26Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 19:26Speaker 01

  You know, we just you don't see it in the beginning, but then, I mean, I think it was like going to the gym. Was my first time where I got compliments.

• 19:37Theo Von?

  Hmm.

• 19:38Speaker 01

  Because my parents weren't into that. It was the Austrian kind of upbringing, kind of everything, they they correct everything, yeah. Then the the grades are no good and the soccer, why did you didn't, why didn't you kick the ball? You were like ten yards away from the goal, you didn't kick it in, you tripped over the, I mean, what the, come on out. It was always some kind of a.

• 19:57Theo Von?

  Always trying to correct you.

• 19:58Speaker 01

  Exactly, that's right, yeah, it was always a complaint and then if you made a mistake, you get smacked and stuff like that. It was that kind of upbringing, but it was very helpful to me because it actually gave me the motivation to leave Austria.

• 20:11Theo Von?

  And it gave you control. I mean, if you're way, if you're bodybuilding, it's just you against you, there's no, you don't have to depend on anybody else. I mean, I guess you have to depend on the judges when you go to actually um compete. But day to day, it is you against your own uh emotions and mentality and ability.

• 20:28Speaker 01

  Yes, but also at the same time, even though it is a a sport that you are on your own. But in the end, you still rely on your training partners. I was very fortunate always that I had the mentality of of being able to attract the best training partners. So I had guys that was hungry as I was, because that's the important thing. If you have someone that is not as hungry, then it doesn't really mean anything. But if you have someone that competes with you, that counts out the reps, then he wants to do an extra two reps more than you do and you get up the weight and all this stuff. So always has good training, but so I'm a big believer in that we really can't on the end do anything by ourselves, right? That's why we say, don't call me a self-made man, uh because I'm a product of a lot, a lot of help.

• 21:12Speaker 01

  If it is in bodybuilding or just, I mean, think about Joe Weider. After winning two Mr. Universe titles in London, the amateur Mr. Universe, the following year, nineteen sixty-eight, the professional Mr. Universe. So I was like the youngest Mr. Universe ever.

• 21:28Theo Von?

  And that was the year after you got second?

• 21:30Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 21:30Theo Von?

  Okay.

• 21:31Speaker 01

  Nineteen sixty-six.

• 21:31Theo Von?

  You were twenty years old.

• 21:33Speaker 01

  Nineteen sixty-seven, I was twenty years old.

• 21:36Theo Von?

  Wow.

• 21:36Speaker 01

  And I wanted to become the youngest Mr. Universe. So now, I'm then at stage, exactly where Reg Park was, and win the Mr. Universe. And not only that, but Reg Park immediately sent me a fax, and to London, and he said, I want to invite you to South Africa, to give posing exhibitions and do Strongman Act down there. So I was invited by Reg Park, which eventually then by the end of the year, I went down to South Africa.

• 22:04Theo Von?

  And you still hadn't gone to the US yet?

• 22:06Speaker 01

  I haven't gone to the US. What brought me to the US was, which was kind of my dream, someone would notice me in bodybuilding, that they would take me to, because bodybuilding was an American sport.

• 22:17Theo Von?

  Oh, it was?

• 22:17Speaker 01

  Not a European sport. It was an American sport, really. And so I all of a sudden get this invitation from Joe Weider, who was the publisher of the muscle magazines. He published like four big muscle magazines, Flex and Strength and Health and...

• 22:33Theo Von?

  Oh, yeah. We used to get some of them, I think, when I was a kid.

• 22:36Speaker 01

  And Muscle Fitness. All of this. And he had also an equipment company, the food supplement company.

• 22:42Theo Von?

  Because it's weights, right? I've seen the weights before.

• 22:44Speaker 01

  It's weights, it's the food supplements, and his brother was the head of the organization, the Bodybuilding Federation.

• 22:51Theo Von?

  And this is when you came to the US?

• 22:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, so he brought me over in nineteen sixty-eight.

• 22:55Theo Von?

  Okay, before we get there, Arnold, and not to interrupt or anything, but you did a show, you went to like one of the first interracial shows that was in South Africa?

• 23:05Speaker 01

  That was later on.

• 23:06Theo Von?

  Oh, that was later on, okay.

• 23:07Speaker 01

  So it was nineteen seventy-five.

• 23:08Theo Von?

  Got it. Okay.

• 23:08Speaker 01

  You're absolutely correct.

• 23:09Theo Von?

  So you get to the US.

• 23:11Speaker 01

  Very good research.

• 23:12Theo Von?

  Do you remember your first, uh, thank you. Do you remember your first day in America?

• 23:16Speaker 01

  Oh, yes. It was in Miami. I went to Miami and I was competing there in a competition.

• 23:25Speaker 01

  And then after that, I came out to California. And I was picked up in California at the airport by a bodybuilding photographer by the name of Ari Zeller. And Dick Tyler, who wrote for the muscle magazines. They picked me up and took me to an apartment that Joe Weider rented for me. And it was fantastic. I mean, from then on, I got all the help in the world now because that's when I really realized the generosity of the American people.

• 23:56Theo Von?

  Wow.

• 23:56Speaker 01

  I mean, they gave me, I mean, the bodybuilders, there was Thanksgiving came up after that. Uh, because I came over here in October, November was Thanksgiving. So there was, there was like this whole thing about, uh, you know, giving me pillows and giving me blankets and giving me dishes and silverware.

• 24:15Theo Von?

  Where were you homeless or something?

• 24:16Speaker 01

  Let's say again.

• 24:17Theo Von?

  What, why were they giving you all that?

• 24:18Speaker 01

  Well, because when you move into an apartment.

• 24:21Theo Von?

  Oh, yeah.

• 24:22Speaker 01

  What do you get? I mean, it was a furnished apartment.

• 24:24Theo Von?

  And you were living in LA at that point?

• 24:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, it was, it was in the valley, over in the valley. And then all those bodybuilders came to me and they brought me all this stuff. It was like unbelievable. So I could not even believe how generous they were. And this was all, this was a lot of times people that didn't know me at all. But just because bodybuilding and joining a club, you know, you become kind of part of that family.

• 24:48Theo Von?

  Hmm.

• 24:49Speaker 01

  And so they were very, very sweet and kind and I would never forget that. That's actually what made me then think about, well, when I ever make it, I will give that back. I will help other people myself, you know?

• 25:00Theo Von?

  What's it like finding a gym that really fits you? Like, what's that like at that level of bodybuilding? Were there a couple of gyms you tried out and you're like, this isn't it? Or did you already know where you wanted to be?

• 25:12Speaker 01

  I came over here, there was a gym called Vince's Gym that had all the champions training.

• 25:18Theo Von?

  Where was that located?

• 25:19Speaker 01

  It was over in the valley, in Ventura, Polovat, in North Hollywood. And a very, very famous gym. This is where, you know, Larry Scott, Mr. Olympia trained and, and Don Howard, who was Mr. America and Don Peterson, all those guys were training there. And then I ventured over here every so often for powerlifting. There was a gym called Gold's Gym. Not many bodybuilders trained there, some, but I mean not many. Most of them were like shot putters and powerlifters and lift, weightlifters and so on. And it was a much more rough gym. But somehow because of the Austrian gym where I kind of started the first three years in this weightlifting club, it reminded me of that. So I started getting more and more attracted to that gym.

• 26:02Speaker 01

  And then I moved from the valley over here.

• 26:05Theo Von?

  To Venice.

• 26:06Speaker 01

  To Venice. And I was still part of Santa Monica, actually. It was, you know, Ashland, one of the streets not far away from here. And then I went daily training there. Then Gorge Gym, then other bodybuilders came from all over the country to train there too.

• 26:22Theo Von?

  Because you were there because?

• 26:23Speaker 01

  Well, I was there and there was, Joe Weiden now started writing in his magazines about Arnold is training in Gorge Gym. And, you know, if you want to go and train in a great place, this is the place to go.

• 26:35Theo Von?

  Was it hard for you to train? I mean, were people at that point just standing around watching you train?

• 26:39Speaker 01

  No, because there was a lot of, you know, I mean, this place was filled with great bodybuilders.

• 26:45Theo Von?

  Oh, I see, yeah.

• 26:46Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah. So then others came out here from Florida and from Kentucky and from New York. And they all started joining Gorge Gym instead of training there. So this was kind of like the place that had the best bodybuilders in the world training in Gorge. That's how Gorge Gym became famous.

• 27:02Theo Von?

  Ah.

• 27:03Speaker 01

  You know, because it was a little gym. It was not big. It was 3,000 square feet, I think it was.

• 27:08Theo Von?

  Well, I remember when I first moved to Los Angeles, we went to Firehouse, I don't know if it's still there or not.

• 27:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, Firehouse.

• 27:13Theo Von?

  Was that the place? It was a big protein place. It was like a, was that, I think it was?

• 27:17Speaker 01

  Well, Firehouse now is, is, is a, is a restaurant down there.

• 27:20Theo Von?

  It used to be like a place where you could get literally like a bowl of chicken.

• 27:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. You still can get, get, you can get great scrambled eggs.

• 27:28Theo Von?

  You could get like 30 eggs or whatever.

• 27:29Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly, yeah.

• 27:30Theo Von?

  It's crazy. It was like, yeah, I remember I ate, I ordered like a month worth of food right there just for, just at lunch.

• 27:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 27:37Theo Von?

  Yeah, it took me like five hours to get out of there just because I didn't want to like.

• 27:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, I was never a big eater. So to me that meant nothing. If I had a little steak. And some two scrambled eggs, I was perfectly fine. I was full.

• 27:48Theo Von?

  For the day?

• 27:49Speaker 01

  Not for the day, no, but let's say in the mornings, taking eggs uh or scrambled eggs or something like this. I always had to take protein drinks in between meals because I could never eat enough to get my 250 grams of protein because I weigh 250 pounds. And the idea then was that for every kind of pound of body weight you have, you should have one gram of protein.

• 28:11Theo Von?

  Yeah. When uh, because I used to buy, I don't know if I used to body build. I used to use steroids when I was like growing up and just lift weights a lot. I loved it for years, you know? And I think whenever I get like, you know, whenever I quit working as much, I'll probably try to get back more weightlifting. Was steroids pretty popular then? Or what was it like? Was that part of the? Because I'm sure it was part of the culture.

• 28:33Speaker 01

  It well, no, it was not yet, but it was something that was in the beginning, very experimental.

• 28:39Theo Von?

  So would you hear it? Like, would it be like on the black market or it was just like public? It was just like people would talk about it like as a supplement?

• 28:45Speaker 01

  It might be in some places. It was on the black market. I don't know. But all I know is is that we always went to a doctor because they want to make sure that they measure your blood pressure and they check your health and all of that stuff because it has side effects.

• 28:59Theo Von?

  Oh, yeah.

• 29:00Speaker 01

  And especially if you take it beyond of what they recommend. So if they recommend, let's say, one shot a week and you start taking one shot a day or something, which is of course the case a lot of day that people are overdosing and that's why you see some bodybuilders actually die because of the overdose of drugs and all this stuff.

• 29:19Theo Von?

  Did you see friends go down that road or people, other bodybuilders go down that road where they would get addicted to it?

• 29:23Speaker 01

  Not not in my days. It was the new, but now it's, I think, really somewhat, I would say, out of control.

• 29:31Theo Von?

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• 32:49Theo Von?

  Whenever you start, uh, like you've had such an interesting life and career, you've gotten to do so many things. What do you think? Was there a time period in your life that you wish you would maybe done like a little bit different, you know?

• 33:01Speaker 01

  No, I didn't really, I, there's no move that I've ever made career wise. I thought that I had a real good nose when to make my moves forward and when I should retire from bodybuilding, when I felt like, okay, I don't have the joy anymore. After six, after five Mr. Universe competitions that I won, Mr. World and Mr. Olympia six times, I retired in 1975 after that competition in South Africa that you mentioned just earlier. So that was kind of the last competition. I did come back in 1980 again for the Mr. Olympia, but that was really just an afterthought, but I mean, really I retired in 1975 and

• 33:45Theo Von?

  After the South African show?

• 33:46Speaker 01

  After the South African show, yeah.

• 33:48Theo Von?

  Can you tell me a little bit about that? Cause I bet it was really interesting. Just, South Africa is probably my favorite country. I mean, it is beautiful.

• 33:53Speaker 01

  It is a gorgeous country and of course, uh, at that time, blacks and whites and everyone was separated. I mean, by separated, meaning they had different rights. You know, the whites were the one that ruled the country. The blacks were kind of kept down.

• 34:09Theo Von?

  Was Desmond Tutu down there at the time? Do you know if he was speaking?

• 34:11Speaker 01

  Yes, of course he was, but I mean, uh,

• 34:15Speaker 01

  The whites really were kind of in control.

• 34:18Theo Von?

  They were the kind of the leaders of it.

• 34:19Speaker 01

  Exactly, the Dutch and the British, it was always a fight between those two in a parliament and all that. And so then I got to meet and to know the Minister of Immigration, and he was also Minister of Sports and Minister of Labour and blah, blah, blah. So he was a very, very powerful guy in administration. And he, uh, when I met him, he said to me, Arnold, when you come over here to South Africa and you do posing exhibitions and strongman acts, you should also go to the townships.

• 34:53Theo Von?

  To the townships?

• 34:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 34:54Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 34:54Speaker 01

  So I said the townships.

• 34:56Theo Von?

  Like the sowe- uh, sowehtos?

• 34:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, so it was, of course I did not know. And so he then explained it to me. And then he would organize with Reg Park together, uh, for me to go in because he was not, would become the safest place in town. Not that they wanted to do harm to you, but I mean, for, for someone like me to come in there and do a demonstration there.

• 35:20Theo Von?

  Oh, they'll hate you.

• 35:21Speaker 01

  I mean, everyone, everyone got lit. I mean, they were drunk, they were celebrating that someone would come in and give them the respect and do something special for them. So very appreciative, right? So I would go in there and I was in the cage.

• 35:35Theo Von?

  Into the sowehtos, is that what it's called? Can you bring that up for me, Nick?

• 35:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, the townships, they're all over the place. They're in every, every, in every town in South Africa, there is townships like that. Places where the blacks would live, right? And they're very, very kind of low.

• 35:47Theo Von?

  I think they're called the sowehtos. Are they or not?

• 35:49Speaker 01

  That's one of them.

• 35:50Theo Von?

  Yeah, sowehtos, yeah, I think so.

• 35:53Speaker 01

  So in, so in any, in any case, so I would go in there and do a demonstration and do my posing and lift weights and all of this kind of stuff.

• 36:00Theo Von?

  In these, in these little small like townships?

• 36:03Speaker 01

  There was like, you know, thousands of them surrounding and then just, and they're screaming loud and having the greatest time and then we would go out and get it.

• 36:10Theo Von?

  Oh, they would put you on the grill, I'm surprised. I bet they were star, so hungry sometimes they would be like, look at this wealth.

• 36:14Speaker 01

  Oh, it was, it was, it was fantastic, the reception and everything. So, but the reason I mentioned that is because it led to the conversation with, uh, you know, uh, that Minister of Sports, um, and.

• 36:32Speaker 01

  Uh, he said to me, he says, we should have an international competition here in South Africa. He says, we should work together on that. And I said, okay, we will. And uh, his name was Dr. Kornhoff.

• 36:48Theo Von?

  Kornhoff?

• 36:49Speaker 01

  Dr. Kornhoff. And he was an extraordinary man, very, very smart. But it just shows you that there was people like him that already wanted to do more for the blacks and to elevate them.

• 37:02Theo Von?

  Yeah, create.

• 37:03Speaker 01

  So, so he, so he then, I set him up with Ben Weider, with Joe Weider's brother, who was the head of the International Federation of Bodybuilding. They got together and they hit it off really well. And so Joe Weider and Ben Weider worked with him to bring the Mr. Olympia contest to South Africa, to Pretoria, the capital of South Africa. But the conditions were that they were able to have a mixed audience.

• 37:32Theo Von?

  Okay, so black and white audience, have they done that ever?

• 37:34Speaker 01

  Never.

• 37:35Theo Von?

  Wow.

• 37:35Speaker 01

  So there was the first time, there was black, it was blacks, but there was not just black and white in South Africa. There was a group that was called blacks, there was a group that was called colored, there was a group that was called Indians, there was a group that was white. I mean, there was like five different Asians, so everyone was different, so everyone.

• 37:55Theo Von?

  A lot of variety and all of it.

• 37:56Speaker 01

  It was kind of like, it was not considered we are all equal there, right? And so what Ben negotiated was that we have a mixed audience, anyone, no matter what their nationality and what their kind of color is, uh, or religious beliefs, anyone should be able to come to this competition. And also, not only that, but to be a judge, we would have also half-black and half-white judges, blah, blah, blah.

• 38:21Theo Von?

  So was that scary to go before a black judge? Did you think that they would judge you fairly? I would be.

• 38:27Speaker 01

  No, not at all, because they were not. I mean, I was competing in America at that time already. And I was used to it. There was Lyric Holbert, who was the first guy with the twenty-one, twenty-two inch arms, big, big bodybuilder from the fifties and sixties, and he was a judge in New York several times. And uh, he was a totally honest judge. There was other black judges that, so there was, that's the great thing about bodybuilding. Bodybuilding, there was no prejudice.

• 38:54Theo Von?

  Hmm.

• 38:55Speaker 01

  You know, there were some people in bodybuilding that were prejudiced.

• 38:58Theo Von?

  Right.

• 38:58Speaker 01

  But in general, like especially under the Weiders. The Weiders, I think because they were Jewish.

• 39:04Theo Von?

  Bring up Ben Weider.

• 39:05Speaker 01

  I think it had something to do with the fact that they were that kind of open minded about it.

• 39:11Theo Von?

  Oh, yeah, a lot of times they're the leaders.

• 39:13Speaker 01

  Joe Weider, exactly.

• 39:14Theo Von?

  They're like the leaders in promoting diversity.

• 39:16Speaker 01

  That's right, yes, so there was no prejudice.

• 39:18Theo Von?

  Have been.

• 39:19Speaker 01

  There was no, there was no prejudice there at all. And as a matter of fact, there was a guy by the name of Bob Hoffman. He always made sure that when they had the AAU had the Mr. America competition. And only whites could win. No black could win there.

• 39:33Theo Von?

  Oh, really?

• 39:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, so that was really embarrassing.

• 39:36Theo Von?

  So there were some barriers within the.

• 39:38Speaker 01

  There was guys like Sergio Oliver that would be competing in nineteen sixty six or nineteen sixty five in the Mr. America and he would get beaten by white guys.

• 39:46Theo Von?

  Ah.

• 39:47Speaker 01

  And it was totally unfair. Or Harold Poole got beaten in nineteen sixty three by Vern Weaver, which I thought was unfair. So it was, there was this, so what they did then was because there was now two federations. There was the IFBB, there was the AAU in Napa.

• 40:01Theo Von?

  AAU?

• 40:02Speaker 01

  AAU, exactly, American Athletic Union.

• 40:04Theo Von?

  Hmm.

• 40:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, and so they then went from that federation over to the IFBB and their Sergio Oliver won immediately.

• 40:11Theo Von?

  Got it.

• 40:12Speaker 01

  He became Mr. America, he became Mr. World and Mr. Universe, then Mr. Olympia. And he actually, in the first Mr. Olympia competition, Sergio Oliver beat me.

• 40:20Theo Von?

  Wow.

• 40:21Speaker 01

  Nineteen sixty nine, fairly. I mean, there was no complaints there at all because he was extraordinary, right? And so then in nineteen seventy, I came back and I beat him in the Mr. World competition in Columbus, Ohio. And then two weeks later in the Mr. Olympia in New York. So, so we, we, we were big rivals and I was of course a big admirer of his and a big idol. And he treated me really well. We went to Chicago and trained together at the Duncan YMCA and all that stuff. I wanted to learn from him.

• 40:50Theo Von?

  I love the YMCA, don't you?

• 40:51Speaker 01

  Oh, absolutely, it's great.

• 40:53Theo Von?

  I've always been a fan of the YMCA. It's just kind of like, they're always a little bit met, like, it's never perfect there, but everything's kind of like a little bit old enough where I like the equipment, you know? It's never too fancy.

• 41:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, but you can get the job done.

• 41:06Theo Von?

  Right.

• 41:06Speaker 01

  But so to me, it's not about the luxury, it's just much more about the will to succeed. And when I see pictures online.

• 41:17Speaker 01

  Of bodybuilders that are training in the sand in Africa right now, blacks, that are having cement weights on a bar.

• 41:28Theo Von?

  God.

• 41:28Speaker 01

  And a cheap bench. And when they do their bench press.

• 41:33Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 41:33Speaker 01

  And the other day, I I saw one of those kind of videos. And they get up from the bench. I'm looking at this guy could win Mr. America.

• 41:42Theo Von?

  Wow.

• 41:42Speaker 01

  Or win Mr. California or something like that. He looks extraordinary. So it's it's really not the technology so much. It helps you, but I mean, and and it is really what you have to work on is the will.

• 41:55Theo Von?

  Oh, the will was the best. There's nothing better than just having like a little weight bench outside in your backyard or something and you go out there or in your garage and it's just.

• 42:03Speaker 01

  I did my deadlifts right in front of the house in in Graz in in Tar, which now is a museum at the house where I grew up in.

• 42:10Theo Von?

  Your home is a museum where you grew up?

• 42:12Speaker 01

  The the home, exactly, yeah. Yeah, I'm gonna go over there in two weeks. We have a our Pump Club is meeting there with the the European bodybuilders members from the Pump Club and then there's some Americans that are also coming over there.

• 42:25Theo Von?

  That audience in South Africa, what was, did did it have the the feeling during the show of like, this is like a novel thing? This is like a like, was there that energy in the in the?

• 42:37Speaker 01

  There was so much energy in that auditorium. And it was not a big auditorium. It maybe held, I would say, fifteen hundred people, I would guess. Um, and it was the energy was fantastic. The joy of being together was fantastic. And I really think they had a tremendous impact also in the future of South Africa. And it was just wonderful that there were leaders there that believed in that.

• 43:06Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 43:06Speaker 01

  And wanted to organize. And then everyone, the police and everyone was really cooperative. Everyone worked together, so it was a fantastic show, a fantastic competition. And of course, I won, so it's always a fantastic competition. You know, when he went, he was sixth Mr. Olympia. But I, what was interesting about it was I got a thousand dollars cash prize.

• 43:27Speaker 01

  And I was really upset about that because I felt like, well, wait a minute. In nineteen sixty-five, ten years ago, Sergio, I know Larry Scott, when he won Mr. Olympia, got a thousand dollars. And now, ten years later, we still get a thousand dollars. So that's what made me actually motivated to go then in front of the IFBB, the International Bodybuilding Congress, and to ask them for permission to organize the next year's Mr. Olympia in Columbus, Ohio. And that's exactly what we did. I got the permission and then we upped the cash prize to five thousand dollars, then to ten thousand dollars, to twenty, we doubled it every year.

• 44:09Speaker 01

  And now, now we're giving over a million dollars away for cash prizes with the Arnold Classic.

• 44:15Theo Von?

  What's like one of the things right before you go on? Because I'm guessing you're backstage, right? You wait to go on and they call your name out and then you go out and do your poses? Is that how it goes?

• 44:23Speaker 01

  Well, it's, in those days, the way it worked was the whole lineup of all the competitors. Now, if them understand, Mr. Olympia means that you have to have won a world championship title before. So Mr. World, Mr. International, or Mr. Universe. So those guys are the top guys. So you have like six or seven guys that are on the stage. And so the judges, they ask you to all to come out. You have a certain time at one o'clock, be ready for pre-judging, and then you come out and then you stand there. And then the judges will shuffle you around and says, okay, can number seven go over where number one is? And number one goes over where number seven was.

• 45:06Speaker 01

  You know, they just see them next to each other, different people next to each other. And they say, turn around, turn sideways.

• 45:14Theo Von?

  What's the scariest way to be turned? Like, was there ever a part where you're like, this is, I gotta kind of cheat this angle a little bit?

• 45:21Speaker 01

  No, I mean, for me, it was basically always a tremendous joy to be up on the stage. Because it's one of those things where you feel like when you're really ready. I always felt kind of like, in most cases, that I was so ready. That no matter what angle it was, I was ready to go and I had always a smile on my face. And I flexed everything and, you know, the key thing is that you have practiced your posing enough. That you can stand there in a flexed position. It looks relaxed, you stand there like this, but you're still flexed. You keep the stomach in and you keep the abs flexed, the calves flexed, the biceps, the triceps flexed. So that was the idea and I was always having great joy with that.

• 46:04Theo Von?

  So it's a lot of acting too, it's kind of some acting up there.

• 46:06Speaker 01

  It is one of the great forms of acting. Why? Because you cannot go and say to the judge, "Look at me. I'm the most perfect up here. Look at my abs." No, you have to do all that without talking. You have to communicate with them and also with the audience. Because remember that the sound of the audience is very important. Because you want to get big applause. So the judge say, "Oh, this guy got the most applause. I mean, he definitely, you know, has the best body." So, but then you wait for the, for the individual posing. So then you come at one after the next, you do a three-minute posing routine.

• 46:43Theo Von?

  And what's the tricks there? Is there any trick of the trade, a last-minute thing you used? You would like pinch your, pinch your tits or just rub some just like molasses into your lip? Like was there, what was like a last-minute thing people would do? Put ice under your arms or something?

• 46:57Speaker 01

  No, I think the key thing is just that you, when you go there, that you're so ready. That you don't shake. You know how many bodybuilders, I'm sure you've seen it, they hit a shot and then they, after, after a few seconds, they start shaking.

• 47:14Theo Von?

  Oh, so that's bad.

• 47:15Speaker 01

  Well, for that level, I mean, it's natural when you have a Mr. Venice Beach competition. Or Mr. Muscle Beach.

• 47:20Theo Von?

  Or Mr. Montgomery, Alabama, yeah.

• 47:22Speaker 01

  You know, beginners, of course, they make mistakes and they're not as well-trained. But when you get to the Mr. Olympia level, it's unacceptable.

• 47:29Theo Von?

  Ah, so you want to make it look, so that you want to control the shake?

• 47:33Speaker 01

  Yeah. And you smile, you look at the judges. And you and you and you smile. And then you smoothly move into the next shot. You know, and then it hands, it's just a movement. It has to be all very gracefully and no shaking. So that again, that you say to the judges, look, I am so ready for this.

• 47:57Speaker 01

  Unlike maybe the others. So that's that's what it is. So it's all about the seven Ps. You know, the seven Ps. Proper, prior, planning, prevents, pissed, poor performance. Right, in the Marines, they have that.

• 48:14Theo Von?

  Proper, prior, planning, prevents.

• 48:16Speaker 01

  Prevents piss poor performance, exactly. So that's what it is about. It's the same there. You come prepared. You make sure that you worked, everyone has weak points. So you have to make sure that you worked as much on your weak points. So that the judges see that you're not blind. That you noticed that last year you maybe had not so defined legs.

• 48:40Speaker 01

  Yes, maybe you won, but you, the legs were so-so. And then the next year, when you come back, you have to have ripped legs.

• 48:46Theo Von?

  Right.

• 48:47Speaker 01

  Right, so then the judge said, that guy got the message. So this is what it's all about, because in the end, you really are as an artist. You're a sculptor. You're not just the athlete that is competing, but you're the sculptor.

• 49:01Theo Von?

  But you're your client too.

• 49:02Speaker 01

  On your own body, instead of a chisel and a hammer that you kind of sculpt a physique. You do it now with machines and with the reps and the different exercises where you say, I need a little bit more of the rear deltoid. I need a little bit more separation in the front between the deltoid and the pectoral muscle. I need a little bit more cut on the lower abs. I need, the calves have to be balanced, they're not big enough for the arms. Because it should be the same size as your arms are. And all of those kind of things. So you become kind of like an artist in your own body. That's that's what the idea is.

• 49:37Theo Von?

  Did, was there a, was it, did you ever like have to work out the top of your feet or your hang? Were there things you could do for your face even and stuff like that?

• 49:43Speaker 01

  No, no. That's, I mean, there are people that pay attention to that. I didn't.

• 49:49Theo Von?

  Right.

• 49:49Speaker 01

  To me, it's always. About the bottom line.

• 49:53Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 49:53Speaker 01

  So about what is it that we're doing here? What we're doing here is we're showing the most perfect physique. And who is the best in actually displaying that physique?

• 50:03Theo Von?

  Hmm.

• 50:04Speaker 01

  Because it's all about, you know, presentation, presentation, presentation. It's like a piece of art. You know, you can have a painting that is maybe amongst many other paintings. And you wouldn't even notice it's a Picasso. But then when you put it up there on a white wall. And with a beautiful gold frame with a special lighting. And then you have someone talk about it. Now you can auction something off for a lot of money. Right? So it's all about presentation. And so this is why I think the same is also in bodybuilding. The way you present your body, the way you present your muscles.

• 50:37Theo Von?

  Indeed, at that point, I mean, I can see now how even like lobbying for certain things to be changing in. Um, like in the prize money, right? I can almost see where your direction comes to even end up in politics, right? You can start to see it like, well, this should be more this. There should be some adjustments. You weren't just like a competitor. You were also somebody who was examining how things were run and how they could be better. Especially when you were partnering with guys like, uh, Ben Wider and stuff like that. And probably inspired by those guys to probably get this larger vision of things that were going on. Um, did you, when you got into film? So at that point, you know how to act. You know how to impress the front row. You know how to use probably every element of your body to impress people. So that kind of just leans, leads kind of perfectly into acting.

• 51:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, but remember that what is key and all of the stuff is also personality.

• 51:27Theo Von?

  Hmm.

• 51:28Speaker 01

  And I don't know if you can train a personality or not. I mean, I don't know what you think about that. But I mean, I think some people just don't have the greatest personality.

• 51:37Theo Von?

  Some people are boring.

• 51:38Speaker 01

  Some people have a great personality.

• 51:41Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 51:41Speaker 01

  You know, and so I think that I developed over the years, not that someone taught me that. But I developed a personality because my joy for whatever I did came through. So when people talked to me about bodybuilding in those days, I was not shy of the press. Other bodybuilders for, for decades didn't talk to the press. So when I came over here, people thought that when they saw my body, they thought it was a football player. Or it was a wrestler or something like that. But the last thing they guessed was a bodybuilder. So they didn't know about bodybuilding. So I, in nineteen seventy four, I hired, I was the first bodybuilder to hire a publicist. And so we went and did talk shows, The Johnny Carson Show, Murph Griffin Show, Mike Douglas Show, and all of those shows.

• 52:26Speaker 01

  And were there football teams that tried to get you to come and play for them? Did you ever get an offer? No, because, I mean, I think I made it very clear in my interviews that my vision is be the greatest bodybuilder of all times and to go then into acting. So even when people came to me, because I was always very good in business. I studied business, I got my degree in business while I was over here and doing the training for bodybuilding. At SMC? Second. Did you go to SMC? I went to Santa Monica City College, to UCLA, and to, you know, got my degree in business and it was like business administration. And I was just naturally always gifted for making deals and being creative. Got it.

• 53:09Speaker 01

  You know, and, and, and I always understood how it works. Right. So in bodybuilding, for instance, it's one thing to say, okay, I'm gonna up the cash price to twenty thousand dollars, let's say from like, within a three-year period, we had, we give away twenty thousand dollars on the beginning, but then you have to say, okay, where do we get this money from? Ah, sponsors. Right. So now I have to go out and hustle the sponsors. And so now, of course, we have the biggest bodybuilding and fitness convention in Columbus, Ohio, in the world. We have two hundred thousand people coming through there in three days. We have every company displaying their products, their, their machines, their food supplements, clothing. At the Arnold's go? The Arnold Classic. Arnold Classic.

• 53:52Speaker 01

  It's always the first week in, in, in March, and it's three days, the whole thing. So now, like I said, now we raise enough money where we can give away over a million dollars. So I'm thinking this coming year, you're gonna go and up to a million and a half dollars. Let's go. So it's like, so there's all kinds of great things happen, but I was able to build it to that. Right. Because I have a business mind. Right. And I know exactly now how that works and how do we attract everyone and bring everyone together. Hmm. Were there women all weightlifting at that time or no? You were, the first Mr. Olympia, Miss Olympia competition was a guy by the name of Schneider from, uh, he was back east from the Philadelphia area, and we did that together. Oh, you guys started it?

• 54:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, yes, because the women were all kind of complaining, why can't we compete? So we did a little. She only called it Miss Olympia and because the International Federation of Bodybuilding at that point had no interest in women bodybuilding.

• 54:50Theo Von?

  Why was that, do you think? Was it just their view of women at the time?

• 54:53Speaker 01

  No, it's it's it's at the time it was they were stuck and we created this federation for the guys.

• 54:59Theo Von?

  Oh, it's a boys' club.

• 55:00Speaker 01

  Why are we getting it's it's like gym owners like Joe Gold, he would not let women train. Why? Because not because it was against women. No, we love women coming in there, but he he figured, I don't have the room for another bathroom here. I have 3000 square feet. I have only for the man, the shower and the bathroom.

• 55:18Theo Von?

  Some of those girls are pissed standing up, I'll tell you that for sure.

• 55:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, but I mean, we had women coming in and they watched us work out, but they couldn't train there until they got in a bigger space and then women were included in the whole thing. And so the federation was a little bit reluctant to do that. And when we did the Miss Olympia and all of the girls really enjoyed that, that they were able to go on stage to also compete with their muscles and all that stuff.

• 55:45Speaker 01

  The federation then woke up and they said, okay, we're gonna get involved in that and we're gonna go get. And since then it has been booming, you know, and they have been doing not only uh bodybuilding competitions, but you know, fitness competitions and beauty competi-

• 55:59Theo Von?

  Does Arnold Classic have a women's division?

• 56:01Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, absolutely.

• 56:02Theo Von?

  Oh, that's great. I didn't know that. Sorry. Oh, wow. Look at these chocolate babies right here, huh? Yeah, everybody kind of gets chocolate here, huh?

• 56:11Speaker 01

  The tanned, they have now you have this tanning stuff.

• 56:14Theo Von?

  Was it real tanning back then or was it?

• 56:16Speaker 01

  No, um.

• 56:18Theo Von?

  What was the key to the best tan? The best tan?

• 56:20Speaker 01

  We got the best tan that we could get. So I would work out a lot of times outside in the weightlifting platform in Venice.

• 56:28Theo Von?

  Oh, yeah, I love it.

• 56:29Speaker 01

  So you get kind of tanned all over the place, doing chin ups and doing bench presses and incline and dips and all that stuff. Then we would jump in the ocean again, come back and work out some more and all this. Uh but and and.

• 56:43Speaker 01

  We then added to that tan, Tan in a Minute by Helena Rubenstein.

• 56:50Theo Von?

  Ooh.

• 56:51Speaker 01

  So I don't even know if this exists anymore.

• 56:54Theo Von?

  Bring it up tan in a minute, huh?

• 56:55Speaker 01

  Uh, but.

• 56:56Theo Von?

  Sixty second, uh, sous, sous vey, they call it.

• 57:00Speaker 01

  That was in, in those days, it was the big trick. So you put it on with a sponge. You know, you just poured it out on a little plate. You put it on with a sponge and you hit a body of yours. They did your back and stuff, again, the back of the thighs and all of that stuff. So this is what they did. That's why a lot of, the day they sprayed on.

• 57:18Theo Von?

  Right.

• 57:18Speaker 01

  They have actual experts come to the bodybuilding show and backstage, there's people that manufacture this tanning stuff. And they would then help bodybuilders and spray it on and all of that. So it's much more professional today.

• 57:30Theo Von?

  But at the time, so you would, somebody, they would put that tan in a can, basically?

• 57:34Speaker 01

  Uh, yeah, they would put it in a bottle. It was in a bottle.

• 57:37Theo Von?

  And you'd have a friend do your back. Would anybody ever sabotage somebody and not do their back really good?

• 57:42Speaker 01

  No, but I mean, there were some people that were really stupid and then did not know how to put it on. Maybe it would show kind of like streaks of the, of the, uh, because they didn't have.

• 57:51Theo Von?

  Yeah, a little mulatto around the wrist, huh?

• 57:53Speaker 01

  So we put on just a light kind of layer. It was all about just a little subtle thing because it's not gonna make you win. It just makes you, the photos look a little bit better and you have a little bit of color.

• 58:05Theo Von?

  And what was it called if somebody went too dark? Would you just call him a little chocolate bunny or something like?

• 58:09Speaker 01

  No, there was nothing. It was up to the individual. As a matter of fact, they tell you that you can see in our Arnold Classic. A lot of times when you've been, the guys turn around.

• 58:19Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 58:20Speaker 01

  You sometimes don't even know who is black and who is not.

• 58:23Theo Von?

  Oh, yeah, I know the best.

• 58:25Speaker 01

  Because, because they're so dark now, the tanning has gone so sophisticated and so brown. Yeah, so he's a perfect, when he turns around, you would think it's a black guy standing.

• 58:34Theo Von?

  For sure. And if you, a nutmeg fella, yeah. That is just a little molasses, baby. Um, that's so remarkable. In business, they say you can have better, cheaper, or faster. But you only get to pick two. What if you could have all three at the same time? That's exactly what some of the world's most innovative brands and AI tech companies have, since they upgraded to the next generation of the cloud, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. OCI is the blazing fast platform for your infrastructure, database, application development, and AI needs, where you can run any workload in a high availability, consistently high-performance

• 59:19Theo Von?

  environment, and spend less than you would with other clouds. How is it faster? OCI's block storage gives you more operations per second. Cheaper? OCI costs up to 50% less for compute, 70% less for storage, and 80% less for networking. Better? In test after test, OCI customers report lower latency and higher bandwidth versus other clouds. This is the cloud built for AI and all your biggest workloads. Right now, with zero commitment, try OCI for free. Head to oracle.com/THEO. That's oracle.com/THEO.

• 59:58Speaker 03

  Okay Dad, showtime.

• 1:00:00Speaker 01

  Now!

• 1:00:06Speaker 01

  I'm very protective of my team.

• 1:00:09Speaker 01

  Witness protection was our only choice, but all of us living under one roof can get awkward.

• 1:00:19Speaker 04

  Nope. Oh! Oh my god! Bad Donnie, bad Donnie!

• 1:00:25Speaker 05

  Hello Luke.

• 1:00:27Speaker 01

  Cleda.

• 1:00:33Speaker 04

  Greta Noosa, East German spy, disappeared in 1989.

• 1:00:44Speaker 03

  Cool Dad, your terrorist friend is amazing.

• 1:00:51Speaker 01

  Who the hell is that? Theodore Chips. Former MI6 agent.

• 1:00:56Speaker 05

  He works for me. Together, we'll destroy the world.

• 1:01:03Speaker 06

  You're gorgeous.

• 1:01:06Speaker 03

  Are you serious?

• 1:01:11Speaker 05

  You spying on us?

• 1:01:15Speaker 05

  Us spying on you?

• 1:01:20Speaker 04

  Well, Emma's pregnant.

• 1:01:24Speaker 06

  That got your tongue?

• 1:01:28Speaker 06

  I hope not. I may need it in the future.

• 1:01:32Speaker 04

  Sex. She means sex. Bling.

• 1:01:36Speaker 04

  World War III is about to jump off.

• 1:01:43Speaker 04

  Get out of there! Ready? No! No!

• 1:01:51Speaker 04

  Hold on, old man!

• 1:01:55Speaker 04

  Boom!

• 1:02:02Speaker 01

  I told you. I'm back.

• 1:02:12Theo Von?

  I want to talk about your new show. You do have some stuff, just so we make sure we talk about it, man. Foo Bar. I watched your first episode. So, I guess it's not out yet, right?

• 1:02:21Speaker 01

  No.

• 1:02:22Theo Von?

  And it's season two. It's kind of great because it brings me through all this nostalgia of watching you over the years, right? Like, I feel like it's a little bit of all the... Like, to me, this is perception and it could be judgment, but a little bit of all your roles into one. Did it feel like that a little bit when you're shooting it, or...?

• 1:02:37Speaker 01

  Well, the idea of the show is, of course, when you act out, then you find those moments where you can play all of the different roles. But the idea of the show is just to do like what we did with True Lies, what Jim Cameron did with True Lies, right? So it was like, how do we go and do a show where you pack it with action and also with comedy, with humor, and also with kind of soap opera, where it's relationships, interesting relationships, and so on. And so I think that the writers did a really good job because just like in True Lies, I'm the number one spy in this show. And, but when I come home, so I kick ass out there, I take care of the job all the time, wipe out the enemy, all the terrorists, all this.

• 1:03:22Speaker 01

  But when I come home, I have to deal with the everyday crap. Right, like we all do, right? You have to worry about the kids.

• 1:03:30Theo Von?

  Check the mail, yeah.

• 1:03:31Speaker 01

  The wife is mad at you because you were gone for a week again and you couldn't really explain. You always, I always, because my wife does not know that I'm a spy. So I always had to lie and have this equipment company and there's a health convention there. They have to go to this convention. I have to, then I come home and I have to make up stories. I said, this sales guy is really interesting. I said, I tried to sell my equipment there and over there talked about his life cycles. All of a sudden I said, I was so upset about this whole, it's a, you know, you just make up all these stories. Which is, but I'm getting, you know, there's a divorce there then, you know, then my daughter all of a sudden is in the CIA and then she's also a spy and all of this stuff.

• 1:04:13Speaker 01

  So there's all these conflicts that are going on and it makes it a really interesting show then to watch because it's relationships, it's action, it's funny and all that. And so last show did really well, the last series and the second season. And so now we see how that is doing.

• 1:04:29Theo Von?

  Yeah, I think there's like a level of also nostalgia just getting you, getting to see you still operate in these roles. You know, like you've just, you've continued to keep your, I mean, you're, you know, you've just continued to want to work. It does, because you don't have to work anymore.

• 1:04:43Speaker 01

  Well, let me tell you something.

• 1:04:46Speaker 01

  I love to work. Why? Because it makes you active. And I just think the most important thing is as we get older, you don't have to worry about any of that right now. But I mean, eventually you will. When you get older, you just, you have a tendency of sitting around. You have a tendency of not moving as much. And so it forces you. So when you do a movie, you have to get up at six in the morning. You have to get to the set. You have to go and prep. You have to go and practice the day, the action and all that stuff and the fight scenes. You have to do the rehearsals of the, of the scenes and you work until night.

• 1:05:25Theo Von?

  Right.

• 1:05:25Speaker 01

  Then you go home and you fall bed tired and then you get up again in the morning. So, and. Remember, the most important thing for your brain is to go and practice and to kind of do challenging things with your brain. So you don't get Alzheimer's and other kind of diseases like that. So it makes you memorize lines, long scenes, and especially in TV, you do like six to eight or 10 pages a day.

• 1:05:51Theo Von?

  Or it's keeping your brain.

• 1:05:52Speaker 01

  And then I play chess on the side while I'm waiting for the scenes and all this. Just keep always going. So to me, the important thing is because I feel like if you rest, you rust. And so it's all about movement. It's all about keep moving and keep moving and keep challenging yourself. Because as soon as we retire, you know, things go south.

• 1:06:13Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:13Speaker 01

  I mean, there's just something that happens.

• 1:06:14Theo Von?

  Especially Alzheimer's, especially it's Alzheimer, Schwarzenegger Alzheimer's, they're almost seem like they would be neighbor. You know what I'm saying? Like no judgment or anything, but it almost seems like that would be the one to look for you because it's just your same letters, some of the same letters even.

• 1:06:30Speaker 01

  I have enough with my heart problems. So I mean, I don't have to worry about another problem forever. For the last 25 years, had heart, open heart surgery, you know, three times and all that kind of stuff and valve replacements and all that stuff. It's a congenital thing for my, for my mother. She had it from her mother and all that stuff. And so I have to deal with that all the time. But everything is good because I train every day and I exercise and I watch what I eat, which is I watch the food and then I eat it.

• 1:06:59Theo Von?

  Did you ever have a stroke and you just kind of you're like, I've kind of had that before. I can get through the rest of the day?

• 1:07:03Speaker 01

  No, no, none of that.

• 1:07:05Theo Von?

  What I'm talking about though?

• 1:07:07Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:07:07Theo Von?

  Like, did you ever have like, because sometimes you'll get a pain or something and you're like, I think I'm okay. Did you ever have like, I'm assuming if you had a lifetime, a lifetime of like having heart issues that you would start to be like, ah, that's gonna be okay?

• 1:07:18Speaker 01

  No, it was never, it was, I always was kind of in front of the situation. So that means that I remember when I took my mother to the hospital here when she was here visiting, she always had an episode and I took her to UCLA. That's when we found out that she had a valve problem. And the doctor then said to me, he says, make sure that you also check yourself. This is because this is something that's a genetic thing.

• 1:07:42Theo Von?

  So it's almost like a gift that she got to be here and you got to go through that with her?

• 1:07:45Speaker 01

  Exactly. So, so I from that point on always went to the doctor and the doctor said to me, he says, well, you have, you know, at one point he said, you have a problem with your valve, with your aortic valve. And you don't have to do anything now. He says, but as soon as we see it going down, we want to catch it before it goes down because otherwise it affects the water itself and blah, blah, blah. And all of that. So the bottom line is I stayed on top of it and always, so when I got my surgery, open mouth surgery, I went in there because I made an appointment. So there was no episode, there was no stroke, there was no heart attack or anything. Never had any of those kind of things. So I always was ahead of the game.

• 1:08:22Theo Von?

  Was it scary when they put you under? Like, were you kind of scared? Did you make sure it was the best guy doing it, Arnold? Because you gotta have the best guy.

• 1:08:29Speaker 01

  Of course, it's important.

• 1:08:30Theo Von?

  Did you look him in the eyes and take him off the side and say, hey, let's make sure we do it good?

• 1:08:34Speaker 01

  No, I didn't have to do that. No. I, I think.

• 1:08:36Theo Von?

  I would do that for sure.

• 1:08:37Speaker 01

  I knew this guy's history. Dr. Stans was his name. They did the first surgery, first two surgeries. And he was like the top of the top. So there was no worries about it.

• 1:08:49Theo Von?

  When you, you've, you've had such a like, you've had a very blessed and interesting life, right? It's been, you know, and you've had it. So you know. At what point you're probably, I would, I think it's fair to say you're probably in the second half of your life. At what point do you like, does kind of like goal, like goals turn into like legacy? If, if in your mind at all, if it does, and I don't mean that to be a uncomfortable question. I'm just like, does your brain start to adjust where like, these are my goals and then like, okay, this is a legacy that I want to leave? Does that make any sense or no?

• 1:09:22Speaker 01

  Well, I think it is always important to think about, you know, the idea of that we should leave the world a better place than we inherited it. And so I, my whole life was always about, okay, how can I make this a better world of the knowledge that I have? So for instance, in fitness, in bodybuilding, I went around the world to promote the idea of weightlifting and weight training and resistance training.

• 1:09:51Theo Von?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:09:51Speaker 01

  And made it then popular, right? Because we had to figure out a way of penetrating through the general public that thought that bodybuilding is just, you know, flexing your, your, your muscles on stage. But they didn't realize that bodybuilding is something that you just get a healthy and stronger body for whatever you do. You maybe needed for tennis, you maybe needed for your bicycling, you maybe needed for your, uh, whatever sport, you know, like UFC fighters are working out.

• 1:10:17Theo Von?

  Oh, the first time I heard of fitness was through you. Yeah, it was through you.

• 1:10:20Speaker 01

  But I mean, that was the idea is I wanted to not just lift myself up, but I wanted to lift the rest of the bodybuilding movement up. And so it was always something. So now, of course, fifty years later, there's a gymnasium in every hotel in the world. There is a gymnasium or weight room in every kind of a military installation or base.

• 1:10:41Theo Von?

  There's those guys we saw there doing those curls with the cement. There's every...

• 1:10:44Speaker 01

  Exactly. So people are lifting weights everywhere. Every high school, every college, every sports team, everyone has weight rooms.

• 1:10:53Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:53Speaker 01

  So this is where we are now. That's it. This is why I felt really proud of that, that we were able, with the help of Jane Fonda and other kind of characters that were, you know, helping women with the fitness movement. And so we really elevated the, the, the fitness sport to something really, also a huge economic, uh, you know, contribution.

• 1:11:13Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 1:11:13Speaker 01

  That it made. So to me, that's important. When I became governor, I wanted to make sure that we have healthcare for everybody. I want to make sure that we have a clean environment, that we fight pollution, uh, and to pass laws to reduce the pollution in California by twenty-five percent and all that. So I continued on creating an environmental organization and to have our world summit in Vienna every year, where all the environmentalists come together and talk about how do we go and fight pollution and all that stuff. So we have one coming up in fourteen days now again. And so it's, it's always after school programs, for instance, when I realized that our kids, uh, that, that, you know, seventy percent of the kids, uh, come from

• 1:11:55Speaker 01

  a home where both of the parents are working. So there's no one there picking them up after three o'clock from the school.

• 1:12:00Theo Von?

  Right.

• 1:12:01Speaker 01

  So there's kids standing around after school. And not doing anything. So then I found out, well, this is the danger zone for kids between three and six a god because there's no supervision. So they get involved with drugs, with gangs, with violence, with alcohol, teenage pregnancy.

• 1:12:16Theo Von?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:12:16Speaker 01

  This costs the community a lot of money. Let's do something about it. Everyone was complaining about it, but they were not doing anything about it. So I stepped out and I started the after school programs. And it has been a huge hit. We have raised over the last thirty years.

• 1:12:30Theo Von?

  Are they still open?

• 1:12:31Speaker 01

  One point five billion dollars we raised.

• 1:12:33Theo Von?

  Oh, really?

• 1:12:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, all over the country. We have been to millions and millions of kids. We have helped with after school programs with great success rates and all of this stuff. So to me, it's all about how can I make this a better world?

• 1:12:45Theo Von?

  I see what you're saying. So you feel like a lot of your legacy has kind of been lived along the way?

• 1:12:49Speaker 01

  Exactly. It's not like I want this should be my legacy. I don't think that way, but I think about I want to improve the world, especially.

• 1:12:56Theo Von?

  Now.

• 1:12:57Speaker 01

  But I mean, think about it. I'm an immigrant. I'm an immigrant that came over here and got every opportunity in the world because of America.

• 1:13:08Theo Von?

  Right.

• 1:13:08Speaker 01

  And America gave me everything. They gave me the money that I have made, the career in bodybuilding, the career in acting, the wonderful family. All of that stuff is because of America. So to me, it's a natural thing that I give something back to America.

• 1:13:23Theo Von?

  Well, you're one of the most jacked immigrants too that we've ever had, probably, I think, for sure.

• 1:13:28Speaker 01

  I hope so.

• 1:13:28Theo Von?

  Yeah, you do. And you're competitive about it. I love that, you know, I can feel how competitive you are. And that's great. You have to be competitive because also America is a platform for if you are competitive and if you choose to apply yourself that you can reach some of your dreams and goals and aspirations. Do you think that it's still possible? Like you've had this, you've gotten to live in America for a while now and have a good breadth of understanding here. You've gotten to work in politics. Do you think it's the American dream is still possible? Or do you think there's, there's things happening these days that are, where we're not helping that along?

• 1:14:04Speaker 01

  Well, I can tell you, I didn't study this issue, right? So I couldn't really give you facts and figures. But what I can tell you is, no matter where I go in the world today.

• 1:14:18Speaker 01

  People come up to me says, Arnold, can you please help me get to America?

• 1:14:22Theo Von?

  Hmm.

• 1:14:23Speaker 01

  So that never has changed. It doesn't matter to immigrants, people that want to come here, they don't know what the political situation, they don't care if the Democrats in power or Republicans in power, what the Senate says, what the Congress says, what the governor says, nothing. They just want to come over here. They want to get a shot. You know, so this is what it is. And if they do it the legal way, you know, so that is the key thing to me.

• 1:14:47Theo Von?

  For sure.

• 1:14:48Speaker 01

  Do it the legal way. So anyway, the bottom line is, I think the opportunities are there. When I go down to Gold's Gym, I see this guy from Africa that was competing in my bodybuilding shows in the Arnold Classic and came, was in one of the top three, uh, in order. Then he became a personal trainer. He's charging $200 an hour. He's driving up one day with his blue Bentley. The next day he's driving up with his red Ferrari. And I mean, this, this is a guy from Africa that came over here with nothing.

• 1:15:23Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 1:15:23Speaker 01

  So this is a young kid, he's like maybe 35 or 40 years old. And look at what he does. So there's trainers down there that are from different countries. There's people, if you're willing to work, that's why I always say to people, I say, work your ass off. Don't ever come, this is my big advice to immigrants. I said, don't ever come over here to just use this country.

• 1:15:45Theo Von?

  Hmm.

• 1:15:46Speaker 01

  I said, give something back. Think about that you want to work your ass off here. You want to educate yourself here. You want to contribute to America here. That's what you want to do because the very fact that you're allowed to come over here, you should go and have that mentality of wanting to give something back. That's the bottom line.

• 1:16:04Theo Von?

  Amen, man. And I think that goes to it, even as you're saying that, Arnold, it's making me think about like even our relationships that I'm in or business situations. I should think of most things as that way. Like, let me give something to this, right? Whatever this is, if this is a relationship with a spouse or a girlfriend or a boyfriend or a, um, if it's a team that I'm on or just a commitment I've had, I'm going to spend an hour with my son or your, or my mom to do something. Let me give something to this, right? Let me not just take even this moment for granted, whatever it is. Let me be here and be present and apply myself.

• 1:16:36Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:16:37Theo Von?

  To, so that we create something that, um, just so I'm honoring the fact that I even have this moment in time.

• 1:16:43Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:16:44Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 1:16:44Speaker 01

  And let me tell you something that. As soon as people realize that they're not self-made, that there were a lot of people involved in where you are today. Lot of people. You couldn't operate without the engineer. You couldn't operate without the deal that you got to do this and blah, blah, blah, and all this kind of stuff. You have to recognize that because when you recognize that you're not self-made, that people have helped you, that is what makes you then click and say, I got to now help other people.

• 1:17:16Theo Von?

  Ah.

• 1:17:17Speaker 01

  I have the responsibility to help other people. And then you realize how much joy it brings you when you see that you have an impact and you can help other people. That's why we have the Pump Club and that's why we do the Arnold Classic and the promotion of bodybuilding and environmental stuff and the after-school programs. I mean, to go to one of this after-school program, the conventions, and to hear the kids' stories, it just makes you feel so good that you did that, that you raised the money. We have poker tournaments at my house. We raised like seven, eight million dollars sometimes. And then we put this right into the after-school programs. So this is where the action is. And you can do all of that because as I always say, the day is 24 hours. And I talk about a lot at great lengths in my book and be useful.

• 1:18:02Speaker 01

  I talk about all of those kind of principles of giving back and having a vision and don't listen to the naysayers and all those kind of things.

• 1:18:10Theo Von?

  Who do you go to for your, like your inspiration? Do you have like a coach or a mentor over the years? Have you had like, like you go to Tony Robbins? Do you hire some of these guys who are really good at this type of stuff to help you in certain speed bumps in your life?

• 1:18:21Speaker 01

  Well, I would say that I have always had mentors like, you know, the Weathers that did help me and I looked up to them. Reg Park is something then bodybuilding that I looked up to. And later on was like Ronald Reagan when he was governor of California, then became president and Nixon. And people that I looked up to, old George Schultz, who was secretary of state under Reagan, that then became my mentor when I became governor and taught me about how to work together with Democrats and Republicans and not just it's my way or the highway.

• 1:18:53Theo Von?

  Did you get to meet Reagan?

• 1:18:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, for many times.

• 1:18:56Theo Von?

  Oh, really?

• 1:18:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:18:57Theo Von?

  Wow, what was he like?

• 1:18:58Speaker 01

  I was at the White House, I was invited to state dinners there and everything like that.

• 1:19:03Theo Von?

  They have good food over there?

• 1:19:04Speaker 01

  Again?

• 1:19:04Theo Von?

  Good food over there, huh?

• 1:19:05Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, they know how to cook.

• 1:19:08Theo Von?

  Hell, yeah.

• 1:19:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly, yeah.

• 1:19:09Theo Von?

  God, I love that.

• 1:19:11Speaker 01

  And then also Nixon, I mean, I was down at the Nixon Library, I remember in the early nineties. And that's when Nixon, just without telling me, called me up on stage and told me, wanted me to give a speech. And so I told him how I became a Nixon fan and, you know, when I came over here to this country and all that stuff. He loved it. He said to me, he says, "Oh, you should become governor of California." You know? And it was like, it was really great. So he was one of the guys that always pushed about.

• 1:19:40Theo Von?

  That's awesome. That's Bob Hope right there.

• 1:19:42Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly, yeah.

• 1:19:42Theo Von?

  I just got back. I did a show in Qatar. Qatar? Qatar?

• 1:19:45Speaker 01

  I mean, it's.

• 1:19:46Theo Von?

  It was pretty cool, yeah. I happened to just be over there. Trump was over there speaking too at the same day, but we just did a show for the troops.

• 1:19:52Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, yeah, exactly. But this is a great thing that you do.

• 1:19:54Theo Von?

  It was awesome.

• 1:19:55Speaker 01

  I tell you, there's nothing that I appreciate more than to go there and to schmooze with them, take photographs with them, or tell them some jokes.

• 1:20:04Theo Von?

  Yeah, some good jokes.

• 1:20:05Speaker 01

  I did it with Jay Leno.

• 1:20:06Theo Von?

  It was hit or miss. There we are, right there.

• 1:20:08Speaker 01

  Oh, man, look at that.

• 1:20:10Theo Von?

  That's what all.

• 1:20:11Speaker 01

  Look at that team.

• 1:20:11Theo Von?

  A couple Ku Klux Sandsmen. That's a joke I made.

• 1:20:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:20:16Theo Von?

  Pretty good joke. I think it's good.

• 1:20:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:20:17Theo Von?

  Um, when you look at.

• 1:20:19Speaker 01

  Do you do that? Do you do that often? Do you do shows for?

• 1:20:22Theo Von?

  I did it for a long time and then I've taken a break recently. Yeah.

• 1:20:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:20:27Theo Von?

  I did it for a long time and then I've taken a break recently, but this really reignited me on it. I was actually texting a couple of friends of mine and saying, "Let's go do some, just even close bases that are close to us in America, just whatever we can, let's start to do it a little bit more."

• 1:20:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:20:41Theo Von?

  I think we're gonna start to do it more. So I'm really excited about that. I feel really lucky. I mean, my whole job is freedom of speech, right? So it's like, if people aren't protecting that, you can't even be a comedian in some countries, you know?

• 1:20:52Speaker 01

  No, of course not. No, I think it's a great idea. And of course, I remember that in, when I was in my height in my bodybuilding days, I was invited to go on the aircraft carrier Norfolk, Virginia.

• 1:21:04Theo Von?

  Hmm.

• 1:21:05Speaker 01

  And to go and train with the sailors.

• 1:21:08Theo Von?

  Oh.

• 1:21:09Speaker 01

  And to show them how to exercise and all that stuff. It was fantastic. A great, great event. Was up there and I said, "Ever since then, I really found it really enjoyable to go with it's down here, near San Diego." The Pendleton or any of those military bases or if I go to Seoul, South Korea or to Japan or anywhere I go, Middle East, I was in Kuwait and visiting.

• 1:21:31Theo Von?

  Oh, yeah, it's fun over there.

• 1:21:32Speaker 01

  Working out with them at like three, four in the morning.

• 1:21:35Theo Von?

  Dude, when I work out with them, they don't give a shit. I'll tell you that.

• 1:21:37Speaker 01

  Well, I tell you that there's some really serious lifters there.

• 1:21:41Theo Von?

  Yeah, but they do not, they do not want to see me do anything. I usually stand on the side and just drink. I'll have a little bit of a protein shake, but when you, what about like, like, was it hard with your whole life? Was it tough to be like, was it ever tough to be a good husband or be a good dad? Like, if, if so much of your job takes like your work side of you, because I noticed for me, like, I'm not married yet. I would like to find a wife. But it's hard for me to even find time, you know, like, is it, like, were there moments where because your life gets so big, right? And you've had a big life. I mean, there's like you, Arnold, and then the other guy, hey, Arnold, he's a fucking drawing, I think, right? So you're the, you're like, the name is yours, really.

• 1:22:20Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:22:20Theo Von?

  Like, does it ever get hard to be a parent or something? Because of how big your.

• 1:22:25Speaker 01

  Let me tell you something. Everything that you want to do that is really good. And you want to go all out, it's difficult. It's challenging. But I was very fortunate because I married a woman that understood that I have to work. And she didn't complain about it, you know, so we got together and I understood that right away because of the family she came from, the Kennedy family, right? So Maria Shriver was like, she understood that all of her.

• 1:22:53Theo Von?

  Bobby Kennedy, she related Bobby Kennedy?

• 1:22:55Speaker 01

  So, so if it is, you know, John F. Kennedy, if it was Bobby Kennedy, uh, senior, you know, when he ran for president, I mean, all her father ran for president and for vice president and all of this. So, so she was used to that everyone has to go out and work.

• 1:23:10Theo Von?

  The energy of it all.

• 1:23:11Speaker 01

  They left the house in the morning and they came back late at night and or like, for instance, then later on, you know, was traveling around the world for Special Olympics because and her mother was also a workaholic. And so she understood that. And so when, when I was going on location. When we had kids, she would go and she would stop her job in in New York, the NBC job that she was hosting the morning news and she would stay home, she would stay home and she would stay with the kids. And so this is why we have four terrific kids that we created together and Patrick, of course, we're very proud of him. Oh, yeah, I love his new show. The show. So cool. He did a great job. He did a fantastic job. And Catherine is fantastic and writes books and all this stuff. And who are your other two children, just so we are.

• 1:23:56Speaker 01

  Christina and Christopher. And Christopher. And Christopher is also in show business. He's, you know, working for a production company. He reads more scripts than I've ever read in my whole life. But it's it's really great to see all the kids. Then I have one son outside the marriage, which is Joseph. And Joseph is also doing terrific in real estate and so. So it's the key thing is to really concentrate on being a participative father when you have kids. Because you got to go, they want to see you ski when you go up and say, let's go skiing. They don't want you to just send them up in the mountains in the cold weather where they freeze their butt off. They want to see you sitting on a chairlift, go up with the skis and ski

• 1:24:39Speaker 01

  with them. So that's what I did. So they, of course, they hated it when they were kids. They said, oh, Dad, let's go in. I want to get a hot jacket. They said, there is no hot jacket. There's skiing. I said, this is ski mountain, not a hot jacket mountain. So what's the matter with you kids? You know, and then they were crying on the chair and the people were going up there on the chairlift and we were skiing down and skiing down for three, four hours. And then we had the hot jacket and we had the lunch and all this stuff. And now, when they go up to San Valley and they go skiing, they stop me and they said, Dad, I just want you to know how much I appreciate that you made us ski. Because now I ski fantastic. I can go down on any run. And they think of you when they do it. So that's what I always tell my friends. I said, don't just go and take pictures

• 1:25:24Speaker 01

  of them skiing. No, you put the skis on, you put your ski boots on, and you go and do it. And the same with playing soccer. I was playing soccer with my son. And it was, you got to go and participate in all of this stuff. And so this is what I believed in. I went to all the games with my wife. Oh, damn. And so this is. My god, brother. Well, Andy Liverwitz can make anyone look good.

• 1:25:46Theo Von?

  I guess, yeah. My gosh. Um, no, but you know what I just gathered from some of your things is just the application of self, right? And that you have to go get it. You have to go do this, right? Um, yeah. Do you know Bobby pretty good? Bobby Kennedy is a friend of mine.

• 1:25:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:26:00Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 1:26:01Speaker 01

  Bobby, I mean, is a, let me tell you something about Bobby. Oh, he's a great guy.

• 1:26:05Theo Von?

  Oh, he's one of my favorite, he's one of my favorite guys.

• 1:26:07Speaker 01

  Thank you, thank you.

• 1:26:08Theo Von?

  I know him from recovery. We go to recovery meetings together.

• 1:26:10Speaker 01

  But think about this for a second.

• 1:26:12Theo Von?

  Hmm.

• 1:26:13Speaker 01

  I'm running for governor.

• 1:26:16Speaker 01

  In two thousand and three. And then all of a sudden, they get a phone call from Bobby, who I knew very well, and Bobby and Joe Kennedy, uh, his brother, his older brother, and they were always really kind of nice to me and kind and inclusive and stuff like that.

• 1:26:30Theo Von?

  Well, fuck you. You're the damn Terminator. They gotta be at least.

• 1:26:33Speaker 01

  No, no, but I mean, you know, some people are kind of like, oh, who is this new guy coming into the family?

• 1:26:37Theo Von?

  Oh, I see. Especially their family, because it's a prestigious thing.

• 1:26:40Speaker 01

  That's right, yeah. So, but they were really nice. So Bobby calls me and he says, Arnold, you're a Republican. Republican isn't known for the environmental record. He says, I'm an environmentalist. He says, yes, you know, I'm the head of the River Keepers and all that stuff is, and, uh, I have a guy that you should have in your team. They can educate you really about the environment.

• 1:27:03Theo Von?

  Hmm.

• 1:27:04Speaker 01

  I said, well, think about it. It's really nice. Who is it? Terry Tampon. He says, let me send him over to your office. He sent over Terry Tampon and we hit it off right away really well. And the next thing I know is, is that we're working together. He's part of the team. And then when it became governor, and I think that contributed to me becoming governor, because I saw this whole idea that I want to be environmentally friendly. I want to reduce greenhouse gases. I want to get the envir- that renewable energy up in California and all of this stuff. So. Next thing you say, I become governor, he becomes now Terry Temin and becomes the head of the EPA and all of this, but this all happened in my knowledge about the environment, all this happened because of Bobby Kennedy. So that's the kind of a guy he is.

• 1:27:47Speaker 01

  I mean, he's like, didn't say, oh, you're Republican, I'm going to campaign against you. No, he was 100% on board. He wanted to wish me good luck and he did wish me good luck and he wanted me to win, not because I'm a Republican, he just felt like, oh, I like Arnold, I want to help.

• 1:28:05Theo Von?

  I want the good guy to win, no matter what side he's on.

• 1:28:06Speaker 01

  Exactly. So that's the kind of a guy Bobby is, you know, so I'm, I think the world of him.

• 1:28:11Theo Von?

  Yeah, he's cool. We had him on the podcast when everybody was thinking he was kind of crazy during the pandemic and stuff and he was concerned about just people's health and wellbeing with vaccines and stuff. We had him on and, um, but yeah, I've always known him to be just a neat guy, you know, he's my friend. Um, yeah, I'm excited for him. I'm curious to see what it's like once you get into office, how can you still keep your beliefs or not, or do things get heavily compromised, do you feel like?

• 1:28:36Speaker 01

  It is compromised. You have to.

• 1:28:39Theo Von?

  You have to compromise.

• 1:28:40Speaker 01

  Because the whole world doesn't think exactly like you. And remember what Eisenhower said. Eisenhower said that politics is like the road, the left, the right is the gutter and the center is drivable. And that's exactly the way it is in politics. You have to understand that there's a sweet spot, you know, like the teacher in golf, hit the sweet spot, doing tennis, to hit the sweet spot, and all this, there's a sweet spot to find exactly so he can get a deal made and that he can move things forward. It's not exactly your way. I mean, I remember with the infrastructure, I wanted to build a hundred billion dollars worth of infrastructure, but they only agreed on an end around 60 billion dollars. So I didn't get my way.

• 1:29:22Speaker 01

  Uh, with the financial situation, I wanted to wipe out the deficit. And I was not able to do that with all these Democrats around it. They love to spend money. So, so, so I was, I was stuck with it. So, but the fact of the matter is, we could improve the situation. And I was able to work together with the Democrats on environmental issues and infrastructure issues and so many other healthcare issues, so many other issues, education and all of this stuff. And we, we did really fine and had a great time up there being governor of the state of California.

• 1:29:51Theo Von?

  But it's about compromise. I mean, you've said before that you can't do everything. You can't do it all by yourself, right?

• 1:29:56Speaker 01

  It's not a dictatorship, you know. So you have two parties. If ever in within your own party, they think differently. So that's, you have to face reality. The trick is just to be, do not hate the other side because they think differently. It's just kind of like figuring out how can we work together? And how can we do something that's really good for the people? That's the bottom line.

• 1:30:19Theo Von?

  They just had, do you think we'll ever have a Republican governor again in California?

• 1:30:23Speaker 01

  Well, you know, if someone has a good program and if someone is organic. Um, I mean, with me, it was possible because I had a great mentor, number one, which was Pete Wilson, who was a governor of California two terms and he helped me.

• 1:30:42Theo Von?

  Pete Wilson?

• 1:30:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, Pete Wilson, yeah. And he helped me, you know, with the race a lot. And then I also was organic because, you know, people saw that I did not come out of nowhere. Where all of a sudden went from acting to politics. I mean, I had, I was working with Special Olympics for decades, going around the world to help Special Olympics and to get recognition for them and to be able to get jobs and to have, you know, be able to live everywhere, anywhere they want and to get into sports, Special Olympics sports programs. In order to power lifting and all this. So I want, I was fighting for equality, including in South Africa. With Nelson Mandela, we were there together, fighting for Special Olympics. So the people in California saw all of that.

• 1:31:28Theo Von?

  Right.

• 1:31:28Speaker 01

  And also me starting the after school programs and having an initiative that I went to the people a year before in 2002 and the people voted 57% in favor of that initiative to help after school programs. So I was already in there and I was working with President Bush, being the chairman of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. So I was already giving back and giving back and giving back. So when I said now.

• 1:31:56Speaker 01

  I'm not interested anymore in just doing another movie. I'm more interested in getting the state of California back on its feet. Because we had blackouts, we had huge deficits. You know, the illegals were getting driver's licenses. There was all kinds of crazy stuff that was going on here. And I said to myself, you know, the Indian gaming, they didn't pay taxes and they did all the gaming and made billions of dollars. And their workers' compensation costs were high. And people were moving out with their businesses in California. I said, I will bring California back. No matter how many people were campaigning for Gray Davis, who was governor then. You know, Clinton came out and campaigned for him. Gore came out, John Kerry came out, Al Sharpton. All of those guys came out to campaign for him. I said to Bush, I said, no, no, don't come out. I don't need that.

• 1:32:41Speaker 01

  It's between me and the voters.

• 1:32:42Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 1:32:43Speaker 01

  And so I convinced the California people. And that's how I became governor. That's why I got a huge majority of votes. And it was, but it was organic. So many of the guys come from rural state and they say, well, I want to be governor. I have the money now. And people don't buy in on that stuff.

• 1:33:00Theo Von?

  Right, you can't just buy it. I don't think you can just buy it. You had Bloomberg tried to do it a few years ago, it didn't work.

• 1:33:05Speaker 01

  Yeah, you have to be real, you know, and you have to be able to have a vision. Remember, again, it goes back to the book, you know, Be Useful. You have, rule number one is you have to have a clear vision. You can't just say, I want to be governor. What is your vision? If someone sits down and says, what is your vision of your California?

• 1:33:23Theo Von?

  Right.

• 1:33:23Speaker 01

  You know, remember that Teddy Kennedy, the problem he had? When they asked him, Roger Mudd asked him, when he announced to run for president? And Roger Mudd asked him, he says, why do you want to be president? Teddy couldn't answer it. You know what I'm saying? So he was like, well, my mother, Rose, she always taught us to give something back. And so it didn't work. People didn't buy in, even though he was a great public servant, he did a great job.

• 1:33:48Theo Von?

  You know, a vision.

• 1:33:48Speaker 01

  But he couldn't sell it. So you have to come out of the gate and really be very forceful and know, and let the people know, I know what I want to do. And I'm gonna fight for you. Not fight for me. I'm not, I don't want to be a political hack. I don't want to be just another Republican that wins the thing. No, I want to fight for you. So that was the whole theme of the campaign.

• 1:34:11Theo Von?

  They have like, they just had where they found like 20 something billion dollars that was like, it was supposed to be earmarked for homeless help in California that went missing, right? How does money go missing once you're in these places, do you think? Is it just like, people, what does it say? Newsom confronted at a press conference about 24 billion spent on tackling homelessness. Like, how does, how does stuff like that, and it didn't have to be this specifically, but, once you're in office and you see these huge amounts of money, how does, how does stuff like that just go by the wayside where it gets,

• 1:34:45Theo Von?

  you know, lost or missing hypothetically, do you think?

• 1:34:49Speaker 01

  Well, first of all, let me just say, none of those politicians, I would want to run my company.

• 1:34:57Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 1:34:59Speaker 01

  None of those companies, none of those politicians, I would like to hand over my checkbook, my bank account and say, "You manage it now."

• 1:35:06Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 1:35:07Speaker 01

  Right? So that's where it starts. So they're not, they're not that smart when it comes to solving problems. And so, I can totally understand how 24 billion dollars is missing because it's wasted. They cannot even show it, they cannot even have any accountability. But this has been going on for 20 years now.

• 1:35:28Theo Von?

  I know.

• 1:35:28Speaker 01

  We're not talking about just for the last few years. This has been going on and on. Everyone has been complaining about the homeless, but they don't create, they don't really tell you that this was created by the politicians, the homelessness.

• 1:35:40Theo Von?

  Did Reagan create it, though?

• 1:35:42Speaker 01

  No, no, it was created by having people go and say, "We don't want no growth in California." So, when you have 19, when I came over here, it was 19, 20 million people in California. Well, we had six-lane highways. So now, when you go to 40 million people, you would know mathematically, now you need 12-lane highways, meaning six lanes and then on top of it, you build another freeway, right? So they don't have traffic congestion. But that's not what they did.

• 1:36:11Theo Von?

  Right.

• 1:36:12Speaker 01

  Then when you have, you know, when you go from 20 to 40 million people, then you need twice as many houses.

• 1:36:17Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 1:36:18Speaker 01

  You need twice as many apartment buildings. You need twice as much of every. Everything, schools and everything, they didn't, they didn't take care of them because the environmentalists thought that if we say no growth, then no one will come. But in the meantime, no one gives a shit about that. They come anyway. And then they somehow then live three people in one apartment or five people in one apartment. Or sometimes with, you know, uh, uh, workers that sometimes live ten people. Oh, yeah, they'll really be laying on each other's backs. Then what happens now is when you have a limited amount of housing, now the prices rise. So now, when the prices go up, the value of the apartment building goes up. So the unit that used to cost six hundred dollars now costs three thousand dollars a month.

• 1:37:03Speaker 01

  But the salaries, the wages didn't go up accordingly. So now you have people that are economically homeless. They cannot afford paying for their rent anymore. So this is created by the politicians. And now remember what Einstein said, the people that created the problem cannot solve it.

• 1:37:26Speaker 01

  So they are doing the same thing over, which is another thing Einstein said, if you try to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results. That's the definition of insanity. And it feels like that's where we're living. So this is what we are dealing with here. So we have, you know, the city here is not able to manage with this, this whole thing. On a state level, we are not able to manage this whole thing. So it's like, I had to go, I mean, we had the homeless veterans.

• 1:37:54Speaker 01

  Camping out in front of the Veterans Administration up there in Westwood. Oh, yeah, right over there, four oh five in Santa Monica. Front, right in front of the, the, the four. In Wilshire. Years. They're camping out there and no one is helping them.

• 1:38:10Speaker 01

  So I went and I started making a deal and I said, can we not put inside some houses, little houses?

• 1:38:19Speaker 01

  They said yes. And we started, I donated the money and we started building houses. And since then, there's now hundreds of houses inside the Veterans Administration and the homeless are gone. Because they, they wanted to help the Veterans Administration, but it took a while and the city kept saying, "Oh, it is too difficult to do and this is really challenging to do." I said, "Watch that." Within two months, we had those houses there and we created homes for 25 people so they could move in. Just to show that the city, it can be done.

• 1:38:50Theo Von?

  Amen.

• 1:38:50Speaker 01

  Don't give me this, "It can't be done." Anything can be done if there's a will to it with the, with the whole thing.

• 1:38:55Theo Von?

  Amen. I have two quick questions for you, just about people. Thank you so much for your time today, Arnold. Thanks for the inspiration. I feel like this has been an inspirational conversation for me. You never know what certain conversations are going to be like. Thanks to your contributions to entertainment and to, um, just it's evident that you, you know, you are the American dream and it made me feel like it is still possible, which I don't know if I even felt like that when I started this conversation. Um, did you ever get to meet Michael Landon before?

• 1:39:20Speaker 01

  No.

• 1:39:21Theo Von?

  You didn't? I love him. He was one of my favorites. And did you ever get to meet Michael Jackson before?

• 1:39:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:39:26Theo Von?

  What was he like? Do you have any good, like a cool story about him?

• 1:39:29Speaker 01

  Really nice man. I mean, he was very nice. He came to my trailer several times when I was filming over there on Universal Lot, the studio, and then we had also dinner several times. Uh, I remember one time with Katzenberg, uh, maybe it was even Katzenberg that organized it. I cannot remember anymore. But I mean, yeah, I mean, he was a wonderful, wonderful guy.

• 1:39:50Theo Von?

  Would he tell stories and stuff like regular people? Cause they always make him seem so quiet.

• 1:39:53Speaker 01

  No, no, he's quiet. And it could be because he wanted to protect his voice and he was odd.

• 1:40:00Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 1:40:00Speaker 01

  No two ways about that, but he was very, very nice and very interesting and fascinated about different things. And, uh, and he was, many times I also felt like you're talking to a child.

• 1:40:15Theo Von?

  Oh, I could see that for sure.

• 1:40:16Speaker 01

  You know, he would shift into this thing where it's things that, that, uh, children are really into. You know, kind of like riots and Disney or something like that, that he would talk about that really interested him. And so it was, it was kind of a, an interesting thing, but you can see the way he grew up. And with the amount of fame that he had, how difficult it must have been for him to handle all that.

• 1:40:41Theo Von?

  Oh, I can't even, yeah.

• 1:40:42Speaker 01

  To be this genius of a musician. I mean, it's like unbelievable. And it's sad that he got addicted to this kind of, you know, sleeping thing.

• 1:40:51Theo Von?

  Propofol, I think, or something, yeah.

• 1:40:53Speaker 01

  And then took too much of it and passed away. It was a huge loss for the world because he was just such a fantastic entertainer.

• 1:41:00Theo Von?

  Yeah. Yeah, I'll see his children every now and then. I cross paths with his daughter every once in a while.

• 1:41:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:41:07Theo Von?

  Anything else that you want to show them? I think it's been a good conversation. Do you guys feel like that?

• 1:41:10Speaker 01

  I think that the key thing is, is, you know, that we pump up, you know, that while you're airing this interview, that you show every 10 minutes a trailer of.

• 1:41:23Theo Von?

  FUBAR?

• 1:41:24Speaker 01

  FUBAR.

• 1:41:25Theo Von?

  Okay.

• 1:41:25Speaker 01

  And then while I'm talking, you show a little bit of clips again.

• 1:41:28Theo Von?

  Okay, that's fair.

• 1:41:30Speaker 01

  Let me help you with the editing, okay?

• 1:41:33Theo Von?

  Hey, I promise you this. I will certainly support it and I'll watch some more of it. I'm gonna get some of my friends to watch it. We grew up watching just so many of your movies. The lady with the three breasts, remember that one? She was like, God.

• 1:41:43Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, from Total Recall. Yeah, exactly.

• 1:41:46Theo Von?

  I recall those a lot, brother, you know? And I totaled them up, three every time, you know? But thank you for that. That was the first breasts I was ever allowed to see a little bit. But thank you so much, man.

• 1:41:57Speaker 01

  Absolutely. It was great. And remember, I hope it's not the last time that we do it again sometimes.

• 1:42:02Theo Von?

  Oh, no, I would love to do this again.

• 1:42:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, that was fun. I really enjoyed that conversation.

• 1:42:06Theo Von?

  Thank you so much. One more, just say something nice about each one of your children so one day they'll be able to see this really fast.

• 1:42:12Speaker 01

  Well, I'm proud of all my children. I'm very proud of Catherine, who has three kids now herself and is writing books. And she's the greatest mother. She's just like her mother, Maria, that was a really fantastic mother. And I'm very proud of her. I'm proud of Christina, who is also, you know, into producing and doing, you know, TV shows, documentaries and all that.

• 1:42:37Theo Von?

  Here in Los Angeles?

• 1:42:37Speaker 01

  Yeah. And.

• 1:42:40Speaker 01

  Then maybe, of course, Patrick Schwarzenegger, you know.

• 1:42:43Theo Von?

  Yeah, just saw his new show.

• 1:42:45Speaker 01

  He's doing really well. I'm so happy that his acting career is taking off. You know, this is something that he really was very passionate about always. Christopher is doing a great job. I mean, he just lost 150 pounds.

• 1:42:58Theo Von?

  No way.

• 1:42:58Speaker 01

  Yeah, so he used to weigh 350, he's now down like to 210 or something like that.

• 1:43:03Theo Von?

  Oh, he must be feeling so much healthier, huh?

• 1:43:06Speaker 01

  He feels really great. Works out in Gold's Gym every day and I know that I'm really proud of him.

• 1:43:11Theo Von?

  You get to see him there sometimes?

• 1:43:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, I see him all the time.

• 1:43:13Theo Von?

  Oh, that's awesome.

• 1:43:14Speaker 01

  And, you know, Joseph is a fantastic human being. He's into real estate, he's into acting, and he's going to the training. He works out all the time. So I'm really proud of all of them. Yeah, and none of them is into drugs, none of them is the alcohol, and any of those things. So it's really fantastic to see them. And even, and I have a nephew here. I mean, he's really fantastic, Patrick Knapp.

• 1:43:42Theo Von?

  Patrick Knapp is his name?

• 1:43:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, Patrick Knapp, exactly.

• 1:43:45Theo Von?

  That's Catherine's one of Catherine's kids?

• 1:43:47Speaker 01

  He's my entertainment lawyer. I mean, so I brought him over from Austria because my brother passed away. So he's, this is Patrick.

• 1:43:54Theo Von?

  This is your brother's son?

• 1:43:55Speaker 01

  Yes, my brother's son, yeah. So he was three years old when my brother passed away. And then, so he went to school over there and everything. Then I brought him over to also go to Santa Monica College, go to UCLA, go to Hastings Law School.

• 1:44:08Theo Von?

  That's your path, Santa Monica, UCLA. Does he remind you of your brother?

• 1:44:13Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, yeah. He reminds me a lot of my brother, yeah.

• 1:44:15Theo Von?

  That's awesome. Well, I bet your brother's super proud of you, man. And thank you so much, Arnold, for just all your contributions and for your time today.

• 1:44:21Speaker 01

  My pleasure.

• 1:44:22Theo Von?

  Yep, you guys go watch Foo Bar.

• 1:44:50Speaker 07

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