Arnold (2023): Season 1, Episode 1 - Part 1: Athlete - full transcript

My whole life,

I had this

unusual talent

that I could see things very clearly

in front of me.

If I can see it,

then it must be achievable.

The idea was

to sculpt the body

to your will.

But it also can be used
to shape your mind,



to do the things
that everyone calls impossible.

And that gives you the will...

I'll be back.

...and no doubt

that you can make your visions,

not only become a reality,

but go beyond your dreams.

I had a fire in the belly

for much more.

Much, much more.

If I had to describe Arnold
in one word,

I would say
he's the most calculating individual

that I've ever come across.

He's the most competitive maniac
I've ever met.



He is, just, magic.

If Arnold is showing up on set,

you better up your game.

We couldn't even stand
to breathe the same air.

He broke every damn rule there was.

Arnold believed that a crisis
is a terrible thing to waste.

Arnold sold Arnold.

He gets the joke of the universe.

Bullshit.

Ladies and gentlemen, from Austria,

welcome to our stage, please,
Mr. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Look now,
Arnold Schwarzenegger, 22 years of age.

Now living in Los Angeles.

Weighs almost 230 pounds.

He works out several hours a day.

This is his life. He's a professional.

When he's not doing this,
he'll be touring the world,

putting on exhibitions.

Listen to that crowd react to him.

And there you have it!

Arnold Schwarzenegger from Austria.

Seven judges observe specific points
of muscular development and presentation.

In position number one,

Mr. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

And the winner!

What a big day for this youngster.

When I was in school already,
I felt like I didn't belong here.

I belonged somewhere else.

That's not the life I want to live,
like the Austrians live their life,

which is, you know,

go to school until 18
and get married, have kids.

Just work to support your family.

I thought that my purpose for life
was just far beyond that.

I always liked coming back here.

Each time you come,
you look from a different point of view,

through a different lens.

It was very important,
every time I came to Austria,

even to promote my movies or bodybuilding,

or whatever...

I always came back down here to Thal.

I think it's always good to stay in touch
with your roots and where you come from.

Thal is a beautiful, beautiful place.

The house where I grew up

was surrounded by farms.

We had a castle across the street,

built in the 1100s.

So this was our playground.
So it was absolutely beautiful.

Our house was an old house.

It was built in the beginning of 1800s.

Downstairs lived the forest ranger.

We had the upstairs of that old house.

My mother was hardworking.

Aurelia.

She would never, ever pull back.

She was a cleanliness fanatic.

I'm telling you, she was on her knees

twice a week,

scrubbing the floor.

And then, when you open up the cabinet

with the towels,

it was perfectly placed.

There was an edge.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

If my father would touch that,

she would go nuts.

This is what a fanatic she was.

Growing up, I'll tell you what I learned.

"Work your ass off."

My father was the chief
of the country police.

He was a tyrant
and a very tough police officer.

There was no screwing around.

My dad thought they should create
some discipline in the house.

He said you have to earn breakfast.

I had a very good relationship
with my brother,

but it was a competitive relationship.

I mean, he was a year older, my brother.

More muscular, smarter.

He was very good in school.

My father also made us
compete against each other.

Who runs faster?

Who picks more beautiful flowers
on Mother's Day?

My father says, "I'll give you one hour."

My brother would come home
with his flowers.

My father says,
"Meinhard, good boy. Very, very good."

"Arnold, next year you will try it again."

So it was competitive.
Even stupid things like that.

My father gave me that drive
he gave me that fire in the belly,

and then with the message,

"Whatever you do, Arnold,

be useful."

The way I grew up, it was very tough,
even though it was beautiful countryside.

But to grow up after a war...

What happens to your head

when you come home from war

suffering
the post-traumatic stress syndrome,

like my father?

He was buried underneath buildings,
rubble, for three days,

and on top of that, they lost the war.

They went home so depressed.

Austria was a country of broken men.

I think there were times
when my father really struggled.

When we got smacked,

or my father would use the belt
and hit us.

The kid next door was hit also
by his father.

Everyone was going through the same thing.

As I was getting older,

and the more I read stuff
about the outside world,

outside of Austria,
the more I started feeling like,

"I don't think that I was brought up
in the right place."

"There's something off here."

And I know this sounds crazy,
but for a while,

I thought,
"Maybe my dad isn't really my dad."

"Maybe it's some American soldier."

I checked into it.
I said, "Where does this come from?"

"My desire that I really

maybe don't belong to Austria?"

"Maybe I belong to America. Why is that?"

That convicted me
that one day I have to be over there.

I'm in the wrong place.

"I gotta get out of here."

When my brother and I went
to town in Graz...

that was the first time
we had exposure to the city.

After school, kind of walked around
in town a little bit

and we saw the movie theaters.

This ad that was out there in front

of this guy standing like this.

I was kind of, like, in a trance.

Who is that?

Hercules and the Captive Women.

Here at last,

with a new and dynamic personality.

Reg Park as Hercules.

Superhuman strength.

I went in there and I saw this body,

and I was so amazed at this body
that I could not get it out of my mind.

The testosterone was kicking in.

Getting interested in girls
was kicking in.

Everything started happening.

And then I walked by a store.

There was all this American stuff.

One of the things was
muscle magazines from America.

This guy Reg Park

who I saw in the movies,

he's on the cover.

Inside, it has his training program.

He was up at 5:00 in the morning.
He was training.

And then he was training a second time.
And then a third time.

I have to do that.

It said how he became Mr. Universe

and how he was discovered in Rome
to become Hercules.

So I said, "Oh my God."

"This guy is my idol."

So he was kind of like my blueprint

to where I want to go in life.

My drive to come to America was enormous.

And if you're willing to put
the hours behind it,

then you have to really find out
what is it,

where your talent lies.

Where are you good at?

To me, bodybuilding represented
a sport that is American.

The feedback that I got in the gym
was enormous,

so that's why I knew
this is the direction that I wanted to go.

I would be working out in my house.

There was no sound.

Nothing.

And I could think and concentrate

and visualize how I'm gonna become
a bodybuilding champion.

How I'm gonna move to America.

How I'm gonna get into the movies.

How I'm gonna make millions of dollars.

The Thalersee, the lake,
was a magical scene.

Hanging out with professional wrestlers,

weightlifters,

bodybuilders,

people with muscles.

I met Mr. Austria,

Kurt Marnul,

and walking around
with these nice-looking girls

and pulling up
in his little Alfa Romeo sports car.

I found this very impressive.

I just all the sudden
became part of that clique.

I was like the young kid
that they were adopting.

♪ Everybody now ♪

I think, ever since then,
I kind of celebrated this camaraderie.

And because I admired it so much,
I created that no matter where I went.

My father was negative, because it
was not the typical thing to do.

The typical thing to do
is you become a soccer player

or you become a ski champion.

This is Austrian.

What the hell are you doing
with weightlifting?

And you're looking in the mirror
when you train.

What is that all about?

Which means, like, into yourself.

He says, "If you want to use your muscles,
go chop wood."

And my mother got freaked out.

"All his friends,

they have, you know,

girls above their bed."

"My son doesn't have one girl up here.
Look at that."

"Not one girl.
I mean, it's only naked men oiled up."

"Where did we do wrong?"

In the beginning,
Arnold wasn't a leader.

He adapted to us.

But within a year,

I think he gained 15.2 kilos.

When you're in Arnold's company,

you get the impression
that everything is easy

and there are no problems.

My father often came along,

and he recognized Arnold's potential.

Freddy Gerstl,
the father, became

kind of like a real big supporter.

He said, "You have to have
not only just the strong muscles,

like you guys are doing,
but also you have to have a strong mind."

The body doesn't operate by itself.
It operates because you give it direction.

He says, "Remember one thing."

"That you can get an injury,
and then all the athletic stuff is over.

"You can have millions of dollars."

"Someone can rob you blind,
and it's gone."

"But the only thing no one can take
is your mind."

"Your brain power."

"Your mind, your will,

is, in the end,
much more important than the body."

He was the father figure
quite the opposite from my father.

Unlike my father,
who criticized everything,

that guy was more the understanding father

that understood and he kind of smoothly
would you in the right direction,

rather than forcing you.

I always hear this voice behind me saying,

"Be hungry for information."

I joined the weight lifting club
called Athletik Union Graz.

The guys from the lake
also were training there.

So I could train,
finally, with the big boys.

That's where Kurt Marnul was training.

This weightlifting club
became, for me, the mecca.

I became addicted to that,

and so I went every day.

When I walked into the gym,
there was this wall

that was wood.

And then I would just take a chalk

and I would write down

bizeps,

trizeps,

brust, rücken.

So I would do a set of biceps curls.

Then I would write down next to this,
one line.

Then I would put another line
and then another line and another line.

Then, the next one.

Flies on the bench.

And I'd know when I did my 20 sets

of a specific exercise.

Now after three hours of training,

this whole thing would be
full of sets that I've done...

...to get to that goal that I want go.

♪ Oh yeah ♪

♪ Well now... ♪

The bodybuilding, there was,
like, maybe, one or two events a year.

Sometimes there were more
than one competition a day.

Like, Mr. Steíermark,
which means Mr. Styria.

And then there would be
the Mr. Hercules competition,

which is usually for the guy
that was the most muscular.

They would hire a local band
that was really, like, hot.

They would have women
who were from some exotic place

to give the sport of bodybuilding
a better reputation.

Then, there would be
a Mr. Austria competition,

which is, of course,
the national championships.

♪ Whoo! ♪

This was a place
where I spent a lot of time,

right here in this bed and in this room.

So I would be just literally,
you know, lying here

like this.

And just, you know,
hanging here like this

and dreaming.

And then looking up at those characters.

And then sitting up.

I would see Reg Park,
you know, with his body,

and then remembering the story

of him growing up in Leeds,

in England.

The town was like Graz.

It was a factory town.

And the people worked hard.

And I said to myself,
"He made it out of that?"

"Then there's a chance for me also

to make it out of here."

Then you just look at any opportunity
you could have to get out of here.

So I think that's the reason
I enlisted in the military early.

In Austria,
everyone serves in the military.

I decided to go at the age of 18.

I wanted to finish my service
and then move on,

because you could not get your passport

unless you have done
your military service.

I wanted to specialize in tank division
and to become a tank driver.

They said that's impossible. I'm too tall.

My father knew
a few people in the military,

so I became a tank driver.

Then I became the ballsiest tank driver
that they had.

In the middle of basic training,

I got the invitation to go
to this competition in Stuttgart, Germany.

European's best-built man,
in the junior division.

When I asked them, Can I go?"
they said no.

I did not realize

that when you're in the middle
of the basic training,

you are not allowed to leave.

I went anyway.

Twenty-eight guys on the stage,

and I win.

I saw my career in front of me.

I saw myself on that Mr. Universe stage.

I just had to replace Reg Park's head,

put my head on it,
and stand there with the trophy

and flex my muscles.

And I saw

the thousands of people

in the auditorium,
in the theater, screaming,

"Arnold! Arnold! Arnold!"

Arnold!

I saw the fantasy,

and it's not a dream.

I said, "No, fuck the dream.
What are you gonna do with a dream?"

"You have to have a clear vision."

And when you visualize something
really clearly,

you believe that you 100% can get there.

My very first impression was

this is the most outstanding junior
I ever saw in my life,

because he had it all.

He had a kind of charisma
very unusual for that age.

He owned the stage

already then.

I talked to him,
"What do you think to come to Munich

as trainer in the gym I manage?"

I was supposed to be
in the military for three years.

So I had to ask if I can leave early.

That position that was offered to me

to become a trainer
in a bodybuilding gym in Germany,

was very appealing.

And it was kind of really
the only solution

to get me out of Austria
and one step closer to America.

You're not gonna go and become

the greatest bodybuilder of all time
in Austria,

because you need to train
with the best bodybuilders around you,

and the mecca of bodybuilding was America.

"I got to get out of here,
no matter what it takes."

I don't look at it as,
"Oh my God."

"What a terrible upbringing I had."

No.

What I hated as a kid was good,

because that's what drove me
to get out of there.

All right, let's feed the girls.

Uno, Misty!

Uno, Misty!

I could train longer than anyone else.

I could go through misery
when I traveled to other countries.

I was able to do things
that others couldn't do

because of that.

Ah, pushing him out of the way.

It didn't bother me,

because it was better
than where I came from.

When I arrived in Munich,

my friend Albert Busek
picked me up from the train station,

and I moved into the gym.

There was a tiny little room,

and my bed maybe was as big
as the bed that I grew up with.

All I had was a mixer
that helped me mix my protein drinks

and a few clothes.

That was it.

And I stayed there for at least a year.

So, at any given time,

I can go out and work out.

I mean, how lucky of a son of a bitch am I
to have the gym be my home?

I then developed my own little family,

which was Albert Busek

and Franco Columbu,

who I met the year before in Stuttgart.

He was the perfect training partner,

and he was one of the very few Italians
that spoke German.

He comes from Austria.
I came from Italy.

And we started training together
and having fun.

Since then,
I'm one of Arnold's best friends.

I messed it up.

Say that again.

♪ Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa ♪

♪ Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa ♪

♪ Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa... ♪

My friends helped me
to raise money for an airline ticket

to compete in the Mr. Universe contest.

♪ Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa
Whoa, whoa, whoa ♪

So imagine,
just a few months before,

you're in the military.

And now you're traveling to London
to go to the Mr. Universe contest.

My goal was to place in the top six,

but I placed second

with the age of 19.

I said, "Oh my God."

"If I'm winning second

as this little farm boy from Austria
that has no experience,

next year I'm gonna win!"

Arnold was so gifted

that regular people,
the fans of bodybuilding, knew

this is the future.

At the Mr. Universe competition,

one of the judges was a man
by the name of Wag Bennett.

And he'd say...

"Arnold,
you look fantastic. You look fantastic."

"It's absolutely marvelous."

All this British stuff, right?

He invited us to a dinner,

and he's a judge, so I thought,
"This is so unbelievable."

My English was terrible then,

so we always were laughing about it.

Wag then said to me, "Well, if you ever
come back, you can stay with us."

"You don't have to stay in a hotel."

The next year,

Wag organized the competition

and he paid for the airline ticket
to fly over there.

So I was at the Bennett's house in London,

on 335 Romford Road.

I remember it exactly.

And in walked Reg Park.

Meeting Reg Park

was, like,
one of those extraordinary moments.

You see him in magazines.

You see him in movies.

And then all of a sudden, there he is.

He just came from South Africa
and he wants to work out.

And then we're working out together.

I remember that he didn't even...
he didn't even take off his sweater.

And it was just extraordinary
to see Hercules

that you saw in the movies,
to see him in front of you,

and then to have a conversation
and to have him be so nice.

He knew everything about me,

because Wag Bennett told him.

To really motivate me, he said to me,

"If you win the Mr. Universe contest,

I'm gonna bring you down to South Africa."

"And I'm gonna have you
do posing exhibitions."

I'm gonna pay
you for each positing exhibition."

"You can make some money there,
and you're gonna see the entire country."

There's no room for mistakes,

because I have to be Mr. Universe in 1967.

Wag would say,
"You gotta train your calves."

"Your biceps are much larger
than your calves."

"The calves are skinny,
and the whole proportion is off."

If you want to win,

you need to be fine-tuned
and you have to have everything at ten.

Finally, it all came together.

And the winner,

Arnold Schwarzenegger!

At the age of 20,

I made my vision

become a reality.

On that very same stage
that Reg Park won it,

and I got exactly the same trophy
that he got.

And exactly the way I envisioned it.

All the people were screaming.

Arnold!

I felt like,
"This is like a fairy tale."

Everything falls into place.

Reg Park invites me to Johannesburg

to stay in his house.

Do you know what that did to me?

I'm getting invited by my idol
to go to his home turf.

I met Arnold when he came here.

I was, uh, nine at the time.

He was very polite. He was well-mannered.

He would wear sandals and socks, you know?

Like a country bumpkin, so to speak.

Lily-white skin.
Everybody on the beach had a tan.

I remember him almost being in awe,

but my dad made him feel so comfortable.

My mother, you know, of course,
made him feel so comfortable as well.

He immediately became part of the family.

We'd go out to meals together every night
and go to movies.

What he really learned from my parents
was how important family was.

I think that impressed him
more than anything else.

My mother gave Arnold some pointers.

You know, he could do the basic poses,
but there was no flow and transition.

So she helped him
put his routine together.

Mareon was a ballet teacher.

She taught Reg
how to be more graceful on stage.

You couldn't get more two opposites.
Ballet is all about grace.

Then you have bodybuilding,
which is kind of blocky

and not much movement.

I didn't understand it all,

but then, as time went on,
I started utilizing what she taught me.

When I was a kid, I was shy,

and bodybuilding

was a sport where you had to perform.

So I could learn it in my own way,

to perform and to pose on stage.

And people then correct you and say,
you know, "Smile more when you perform,"

And do this and do that.

This is how it slowly came about

to become an entertainer

and really enjoying the moment.

In 1968, I went and competed
at the Mr. Universe contest in London.

Every time they called out a pose...

If I did a double bicep pose,
I had the biggest biceps.

Then, when we turned around
and do a back pose,

there's no one that's going to have
this kind of a back.

So I knew I'm gonna win.

I win the second Mr. Universe title.
I feel, like, at an all-time high.

And I'm about to go back to Munich,

when I get a telegram

from Joe Weider.

I said to myself, "Oh my God."

"Joe Weider?
He's like the godfather of bodybuilding."

The trainer of champions since 1939.

All of the guys that win
Mr. Universe and Mr. World,

they have been trained by Joe Weider.

And it says in the telegram,

"I'm inviting you to come to Miami
to our Mr. Universe competition,"

because there was two.

Weider started a Mr. Universe
in the 60s in America.

I didn't go back home.
I didn't pick up any of my belongings.

I called Albert
and I called Franco and said, "Look."

"I just got an invitation from Weider.
I'm not coming back."

"I'm gonna move to America."

"Bye-bye."

♪ Uh-huh, uh, uh ♪

♪ I got the feelin' ♪

♪ Hey! ♪

♪ All right ♪

♪ Ow ♪

♪ Hey... ♪

When I came to America, I felt like...

...finally, I'm in my home.

♪ Baby, baby, baby... ♪

Then we got flew down to Florida.

♪ Baby, baby, baby ♪

♪ Baby ♪

♪ Come on now ♪

I was absolutely convinced

that I'm gonna beat
all the American bodybuilders.

Set me up as kind of, like,
the new champion.

Become the greatest bodybuilder
of all times.

He was acting so arrogant and cocky
like the winner, but he wasn't in shape,

because it was all about being big
and, you know, size with him.

And when they announced
the fourth place, third place,

and the second place,
Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Oh, fuck.

This can't be.

I once was considered the unbeatable guy,
and now, all of a sudden, Frank Zane won.

This is terrible. I'm embarrassed.

I think he was just
used to winning all the time.

Landing in this country the first time,
getting defeated

by, as his words,

"a chicken with 17-inch arms,"

that really bothered him.

I was so devastated.

I was lying there
in the middle of the night in bed

in this hotel room,

and I thought the world
is coming to an end.

I'm in a strange country.

I cannot communicate here.

I'm thousands of miles away from home.

And I just lost.

I just disappointed everybody.

So in my mind, the bodybuilding world
was going to say,

"Schwarzenegger is not
what we thought he is."

"So fuck him."

I cried the whole night.

The next day, I said, "Okay."

"You cried like a little baby,
you asshole."

"And now, let's move on."

And then Weider gave me an airline ticket
to go to Los Angeles.

He's gonna take care of things
and he's gonna get me an apartment.

I wrote to my friends right away.
I said, "This is quite different."

I felt, like, totally helpless

and alone.

The gyms that I went to

were gyms where
the best bodybuilders worked out.

I come in there and I want to work out.

And there's guys that owned the gym,
like, Vince Gironda,

he owned Vince's Gym.

He says, "You're still a baby."

"We have to get rid of
a lot of fat on you,

but you have a lot of potential."

And I said to myself, "What the fuck
is he talking about? Potential?"

Then I trained at Gold's Gym,

and Joe Gold immediately called me
"Balloon Belly."

I said,

"Jesus."

I realized why it was so important
to come to America,

because they just have
a whole different understanding

of what it means being in shape.

I alone cannot accomplish anything.

I need help.

So I invited Frank Zane,
the guy that I was beaten by,

to come out to California

and to train with me,

because I wanted to see firsthand

what does he do to get
this kind of a quality of a physique.

And I stayed with him
on a cot in his living room,

and we'd go to the gym and train.

Go to the beach. Take pictures for Weider.

I went back to Florida

and resigned my teaching position
and moved to California.

And then,
when I was training here,

especially in Gold's Gym, I felt like,

"Wouldn't it be great
if Franco would see what's going on here?"

I mean, he was my close friend
and training partner in Munich.

I really missed him.

But when Weider heard what his height was,
he had no interest at all.

So he kept saying, "No, I don't want
to bring over a little guy like that."

"Come on."

And then eventually Artie Zeller,
the photographer, and I,

we kind of convinced him.

And from then,
I mean, everything really picked up.

Cinque, sei, sette.

What?

Sette.

Otto.

Nove.

Dieci.

Okay.

- That's hard.
- I get it.

- I get it.
- Oh, Franco gets it.

Okay, pick it up.

In that area
of building a community,

the talent of mine was actually better

than my talent in bodybuilding.

Gold's Gym in Venice Beach.

Bodybuilders training for championships
went there to train.

♪ Like a sound you hear
That lingers in your ear ♪

♪ But you can't forget... ♪

And then Joe Weider publicized it
as the champions' gym.

That nose will look skinny now.

My first impression of him
was he was outgoing, funny,

and always cracking jokes.

When he was in the gym, he was focused.

♪ California soul... ♪

It was all energy,
and we helped each other.

Now, Arnold was a great person to have
in the gym when you're working out,

because just his presence made you
want to work out harder

just to impress him.

He was a perfectionist.

You train together,
help each other.

You even help each other
pumping up backstage with the towels,

and you oil each other up.

You put the oil on me
because I cannot reach in the back.

Someone has to put the oil on my back.

That's what you do. You help each other.

And then before you go out,
you say, "Good luck."

I used to say, "Good luck,"
and "I'm going to beat you."

♪ Soul... ♪

I was never a fanatic about diet.

It was Frank Zane and Franco Columbu

who put my vitamins together.

And then we would experiment
with steroids.

Everybody in the bodybuilding field
who is up there on the top

is taking steroids.

Maybe five percent of my progress

is from the steroids.

I had doctor's supervision.

You stayed with a very strict rule
of doing it four months a year

before a competition, and then lay off.

So I changed my eating habits
and everything.

I got really tanned.

If your whole personality is to show off,

you can't wait
to show people what you have.

There were hundreds of people
watching guys work out.

♪ California soul... ♪

I felt like I was living
in the middle of a circus.

So you were getting it all times,

the satisfaction of people watching you

and saying, "Wow, he looks incredible."

♪ Just gimme, yeah ♪

♪ Just gimme, yeah ♪

♪ Oh, it's all a trend ♪

It was the summer of '69.

I was working as a hostess
at Zucky's Deli.

He came over to me and he said,

"You are so sexy."

"I need to ask you out on a date."

With a really thick accent.

Barely 100 words in his vocabulary.

He was handsome. He was magnetic.

He was charismatic.

He was just different.

When he arrived for our date,
I was watching the moon landing.

We copy it down, Eagle.

So we watched it together.
We took photos in front of the television.

Tranquility base here.
The eagle has landed.

After our first date,

we saw each other
all the time that we could.

He created laughter everywhere.

He was just so

mesmerizing.

Barbara was the first time

that I saw, through her,
kind of how America celebrates Christmas,

because she would take me home,

and the family would just be so inclusive.

It was the first time

in my life
that I ever celebrated a birthday,

when Barbara's mother made
a birthday cake.

I never got a cake. No one ever sang
"Happy Birthday" or anything.

I don't know why.

It gave me another way
of really appreciating

the American way of life,

and to have a normal life.

But with my family...

The communication with my parents
was not good.

And my brother...

I kind of erased him out of my mind

for years during my bodybuilding years.

I felt like I was creating
my own life over here,

and I wanted nothing to do
with my past life.

Joe Weider was interested in trying
to figure out how does he sell me.

So he came up with this idea

that I'm this German machine.

No emotions, just marching forward,

and it's going to make me the champion.

And I loved it,
because that's what I saw myself,

as someone that couldn't be stopped.

Joe Weider had one goal in mind,
and that is that I win every competition.

That I'm on the cover of his magazine.

That I sell a shitload
of food supplements for him.

And that everything that I did,

he would use the name Weider for it.

So when I came up with

splitting my bicep training
with my tricep training,

he called it The Weider Split Routine.

So that was the deal.

I'm just gonna go over this.

You should have
unique pictures taken, Arnold.

Make it look different.

I had to go and work with him and say,

"Joe, you're selling your products.
You're making millions of dollars."

"I want to also sell
some products of mine."

"All I need from you is give me
advertisement space in your magazine."

I wanted to make money
and I wanted to turn one dollar into two.

And I wanted to learn how to do that
in America the American way.

I said to Joe Weider,

"Can you help me?
I want to go to college to learn English."

"Then I wanna take some business classes,

because eventually
I may have to take over your operation."

And he loved that.

These are the new covers.

Let me see it.

We don't want to put him on the cover.
Come on, Joe.

You told me one time
that you're only putting

Mr. Universes or Mr. Olympias
on the cover.

Five more copies...

Joe?

Every time I want anything,

I say to myself,
"Okay, now what's the next thing?"

If you're always hungry,
you're never really satisfied.

Because Reg Park, of course,
won three Mr. Universe contests,

Arnold has to break that record.

When people think, "This is too much."
For me, it was definitely not enough.

And then I wanted more.

My dad had retired,

but he decided to compete in Mr. Universe.

At that time, my dad was 42.

Arnold was 23.

Someone told me, "Do you know
who else is competing this year?"

And I say, "Who?"

They said, "Reg Park."

I said, "Come on. This is impossible."

I felt kind of weird
to compete against my idol.

And then won.

When that happened, it was something
really weird that happened mentally to me.

I felt guilty somewhat.

That my ego got in the way

or maybe I shouldn't have competed
that year.

To know that, as a 15-year-old kid,
you were dreaming about that

and you were idolizing it.

And now, all of a sudden,
you become the one

that others are idolizing.

I made this vision become a reality.

My mind is just geared differently.

You know,
it's geared towards moving forward.

What is the new thing?

A new challenge. A new mountain to climb.

Mr. Universe
is a world championship title,

but every year there's a Mr. Universe.

But who is really, then, the best?

So Joe Weider created the Mr. Olympia,

where all the Mr. Universes
and all the world champions

competes in the Mr. Olympia.

If you win that,
then you can call yourself the best.

Pow!

Mr. Olympia!

The year 1969,
that was my first Mr. Olympia.

It was a different league.

I competed against Sergio Oliva.

I lost against him.

He was better than me.

I gave him a big kiss on stage,

and I said,
"Enjoy it, because this is the last time."

The next year I came back with vengeance.

I had to kind of make him the villain,

to go and train harder
and harder and harder.

I finally got the chance to confront him.

I then pulled a little trick on him.

We were doing pose-off after pose-off.

And then I said to him,
"I think it's enough."

"I think they must know by now

who is going to be the winner."

He says, "You're right,"
and then he walked off.

And then I pointed at him,
like, "He's giving up."

So it was like
a psychological little trick

to kind of close the deal
once and for all.

He turned around and said,
"You son of a bitch."

He was, like, really pissed off about it.

In the '70s, I kept being driven
to go from title to title.

I was so far ahead of everybody else
that I ran over everybody.

♪ Super guy ♪

♪ What will you be ♪

♪ When your cloud falls ♪

♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪

♪ Hey, super guy ♪

♪ What your mama say? ♪

♪ Oh ♪

♪ Ow ♪

♪ Hey, hey, super guy ♪

♪ What you gonna do? ♪

- What do you expect to see tonight?
- I'm not quite sure.

I'm curious to see what it's...
what it looks like.

Can we ask
what you expect tonight?

I expect to see fantastic bodybuilders.

- Have you ever been to one before?
- No.

- Have you ever been to one before?
- Never!

- Have you?
- Never.

Being a bodybuilder
is like being an artist,

being a sculptor
like Rodin or Michelangelo,

because you have to have a sense
of symmetry and beauty.

If you don't have that,
the whole thing together

looks like a waste of time.

That's it. Hold it.

That's it. Just hold it.

Looks a little different
than two months ago, doesn't it?

I never really was satisfied with my body.

God almighty.

I looked in the mirror and said to myself,
"I don't know how this shit body

can ever win this competition."

- Thanks for coming in.
- Lou Ferrigno is coming too.

When I brag about myself,
that's all bullshit.

- All right.
- Very dramatic, Arnold.

This is kind of like the other me,

the me that I want the world to see.

Take this one.

That should inspire you,
because this is an arm shot.

It's Columbu.

How do you like that shot?

But in reality,
when I'm by myself,

I look at it and I say to myself,

"It's not there yet. It's not happening."

Check the chest.

I think it's the very thing
that made me always be on the edge

and always want more.

Your chest looks tremendous, Arnold.

Huge.

I was in Baltimore and Philadelphia

doing, uh, posing exhibitions.

I came home,

and, uh, Franco said to me...
He says, you know, "I have bad news."

I said, "What's that?"

He said to me... he says,
"Your brother died in a car accident."

"He was drunk driving,

and that he was hitting a telephone pole."

And I was, like, stunned.

He was always the darling of the family.

He was very artistic.

Very smart.

Read a lot.

But I don't think
my brother ever was really happy.

I think he started drinking
because our upbringing was very tough.

The brutality that was at home,

the beatings that we got
from our parents sometimes,

all of this, I think he could not sustain,

that punishment.

He was much more delicate of a person

by nature.

We had a very,
kind of, schizophrenic behavior

that my brother and I witnessed at home.

There was the kind father,

and then there was the other times
where my father would come home drunk.

And he would scream
at three in the morning.

We would wake up,

and, all of a sudden, you know,
our hearts were pounding,

because we knew what that meant.

That he could,
at any given time, strike my mother

or go crazy.

So there was
this kind of strange violence.

The kind of upbringing that we had

was beneficial for someone like me,

who was, inside,
very strong and very determined.

But my brother was more fragile.

Nietzsche was right,

that that what does not kill you,
will make you stronger.

The very thing that made me who I am today

was the very thing that destroyed him.

In 1972, when I was competing
in Essen, in Germany,

my parents came for really

unexplained reasons.

I competed at least 50 times

in weightlifting competitions,
in powerlifting competitions,

in locals and in statewide competitions,

national competitions.

My parents never came to any of it.

So that's why I was quite surprised.

My father acted a little odd.

He was a little slower.
He was sometimes slurring things.

And so there was something off
a little bit there.

A few weeks later,

I got a phone call

that my father had a stroke.

I, uh, then took
the next flight to Austria

and then went
to visit my father in the hospital.

He was not able to communicate.

You know,
he needed a lot of medical attention,

but I did not know
is this something you can overcome or not.

That I did not know.

I flew back to Los Angeles,

and then after that, he passed away.

When my father and my brother died,

I had no feelings about it.

You know? I eliminated it.

It maybe comes out
sometimes in my life later on...

those feelings, you know,
but I don't know.

I've been training myself to do that.

Not to be affected by anything else
from the outside.

I mean,

I'm not an expert

in psychology or anything like that.

All I can tell you is that

when you're a person
that has always a goal,

that always has a mission,

the less time that you have to think
about, "How do I feel today?"

"Am I depressed today?"

"Do I feel sorry for myself?"

"Have I become a victim?"

"Oh my God.
I feel so bad about myself," and all this.

I don't have time for this crap.

A lot of times,
it's people didn't work enough.

If you're busy all the time,

you don't have time
to think about this stuff.

Let's just move forward.
Move. Move. Move. Move.

When I realized
that bodybuilding is not established,

I decided that I'm gonna promote
the hell out of myself.

What are the judges looking for?

Well, they're looking
for proportions, symmetry,

the size of the muscles,

how you can pose and present the muscles.

I want to put some effort out
to help people understand

what the sport is all about.

- Got everything in the chair now?
- No, there was a problem.

I see.

♪ Ooh ♪

I've only been in this country five years.

What does it mean, "hanky-panky?"

My goodness.

♪ I wonder, wonder... ♪

It's a sport.
I'm competing to be the best in it.

And I feel that,
at the same time, I'm an artist.

I'm creating a body
that wasn't there before.

In '74, Arnold was in fantastic shape,

and he was absolutely unbeatable.

In 1974,
I won the Mr. Olympia competition.

So I won, all together,
13 world bodybuilding championships,

one after the next...

because I was driven by this vision.

What else was there to do?

To win another one?

Boring.

So I stopped.

I mean, I'm competing now for 10 years.

And after 10 years,
I feel like it's enough, you know?

You have to let
other people have a chance

and, uh, just leave as a winner.

Ladies and gentlemen,
Arnold Schwarzenegger!

It's a sport
and I love to compete.

And, uh, I love
to be the best in the world.

You know, just the best.

To stand up there and know
that there is no other man

better in this particular field than I am.

And, um, so I think
it's such a repetitious thing now,

that I would like to go on
to another thing,

and, uh, you know,
try to be the best in something else.

Like what?

I would like to get into acting.

Find out if I can be good in that.

I remember being on the phone.

Hello?

I said...

Tell me about your process as an actor.

He said, "Jim."

"I don't want to be an actor."

"I want to be a star."

♪ Hey, hey, hey ♪

♪ What you got to say? ♪

♪ Hollywood ♪

♪ Hollywood swinging ♪

♪ Hollywood ♪

♪ Hollywood swinging ♪

♪ Ah! ♪

♪ So here I am ♪

♪ In this Hollywood city, yeah ♪

♪ The city of the stars, movies, women
And cars ♪

♪ Well, I guess I ♪

♪ I guess I'll start ♪

♪ I say, "Hey, hey, hey" ♪

♪ Hey, hey ♪

♪ What you got to say? ♪

♪ Hollywood ♪

♪ Hollywood swinging ♪

♪ Hollywood ♪

♪ Hollywood swinging ♪

♪ Ah! Ah! ♪

♪ Hollywood swinging ♪

♪ Hollwood swinging, yeah ♪

- ♪ Hollywood, Hollywood ♪
- ♪ Hollywood swinging ♪