Former Californian Governor and Uber-Terminator Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke exclusively in Delhi to NDTV's Prannoy Roy and an audience of college students.
Former Californian Governor and Uber-Terminator Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke exclusively in Delhi to NDTV's Prannoy Roy and an audience of college students.
Life after Governor of Califorina: "I will go back to what I have always done, which is promote health and fitness and bodybuilding; and I also did movies and ran my businesses in real estate and other investments, I will go back to that. Almost like Cincinnatus when he was in charge, when he ruled Rome, after he was finished with his challenges he went back to farming. I think there is something attractive about that, going back to your original work and so I think that's what I am going to do, continue doing that."
Better actors in Hollywood or in politics?: "One of the things they teach you in acting is to be engaged, to go inside and not to just speak words, but actually mean to get through to the people and actually to communicate. The same is in politics. You can't just go out and blabber words out to the wall, as if no one is standing there. You've got to penetrate and get people into your world, so to speak, and there is an art to do that."
The Terminator in Bollywood?: "Maybe if there is a good script and a good, interesting Director, then I mean I worked already all over the world, I would not mind working in India. I think most movies made here are low budget movies."
You've got to move it, move it: "Don't watch television and sit and complain and say, ‘Look at this guy, and this and that, look how businesses are, look how corrupt this is'. Go in there, jump into politics, campaign and become one of them. And then create changes within, and that is tremendous power and that's the power each and every one of you has. You don't have to necessarily run for politics, you can be a leader and have tremendous power otherwise."
Watch, listen, learn, India: "I think the important thing is India, since it is a developing country that they look at the mistakes of the developed nations. I think it is a good thing. Like I looked at my parents very critically and said let me see the mistakes they made, and other people made, and I learnt from that the way they dealt with bringing up their children. I then improved in that, in how I bring up my children. So I think it's great in power there. We can watch the world. Why are we in this mess today? What have they done wrong? India can then go and say we are going to develop, and we are not going to let anyone tell us not to develop, but we are going to develop in a better way."
The big breaks: "But I think the big step for me was Conan the Barbarian, because it was the first time the studio invested 20 million dollars, which in today's terms would be 150 million dollars or something like that, because it was back in 1979-1980. So it was the first time a huge studio invested that kind of money and promoted the movie internationally. That set me up to become a movie, a leading man in movies, but Terminator was an interesting film, because it allowed me to be a leading man without being in this loin cloth; and not showing my muscles throughout the whole movie, which in Conan was the case."
Funny Guy: "I was not allowed to do comedy because I was so, I made so much money for the studio in action movies, that they said why would we spend money on a comedy, when we give him an action movie, we can make more money. So I literally said that I would work for free, you don't have to pay me anything."
On Schwarzenegger Satisfaction: "Being the highest paid actor, after Terminator 3….so it was a huge success for someone, that they said, you could never, ever become a leading man, because they said your body is too big, you have an accent and a name that no one can pronounce. What is this, like Schwatizee, Schnizel, something like that. So they said can't be done and I was very proud to get to that point."
I miss my muscles: "Well I am very happy with myself and I am pretty much the happiest guy around. I have made mistakes in life that I regret, but I would say that when it comes to career and those kind of things, I would not change anything…physically I would like to have the body again of when I was 30 years old, because it is actually the sad story, when you get older, you actually see your muscles kind of like decrease, it's is kind of like very depressing."
Thank you, India: When asked to speak his cult line from the Terminator, Arnold says: "Hasta la Vista, Baby. I actually say to you, much rather ‘I will be back', because this trip so far has been so fantastic, and its my first time here and I really enjoyed the beauty of it."
