Arnold Schwarzenegger says he never felt “pressure” to be anyone but himself
Arnold Schwarzenegger is undoubtedly the greatest action hero of his time (you said so yourself!). But it probably wouldn’t have happened if Arnold didn’t stay, well, Arnold. We could point to the occasional movie here and there, but Arnold Schwarzenegger has never tried to be anything but himself. And that’s why we’ve always loved him and why he stands as one of our favorite stars.
Arnold Schwarzenegger recently sat down with GQ, where he was asked if he ever felt the pressure of at one time being one of the quintessential men. To this, Arnold said he continued to stay true to himself and his goals. “I feel no pressure. Period. Never. I would not be doing bodybuilding if I would’ve worried what everyone thought. I felt very comfortable going to the gym and working out and trying to figure out, ‘How do I go and make clean and jerk and get it from 240 pounds to 300 pounds to 400 pounds and how to do better bench press? How do I go and create the best body in the world? How can I beat the records?’ And this is what I was occupied with. And yes, of course I came to America and I saw football players making already a million dollars with commercials and with endorsements and stuff like that, and the body builders made a thousand dollars winning Mr. Olympia. I didn’t care. I didn’t feel like, ‘Oh my God, I’m on the wrong road.’ No, I knew I was on the right road and I knew that what I was doing brought me happiness, made me feel studly.”
It was this sort of mindset and determination that would find Arnold shunning every norm possible. Really, how else could he have become so famous? It’s like not a girly-man could have done what he was doing on the screen – yet, it was the little guys who were emerging as stars, people whose waists were the size of Arnold’s biceps.
But Arnold kept doing Arnold, and with that came his break in Hollywood and, later, some of the best action flicks ever. “I continued on with my training and I continued over with my thing because I said to myself, ‘If I make bodybuilding really popular, then people want to see bodybuilders also on the screen.’ And exactly this would happen after Pumping Iron came out, they said, ‘Oh, this guy has a personality. I think he could act. Let’s go and tie up the Conan rights.’ And then all of a sudden they started developing Conan and then they asked me to do movies like Stay Hungry, which had bodybuilding in there. And then they asked me to do the Streets of San Francisco, which had crazy bodybuilding in there. As soon as I could show my talent, they started dusting off all these old scripts. And then bang, I broke through. And so I did not shy away from the muscles. I did not go say, ‘Oh my God, I missed the time, the right decade, what should I do now?’ What do I care about the new look? We are going to be around for decades. So we are going to go through cycles, yes, but I don’t have to be the follower. I’m going to be a leader.’”
What are your thoughts on how Arnold Schwarzenegger’s career has evolved?
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