RE-RELEASE - Arnold Schwarzenegger

23:45Dana Carvey:So I don't want to jump ahead here, but then is the biggest selling point you did and how did you apply this to selling yourself to Hollywood? Yeah, Hollywood. Not wanting to play the second or third lead, but starting at Movistar. Yeah, did you not do any what most people do, small part, small part? Yeah, I did. But my goal was to be a leading man. Yeah. So I remember, for instance, Lucille Ball will call me. Jeez. And I was at Gorge Gym working out, and she saw me on a Merv Griffin show. Arnold. And she said, she called me. Arnold, oh, this is Lucille Ball. That's right. A little bit of smoking, yeah.

24:27That's right. I'm there. And so she says, I saw you on the Merv Griffin show. I want you to come in and read for this part Joe Sando, which is a masseur from Italy. There's an Italian accent, but most people don't know the difference between a German accent and an Italian accent, blah, blah, blah. Come on in and read. And so I would go in there, and I would say, oh, my God, there's a TV show with Art Carney, Lucio Ball. It's huge. Art Connett just won the Academy Awards and all that stuff. So this was like really big. So I went in there and she opened up the script and said, I'll read this part.

25:06But I had no idea what that means. So she says, well, I need to come in and, you know, my back hurts. And she says, how do you know how to massage? And I said, my name is Joe Sandow and I am from Italy. i'm a truck driver from italy and in italy every truck driver also does massages and she says oh wait yeah you went to my acting let's go and take the script away yeah no she says the idea of it is this blah blah so she explained to me the idea and then she asked me some questions right and then i would just say yeah i'm from italy i'm a truck driver and my name is joe santo and of course in Italy everyone does massages and then she was like laughing and everyone else was laughing right and then she says you see guys I told you I told you he will be good I mean you know he's not used to the script idea and the reading idea but I mean he can by the time we shoot this next Friday he will be perfect I promise you guys that and you are you here ready to be here every day for rehearsal and I didn't even know what rehearsal meant but in any case but the bar I said, yeah, yeah, whatever you want me to do, I do.

26:21And so I came every day. I worked with her every day. She was very patient. And we shot then on Friday. And she kept saying, he says, you need to project more. You need to project more because we're shooting live. So I had no idea what live meant. I had no idea what that meant. So anyway, we rehearsed and rehearsed. And then we shot this scene that I'm ringing the doorbell. The green light lights up at the door and I open out the door. She opens up the door and she says, you are the masseur? And I say, yeah, I'm the masseur. She says, come on in. And so I go in there and all of a sudden, huge applause.

27:04Oh, my God. You don't know that there's people there. So now I'm standing with my massage table and I'm looking out like this, staring out. I'm in shock. I'm frozen. First time you've heard a lie. So this is not what the scene is supposed to be, to be frozen. Right. To come in there and to be like this Italian flamboyant guy that opens up the massage table, professionally, chak, chak, chak, chak, boom, flips it open and says, lie down. Now you're just frozen. I'm not standing there like this, you know, totally frozen. And then she says, are you massaging me? Get the table set up. So she immediately saw what was happening.

27:38Oh, she played off it. Oh, yeah, totally. And then so I said, oh, yeah, yeah, exactly. And then the applause continued on. So I flipped the table over. And of course, I only had the tank top on. So I had like the big gun hanging out. and the whole thing. Did you get applause for the guns? It was fantastic, the whole thing. Art Carney came in in the middle of the scene. The whole thing was like a seven-minute scene, and it played like a jewel. I remembered all my lines. She said it was fantastic. And I tell you something. From that moment on, Lucia Ball, as long as she lived, she always wrote me a letter.

28:12Every movie that I did after that. She sold me on the streets of San Francisco to play a guest starring Aurora, which I got after that two years later. She saw Stay Hungry, but then came out with Bob Raferson. He directed me, Jeff Bridges and Sally Fields. She wrote me a letter. I'm so proud of you. I heard you're fantastic. I knew you had this potential. You're going to be a big star. I mean, what a sweetheart of a woman, as tough as she was. Everyone knows she was one of the toughest women in town. And Art Carney could tell you that because she kind of directed the show, even though she was not the director.

28:48And then Gary Morton, who was her husband, could also tell you how tough she was. She ran the whole studio.

28:53Dana Carvey:I did a pilot with Desi Arnaz Jr. called Whacked Out. And we're doing the pilot. Audience is there. And we're really bombing. I mean, it's silent. And all of a sudden, I hear a voice from the bleachers going, what's wrong with you people? So Lucille Ball had grabbed the microphone and was yelling at the audience. This is funny. Then the whole audience flipped out, made a big line and it took an hour and a half for everyone to get her autograph that's fantastic yeah for her to take time to do that with you is pretty nice because she could have just said tough reading get out you know next but absolutely to work with you and to be that big of a star and and get you going and that was really probably one of the biggest things even just confidence wise yeah no but i i as much as people were negative about the idea of a muscle guy getting in the movies because what they felt kind of the 60s the era of the hercules movies steve reeves and the rich park and mark forrest and blue dagney and uh you know gordon mitchell and all those guys kind of bad movies or b movies they were little they were not significant movies but i mean for me big because when i was 15 years old and i saw steve reeves and red park on the screen said oh my god can you believe bodybuilders then become leading men in movies so that was my motivation yeah getting into bodybuilding i said oh then i can be an actor so then i go to hollywood there's muscle beach and there's hollywood so you have your own fantasies as a kid with 15 so that was my fantasy and i made my fantasy become a reality and i talk about that in the book how important it is that we have a vision and that we have a gore and that we have something to chase no matter how stupid it may sound to other people but just don't listen to the naysayers chase your dreams and that's exactly what i did and that part of the book don't listen that seems like a lot of people like i would get my feelings hurt a lot in the early days before i got in saturday night live if someone if someone said i wasn't good or whatever what are the mind tricks you played to get around that like they're saying you're terrible you're nothing this isn't going omega that's not good and you twist it in your mind you know i didn't have to really twist much because i just saw my vision very clearly in front of me of me becoming eventually a mr universe for me eventually coming to america and eventually getting into movies i saw that and for it was so believable that i had such faith in my vision that uh there was no one that could talk me out They just didn't get it in your head.

31:26Well, I understood that when someone has never done something, it's like Nelson Mandela always said, everything is always impossible until someone does it. And this is exactly, there was no Austrian ever that became Mr. Universe. So when I say I want to be Mr. Universe, of course they laughed because they thought, well, if he says he wants to be a ski champion, that makes sense, but not to be a Mr. Universe or to be a weightlifter or something like this. Weightlifting was kind of dominated by the Russians. bodybuilding was dominated by the Americans or by the British. So, I mean, what is he talking about here?

32:00So you beat the odds once in a big way, and now you're going to do it in an even bigger way to come all over to America and know the language. Did you know the language at all when you got here? It took you a while. No, I mean, there was a lot of subtle things, like I said, when Lucy Ball said, we're going to go and read, come over for a read. I did not know what that meant. I did not know when she said, we're going to shoot this live, that this means there will be a live audience, and we will be live, the filming and not taping and stuff like that. So all of this stuff I did not know, but I learned the language quickly.

32:29I went to college. I remember I went to Santa Monica City College and took English classes and then eventually took business classes. And all the stuff that I learned as an apprentice, selling, marketing, publicity, and accounting, mathematics, and all of this stuff, micro and microeconomics. and then eventually got a degree in that, which was also not something that I planned on doing. But I was like going part-time to college for eight years. I mean, think about it. From 1969 to 1977. It was like I just wanted to educate myself. And I didn't have a student visa, so I couldn't go full-time to college.

33:09So I had to always just take two classes. So sometimes even to cheat a little bit, I took two classes at San Marcos City College. and then at night I would go with the UCLA and take some extension courses and then sometimes I would take classes at West Los Angeles College and stuff like that but eventually I got enough like almost 300 units of credits and then they gave me a degree you know it's so easy to quit along the way in this guy there's so many hard obstacles that people just go I can't do it I forget it

33:37Dana Carvey:I have the question did you when you were thinking of your vision mr. Olympia this and when you envision yourself as a movie star did you envision Conan the barbarian did you ever envision twins and kindergarten cop no evolved no Conan the barbarian I mean what I envision your physicality John Wayne what I envisioned was like just like you know Reg Park and Steve Reeves I said myself maybe I can somehow use the muscles and get in the movies I did not know that that there are errors yeah you know that there was the 60s was the muscle era where they made all these muscle movies and stuff like that that the 70s would be kind of like the opposite yeah all of a sudden woody allen and dustin hoffman and all those guys exactly would be the stars yeah and so that everyone said to me he says arnold those guys weigh 100 pounds less than you do we can't put you in a movie with those guys it doesn't work you know so forget about it so it was all that that kind of thing so but eventually i think that after they did stay hungry yeah and i played a bodybuilding champion and stay hungry in a movie and people and i got the uh the golden globe awards for best acting debut for that movie so that really helped did you improvise those lines though some of no there was the in stay hungry was all written and uh really you were natural and well thank you and then pumping arm came out and then then that was a big hit yeah and so then all of a sudden people started saying it was pumping on actually that made ed pressman who just passed away recently famous producer yeah who saw me in pumping on and then got the rights of the conan the the the conan saw you and exactly for the for movies over to like more mainstream and then you're going to get away from only strongman parts like when i moved here i got a script the first time i just read it to them they handed me the script and i just read it back to them and they're like what are you doing?

35:32I'm like, I don't know. You know, because, you know, they go come read. It was the same thing. I don't know sides, all the lingo I didn't know. And I, it was hard for me to get work. And I'm only this strong. So I know it was a little bit of a detriment.

35:44Dana Carvey:Dave, did you find it tells you something about yourself? Like me in the early eighties, I go to audition, I walk in a room and I see baby face guys with weak chins and little arms, baby men. They all look like me, you know, I mean, you would walk in reading for something. Would you see a lot of other big guys waiting to read no i never read again you never read that was it no no no i knew that this auditioning this is not my bag that's not my bag but for some reason or the other from that point on it always they came to me like bob raferson came to me and said i want you to do stay hungry but you have to take acting classes yeah i get you you know with this guy eric morris who was an acting coach he says he was working with chuck nicholson and blah blah blah he says i want you to take acting lessons and then you will come in for a reading so i was like working with this guy for four months so you weren't auditioning before i go yeah this is a joke in a way and he has someone tape it and i came in and i did the scenes for him and uh but it was basically already signed for the movie right so it was not really that was in danger but so anyway i did i did the scenes and he again was very very complimentary but this is the this is the the sweetness of people in this town that i noticed kind of how supportive they can be right like bob rayford immediately says stop it i said what he says look at my hair look at my hair on my forearm I said, okay, I see you here in the forum.

37:24He says, it's standing up. Do you know this here in my forum? When it stands up, it means that I totally bought in the scene. So what you just did, I totally bought in. It was so touching. It was so emotional. It was so well-delivered. We don't even have to go any further. This is it. You have the part. Wow. This is how it would be like that. And the same was with Jeff Bridges and with Sally Fields. They know I was a beginner on this whole thing. But, oh, man, they were so supportive. When we did the scenes, Sally Fields was, like, extraordinary. And so was Jeff Bridges so supportive and everything.

37:59Just take extra time. I had really a good, good experience. And then I think Landsberg, when he hired me for, you know, the Jane Mansfield story with Lonnie Anderson, where I played Mickey Haggaday, you know, because Lonnie, Jane Mansfield's husband was a Hungarian guy.

38:17Dana Carvey:Right. And so he was Mr. Universe. And so I played that character, basically. And so with an accent, the accent was perfect. Then eventually I got the Conan gig. And it was a big international kind of a movie with Universal Studios. How much of that did well? Like$200 million or something? No, no. In those days, there was no$200 million. But I mean, it grossed out, I think,$70 or$80 million. That's huge. Like$300 million. It was like really, it was big. It was number one at the box office when it opened up. So everyone was really happy and they signed me up for a second one. And that's when I was my first, in the second counter, I made the first million dollars.

39:00Dana Carvey:And how old were you when you first made that million on the second counter? About 30? I was about 30, 34 years old. What did that mean to you coming from where you came from in Austria to get a million? Well, my dream was, I said, I want to be like Clint Eastwood because Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson and Marlon Brando were the only guys that were going over, getting over a million dollars a movie in the 70s, in the early 70s. So they were like the kings. So I said to myself, wouldn't it be cool if I get a million dollars a movie? And I always shout for the stars. It was the big dream. And then eventually it happened.

39:37So I felt fantastic. I felt delighted that I made a million dollars and that I'm a millionaire. But I was already a millionaire before then because I was insisting on making my money in real estate. You know, like, for instance, this building that we're sitting in right now, I built it in 1984. So in 1984, I bought it. Before Conan? At least it was, no, it was not before Conan, but it was before we went Terminator and all those things.

40:08Dana Carvey:And where did you get the money to buy the real estate? I was working on construction sites. I was doing exhibitions and all this. And I started saving money. And then there was an apartment building for sale in Santa Monica for$240 ,000. That's like the day, you know,$10 million. I don't know what. But in any case, it was$240 ,000. And I needed$37 ,000 down payment. I had in my bank account 27. So I went to Joe Weider, who was the publisher of the Bodybuilding Magazine. Exactly. And I said, can you go and loan me$10 ,000 for one year? And he said, absolutely. And so he would loan me the$10 ,000.

40:57I would put the$37 ,000 down, and I bought this building, this office building. two years later someone comes to me and offers me$500 ,000 for the same building. This is how much real estate went up in the 70s because of the high inflation rate. So I now immediately sold this building, took that profit, and traded it up to a 12-unit apartment building. Then I sold that two years later and traded it up to a 36-unit apartment building. When's your book on how to become a millionaire? So I was like really very quickly in the 70s. I was already a millionaire.

41:40Dana Carvey:Without giving away numbers, but I'm always fascinated. How much real estate did you end up buying? Was it all Southern California where you bought property? Did you buy it other places? I always, I was in other places. In Colorado, for instance, we bought a whole square block in Colorado. And then eventually there was a high rise build on it. How much was the square block? Which square blocks going for? So it was not that because we bought up pieces at the time. Yeah. And then eventually it was a square block. And then we were able to sell this to someone that wanted to build a high rise. And then we were able to get cut in 10 % of the high rise and blah, blah, blah, and all that stuff.

42:15So anyway, so I always felt very comfortable with the real estate business. But at the same time, the rule is don't have all your irons in the same fire. so I was investing in stocks and in bonds and all kinds of other kind of startup businesses and so on. And so my investments always were very good. I never lost money on any investment as far as that goes. There was a huge, and listen to this, it was really funny because I bought, the first money I got, I saved, I bought land out in the Antelope Valley. Why? Because I read somewhere when I came over to this country that they're going to build a supersonic airport out there.

42:57And so someone said, oh, I'm going to go without telling anyone. I'm going to sneak out there. I'm going to buy some property. With a knife in your mouth. And so this is what I did. I bought for$5 ,000. I had only$1 ,000, so I had to pay off the$5 ,000. I bought this property out there. And then, of course, they never built the airport.

43:16Dana Carvey:I thought the United States Air Force is out there. No, the Air Force is out there. I mean, the supersonic airport, they passed a law, an international law that said no supersonic aircraft can fly over land. So that only over the ocean. So that killed the idea. And so they kept the LA airport here. So my investment went down the tube. So everyone was laughing about it. But here's what I think. Joe Weider said to me, he says, Arnold, don't worry about it. This will be a good investment for your grandchildren. Yeah. Keep it. Forget about it. Yeah. I did. I totally forgot about it and I kept it. Today it's worth$1.5 million.

43:57Just to show you a$5 ,000 property. So I didn't even lose money on that investment. So this is just to show you that if you really hold on. Can we talk more about this for the rest of the podcast? Yeah, exactly.

44:11Dana Carvey:How to invest, Arnold. What would you do right now? What was after the one you just said? Oh, Conan. what was the first sort of mainstream Conan 2 that was kind of mainstream the funny thing was my dreams and my desires grew and I'm sure it's the same with you first you wanted to do stand up comedy wouldn't it be great if I do a TV show wouldn't it be great if I do a movie so it grows you get more and more hungry and so the same thing happened to me I said to myself wouldn't it be cool if I could do movies that doesn't rely on muscles. Right. So what happened was Jim Cameron comes along. Yeah.

44:55And he says to me, Mike Medavoy, and they say to me, he says, do you want to do this movie called Terminator? And I said, yeah. I said, that would be great. Can you send me the script? He said, sure. So he sent me the script, and he said, there will be this character, Reese, which is the heroic character in the movie. And I said, oh, that would be a really great, great role and then for some reason at the other end I met with Jim Cameron and we had lunch I talked the entire lunch about Terminator here's Jim I said I know you have not directed much but I said here's what is important when you direct this guy whoever plays the Terminator he says well the character that we hired for it is O.J.

45:44Simpson he says but the studio is kind of like negative about him because they think that he cannot sell the idea of being a killing machine oh oh he says oj is not enough of a killer he's kind of uh he looks he looks too soft for that so these are direct quotes so he says so this is the truth i mean this is like unbelievable and uh and and and so they said so this is not really set in stone the whole thing he said but uh after listening to you jim cameron said after listening to you talking to me about the terminator that he has to be trained to be like a machine and he cannot walk like a human being that he cannot talk like a human being you're absolutely correct you take on it is perfect why don't you play the terminator yeah And I said, no, no, no, no, no.

46:39I said, look, I want to play Reese. I want to be the hero, not the villain. I'm set up in my mind. Well, the way I shoot it out, it will be like a hero and a villain. Hero because he does all these unbelievable things and wipes everyone out. Villain because he's a machine. But you don't have to be responsible personally because you're a machine. You're directed by some higher power. So it's not like you going around killing things. so I said oh let me think about it and so for for a few days I thought about it and then I said myself he's actually right if he shoots this the right way this could be really cool and then I called him back and I said okay I'm in and so there was the first movie where I wear the whole movie no never yeah it was like jacket leather jacket and the whole thing like that and from then I got the offer to do after Terminator to do Commando and after that to do Predator, Running Man and it went on and on and on.

47:37I think I've seen every one of your movies. I was in. I was accepted in Hollywood as the action hero and it all came from Conan and from Terminator so this was kind of what was my launching pad. And you, God, you just had such a run at films. You know Dana, I saw a copy of Terminator when you said, you know, your catchphrases are very short which is smart i saw an early copy when you say come with me if you want to live yeah and it was come with me if you want to live because i know all the shortcuts in town we can go down the 710 and we can get in a carpool lane and the and the monster robot only can drive in the regular because he's one person and i think it was better you tightened it because that seemed like a long way to live yeah you didn't want to get me too wordy

48:24Dana Carvey:I was too wordy. And so the final script, come with me if you want to live. They cut all that out. And it was boom, boom, boom. You had a lot of good ones. Did you know at the time when you do those that these might be sort of cool little things to say? No, no, you don't know. Hasta la vista, baby. We never know what would hit and what people really like. I mean, you wish you can say that and say, oh, this was written this way. Oh, I improvised that. It wouldn't be true. the reality of it is we had no idea that even i'll be back will be a line that will be the most repeated kind of line yeah you know anything we just i was arguing with jim cameron endlessly about i will be back he says no i wrote i'll be back i'm gonna say i will be back because i don't like the i'll this l thing sounds a little weird i said i will be back and he says who the fuck wrote the script oh yeah are you the script writer now or am i the script writer i say you're the script writer and he says okay so we say i'll be back and if you want we can shoot it 10 different ways if it makes you feel comfortable he says but uh so let's just do that i'll be back not i will be back that's bullshit and so i was arguing with him about you know what's funny is it was right he was so right and he made me i will be back sounds almost more robotic than you were yeah i You know, but I mean, so he just loved I'll Be Back, you know.

49:48And so we did it 10 times. And when the movie came out, everyone wanted me to repeat that line. And so you don't know. We had no idea this was going to happen. We had no idea that, you know, kind of like all the stuff, you know, hasta la vista, baby, in Terminator 2, you know, or get to the chopper. It's stupid lines. Get to the chopper. Just because the way I say it, because Germans cannot pronounce the ah on the end so this is right so obviously ah chopper what was it so the tumor this is not a tumor so when i said so when i said it's not a tumor and when we rehearsed for kindergarten cop and i did the rehearsal with the kids and i said it's not a tumor all the kids started laughing even though it was supposed to be an intense scene so then i'm in right when looked and said this is funny now we got a joke they're all laughing he said say the same way don't change so anyway so so those lines became kind of famous because the way i say the accent and so if someone else would have said it wouldn't have made anything musical it's a musicality i will be back has a

50:58Dana Carvey:different rhythm comedically i'll be back yeah it's so intense didn't you do some where you would drop guys off things for dropping by and you drop off a cliff those kinds of lines too guy says you promised to kill me last you know sally i said sally you remember i promised to kill you last and he says yeah yeah i said i lied yeah mr freeze had a couple and everyone all the kids that running around that the parents were saying he says you promised me that you're not gonna get an f in school i lied that's great you have more comedy hits than most comedians to be honest but But, you know, when we're talking about growing your vision, like the last thing I ever thought about doing was doing comedies.

51:44Yeah. But then when I was doing a bunch of movies, action movies, I said to myself, wouldn't it be cool if I could do a comedy? Because I felt I had a sense of humor. Yes, I agree that I didn't understand the American sense of humor as well. So that's why I asked my buddy Milton Perle to teach me. about comedy yeah milton burrell yeah so he would write he was friends with lucille ball as well yeah but he would write jokes for me all the time milton burrell until he always you know called me fucking nazi i have to write these fucking jokes for this nazi god damn it you know but you know he loved hanging out with me and smoking cigars with me because of him i really got into the cigar smoking actually but it was like he was really really funny and he would then go and start writing stuff for me when I was doing speeches you know and he would say he says you can't go out there in a speech and start with a serious note I said you got to go and say first make the people like you so say something funny right you know go out there and just say you know what you probably wonder what am I doing here at a medical convention in Vegas but you know the Dr.

52:55Sonser came up to me and says I love you because you're a real good American and you believe in free speech right? And I said, yeah, of course I believe in free speech. Good. Cause you're going to give one in Vegas on June 14th. So then the people laugh and he says, and then they like you. And now whatever you say, they will like you. I said, so there was Milton Berle's kind of a thing. So he would write little jokes and little lines for me for the beginning to get, to get going with the speeches. Lucille Ball, Milton Berle, you got some good ones. Spring starts at the Home Depot and we are bringing the heat to your backyard this season.

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54:23Dana Carvey:And participate in McDonald's while supplies last. In a classroom of sodas, most stay quiet. Then there's Mr. Pibb. Sweet cherry, bold outbursts. The kind of flavor that gets attention. Bold kick of cherry. And you're Mr. Pibb.

54:43Dana Carvey:Yeah, do you remember the movie we almost made? We wrote a script. It was called Hans and Franz, The Goodly Man Dilemma that we were going to do with you. It didn't get made, but it was a funny script. I had that conversation just recently. With Conan? No, with Conan, yes, but we also internally had it because I said there are several scripts that were offered to me that I didn't do for whatever the reasons were. Timing. They were dismissed or they were never made or they couldn't wait for me so they hired someone else, you know like the rock yeah the movie that the you know the rock with that there was with the uh with the sean connery exactly and what's the actor's name again nick cage exactly nick nick is cage and so i was going to do that but i mean they couldn't wait for me because i was doing another movie first and all that stuff so there were certain but the one movie that i always loved that I even would do today is the script that we had together where Hans and Franz finally comes to find the uncle and they're now staying in his house.

55:59Dana Carvey:Yes. And I remember it was so funny. Yes. And I just remember when you guys, you came to me and you said, I have to go to the bathroom. Where is the bathroom? and they said, you go down the hall and where you see the deltoid, you go left. Then you see a calf, you go right. Big giant. And then you see exactly. There was all these huge sculptures of my body all over the house. And this was the direction that I gave you guys. It was just so stupid and so fucking funny. Oh, yeah. And you had a war room we went into. It was a whole puzzle, like a Monopoly game, but studios, Paramount 20. And you had little, you're pushing pieces around.

56:40Dana Carvey:Now Stallone is going to do a movie over 20th Century Fox. We countered Paramount with a comedy. Yeah, exactly. All of it was having fun with the image of Arnold Schwarzenegger at that time. And what you guys did in Saturday Night Live. Yeah. So the idea was that they took the Saturday Night Live idea where you were searching for me and running into different kind of situations. But here you were actually, you found me in this movie. and now it goes on from what do we do together. And so it was hilarious, the script. So, I mean, I think it still could be funny. We read it on Conan's podcast and it had a big reaction.

57:22Dana Carvey:People really liked it. It's from a different era in the sense that it's really big, funny, and silly, which I don't think they make enough of those movies. You can modernize it. Oh, yeah. If you get a ride of the day, if you guys sit down instead of reworking it, what works today and do it for Netflix, let's say. For that audience, I mean, imagine what a smash that would be. A lot of physical comedy. It would be laughing from here to eternity. A lot of visual. Come out at Christmastime or before Christmas. I mean, it would be fantastic. I'm around. I'm around. We'll do that in a second. But yeah, it was just a funny script, and it was an hilarious part for you.

57:58But, you know, life is what it is. Exactly.

58:02Dana Carvey:You know, you just keep moving on. So you're the chapter at the end about just giving back, you know, and you're talking about Milton Berle helping you, Lucille Ball. And now you must find chances or do young movie stars look you up or ask you or give advice? So you're a mentor of how to. I don't know. Is there anyone more successful? This will sound like I'm kissing your ass. but has there been anyone like you in the last 40, 50 years to come to America from another country, from extreme poverty, and do all these things, and then here you are now, still going? You know, I don't know. I think that one of the people that I always admired a lot that came to America with the age of 15, I think, was Henry Kissinger.

58:51Yeah, and he's still around. And Henry Kissinger had an unbelievable career. Academic career and political career. And it was just a genius foreign policy kind of a guy. So there's a lot of people, Elon Musk and people like that, that have come to this country. Remember, no matter who it is, no matter how many there are, one thing we know for sure, that there's no other country in the world where we could have done that. No other country. I mean, if I think about, and I'm pretty much aware of the world because I travel a lot, and through bodybuilding and movie promotion, and when I was governor, do trade missions all over the world, and all of that stuff.

59:42But there's just no place. And even today, at a time when we have difficulty in America, you know, where the parties don't get along, and they can't get much done and all this stuff. Even during that time when I travel around, I don't see anyone coming up to me and saying, oh, Arnold, can you help me get a visa to Jordan? Oh, Arnold, can you help me to get a visa to Russia? Or can you help me to get to South Africa or something like that? No. I mean, it's all about America. Arnold, please help me. Can you write a letter for the immigration office? You know, I want to get to America. I want to be in America.

1:00:22So this is the number one country still by far. It's the most desirable place for people to come. It's the only place where someone like myself can come and make it and make it big and make all his dreams become a reality.

1:00:35Dana Carvey:And what are we doing right? Because we're pretty self-critical as a nation right now about America. But you have a perspective unique to people who were born here tend to take it for granted. But what are we doing right so that people can come in and have a life like you've had in America? But people can. And people do. It's just because the economic freedom? I think it is the economic freedom. I think it is just that it has its downfalls. And it has its big advantages. And the advantages are more than our disadvantages. And that's what makes us so great. Yes, we have problems and all that, but I mean, still, anyone can come still today to America and really become kind of very successful.

1:01:24I see it all the time in a smaller way even. I see people coming from, I see this one guy was coming from Israel to Gorge Gym. He was working out for a while. Then all of a sudden he was like a personal trainer. And the next thing I know he's driving around, driving up with the Austin Martin. Yeah. And the next day with the Jaguar. and the guy is getting$100 an hour. He works 15 hours a day. 15 hours a day. He's talking about working your ass off, right? What we talked about earlier. This guy believes in working. So he drives these fancy cars. He has nice girls around. He trains people there in the gym.

1:02:03He's doing exactly what he wants to do. He's from Israel. Just came over here a few years ago. And the same is with a French guy that does the same thing. I know this one girl that is from Sweden. She's a personal trainer and she's making a fortune. And all this. So this is unlike any other place, you know. And so I think this is really the place to be and where people can be successful. And I think America should be proud of that. And you're right. When you are an American, you take it for granted. When you're American, you sometimes don't appreciate how great this country really is. Yeah, they should.

1:02:39And the thing that everyone has to do is, and I talk about this in the last chapter, is this country was built by hardworking men and women that have sacrificed. That we're not just looking forward to the glory, but sacrificed. and I think that today's kids have to study that history because it will make them wake up and say, I cannot be this little girly man.

1:03:11Dana Carvey:Well, but because of social media. I cannot be this guy that is staying in bed. I want to sleep in or I want to feel good or I want to be treated kind of fairly and nicer and stuff. No, this is a tough world. Get up at 5 o 'clock in the morning, 6 o 'clock in the morning, and kick some serious ass. Go to work. Whatever you do, the day is 24 hours. You can do it. And this is how we make this country not only great, but keep it the greatest country in the world, is by not babying ourselves and not by kind of like taking it easy and trying to sleep in. And I want to feel better and all this kind of stuff, but to kind of do the same thing as they did in the old days.

1:03:52Work your butt off. It's like Ted Turner always said, early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise. This is where the action is. I believe in that. But it's important to know that we've got to grind it out. And we cannot just always look for the pleasures. But there is punishment. There is hardship. There is failure. There is tough times that you go through. But that's all OK. We've got to go and have a clear vision, chase that vision. And then there will be struggles and all that stuff. The more struggles we have, the tougher we will get. And the more failures we have, the more we learn and the more successful we can get.

1:04:35I mean, remember what Michael Jordan said. I missed 5 ,000 shots. And I lost, you know, 280 games. But I became the greatest basketball player because of it. You know, what I've learned. So don't be afraid of failure. It's one of the chapters that I have in the book. And so I think it's hard work not being afraid of failure, to grind it out, to have a clear vision, not listen to the naysayers, pick big goals. So those are the kind of rules that I talk about in a book because that's what we need to do in order to be successful as a person and as a country.

1:05:12Dana Carvey:And I think that, you know, it's in your book, but that you just have you in the end of the day. And sometimes don't look at social media too much and get tricked out that this person did nothing and as a millionaire. But what I found a few times, just being driven around the country to gigs, and I had to have first-generation immigrants driving me from Russia, wherever. This one Russian guy goes, I tried to open business in Russia. Someone stop. I tried to hire more employees. They say stop. I come to America. I start to do the same thing. No one says stop. No one told me to stop. Who are you now?

1:05:47Dana Carvey:Almost every time. I own the business. I just like your comedy. I drive you, Mr. Carvey. So that's the idea is it's nothing. I think the secret sauce of America, if you put the work in consistently and are willing to fail over and over again, there is some great stuff that will happen to you emotionally, mentally, and hopefully you will experience success. It won't stop you. You're absolutely right. Because no one has ever said to me, you can't. They will say, I think this is impossible. Or there's their naysayers. And they say no one has ever done it before. But no one said, I will not allow you to do that.

1:06:22right there's no such you've already done four movies it's your turn now you go back so you know so i have to always say that none of it that i accomplished would have been possible if i wouldn't have been in america yeah wow well see this here yeah see the hairs on my arms actually mine's here yeah his monstrous forearms of yours look at this all pumped up

1:06:51Dana Carvey:how do you do it i do a lot of push-ups i just push-ups are my main thing if i can't get to the gym yeah but i try to you know i keep going yeah you know i'm just gotta stay fit i always tell people you occupy a room but you live here so work on this this is where you're living you could occupy this but that's right you can't get away no matter where you go there you are well Arnold this has been fascinating Total Recall line Total Recall remember Total Recall when I check in in the beginning they say to me to sell this implant they say what is always the same wherever you go you you there you are but here we told Recall we're going to help you with that you can become kind of an agent secret agent you can have this wonderful woman you can do this you can conquer the so this is the whole thing the whole line is about that Do you have a favorite movie?

1:07:46No, because it's like, you know, it's like I love Twins with Danny DeVito. But at the same time, I love, you know, Terminator. And I love, you know, Predator, True Lies. I mean, it's very hard to pick, you know, one. There's some movies that were fun to make, like Kindergarten Cop to work with us 20 kids. That was really a lot of fun. Yeah. But there's other movies that were really hard to make, like True Lies. We were shooting for six months in this movie, from winter scenes and summer scenes and the snow and the cold freezing cold. It was just torturous and then 80 days night shooting and all that stuff.

1:08:24But it was a fun movie to watch.

1:08:26Dana Carvey:Just for the fans that are listening, at the end of Predator, you got rigged a log to kill or something. What did you say? What are you or something? I think it takes its helmet off. You're ugly. Is that when you have the mud all over? You're one ugly motherfucker. Yeah. Yeah. I knew it was a great line. You're just almost dead. You're just covered in mud. You got this monster. You're an ugly motherfucker. Come, kill me. Kill me. Do it. Do it now. Do it now. And then on the end, I said, get to the chopper. Hasta la vista, baby. I had no idea that I would be walking around. I would go to the Arnold Classic, to the sports festival.

1:09:08People screaming out, oh, get to the chopper. You know, all my lines, they're screaming. It's just hilarious to watch that.

1:09:15Dana Carvey:I was at the Arnold Classic with you. We were backstage on the TV monitor where all the contestants out there doing their stuff. And so I just looked at the monitor. I asked you, I said, is there anyone exceptional here? And you just leaned back. You were looking at me.

1:09:37David, what have you been up to? Oh, thank you, finally. All right, we're going to take a quick break and come back with. No, I'm going to commercial now. No, I was going to say. It's doing a lot. You've got a game show on tomorrow night. Say hi to everyone. There's Maria, who's always a fun ball buster to me. There's Patrick, who's on the boys spinoff, right? Patrick's doing great. Christopher, your daughters. I see all these people here and there. We did Grown Ups 2, Patrick was in. And Christopher works on Tyson's podcast. Yeah. Everyone's doing great. just hi to the family and thanks for coming down and it's great to talk to you about this book but David is very very busy

1:10:17Dana Carvey:what's that? he's very what you were doing he's doing a lot of stand up oh yeah I'm doing stand up I'm doing all this thing you know all this shit movies and things no I'm crushing it I'll send you a couple links yeah those are not hand me downs no no these are right off the rack Taylor yeah hand me down some Dana he's like my little brother yeah Let me ask you something. I know that you're doing this podcast to interview me, but I find it interesting how both of you stay so lean. Right. Just give me a quick rundown. What makes you stay so lean? Are you disciplined with your eating or you're working out?

1:10:59You know what I realized down the line at a certain point, my problem was more eating than working out more. So when I ate less or thought it out more, I would lose weight faster than working out too much. So it was cut out sugar, try to cut out some white flour. And then overall, it is like more of a lifestyle than just dieting or whatever. You really slowly have to start cutting stuff out when you get older and you can't eat as badly, do as much, this and that. And I sleep probably eight hours. Dana, what about you?

1:11:30Dana Carvey:I ran track and field in high school, distance running and cross country. then you still do yeah you still yeah i do run and i and i hike i do all kinds of things i love the burn you know you say it's better than an orgasm you know i love hard cardio sorry it was that was hard or something it's better pumping up it's like better i remember that when you get the burn when you kick into that i love to work really really hard i go up griffith park and i go I redline really. And then, um, I started lifting weights, you know, in my thirties. And then I, you and I have something in common. I had a bypass that the operation wasn't done correctly, but didn't hurt me when I was 42.

1:12:12Dana Carvey:So, and now I'm a little older than that, but that also put me on a Mediterranean diet basically. And so my wife and I just got all the junk out of the house. We keep all the junk out of the house. If it's not right there, I don't have it. And I weigh myself not i'm not neurotic about it but i just keep track it's like a report card for me and i'm not trying to get too thin i just try to stay around this weight because it feels i feel lighter on my feet yeah yeah it's hard no i i just think that it is so important that we stay lean even though i'm not lean well you look great but i mean i i'm just telling you that i want to look like today i got to this age now where i admire people much more when they're lean than when they're bulked up.

1:12:58Because I think lean is where the action is. Yeah. Because, you know, the body just... No, but the body just lives longer when you're lean. Yeah. I look at my dogs. You know, the dogs that usually, the bigger dogs, they wipe out with the age of 12, 13, 14. I have this little dog, you know, noodle. Little dog like this. It's like 14 and a half years old. Runs around, jumps up on every bench. and just still attacks all the other dogs when they're nasty, just the teeth, and it's full of energy, but it's little. So it's going to live for the next 10 years, probably. It's just amazing. Now, I'm noodle and dangerous.

1:13:42Yes, I'm comparing them because it doesn't matter if you're an animal or if you're a human being. Being leaner and being lighter means longevity, means that you're around a long time.

1:13:56Dana Carvey:Can I do 10 pushups now and have you analyze just my form? Just to start. Absolutely. I will too. You can do it. Yeah, he's taking the mic with him. Taking the mic so I can talk to the guy. Okay, let's see it. Just doing 10. David, do you want me to hold it? Shake a little bit. Do you want me to hold your butt? No, I'll go down and hold it. Okay. So it depends where I want it. Here comes Dana. He's doing it. So I'm in the pushup position. Looks a little girly man right now. One. Shaking. Two. Two. Three. three, four, five, six, seven. No pauses. Eight. Nailing it. Nine, 10. Perfect. Perfect. Get the oxygen.

1:14:35It was fantastic. It was very, very strict. And what was good about it was that your body stayed absolutely flat. Right. You didn't buckle in at the waistline like a lot of people do and stuff like that. You gotta keep your glutes on. You just stayed with like a board straight, totally flat. That's the greatest compliment.

1:14:55Dana Carvey:Yes. Yeah. So that's what I do. And I do lat poles. I do stuff for the back. Yeah, yeah. And mobility is all the rage now. I think it's great. Hip mobility. Yeah. All right. Well, good job. Anyway, good to see you guys. All right. It's my day. It's great. Thank you. Thank you for your help with the book and all that stuff. I really appreciate that. The book is great. And we will stay in touch. Of course. Always fun to see you, buddy. We will work together again. That would be great. And something. Let's do something. Absolutely.

1:15:34Absolutely.

1:15:53And Leah Reese Dennis of Odyssey.

1:15:55Dana Carvey:Our senior producer is Greg Holtzman, and the show is produced and edited by Phil Sweetech. Booking by Cultivated Entertainment. Special thanks to Patrick Fogarty, Evan Cox, Maura Curran, Melissa Wester, Hilary Schuff, Eric Donnelly, Colin Gaynor, Sean Cherry, Kurt Courtney, and Lauren Vieira. Reach out with us. Any questions to be asked and answered on the show, You can email us at flyonthewall at odyssey.com. That's A-U-D-A-C-Y dot com.