4/18/2024 0 Comments Conquer arnold schwarzenegger![]() The documentary sees him speak openly about his disciplinarian father, growing up in post-war rural Austria and his intense desire to leave the country. Nevertheless, his journey from bodybuilding teen to gubernatorial leader remains no less intriguing, and sometimes controversial. ![]() Schwarzenegger in Venice, Los Angeles, in 1980, photographed by Albert Busek © Albert Busek “I just find more inspiring and motivating than looking in the past,” he says. He “hated every minute” of the interviews for the Netflix documentary, which took between 30 and 40 hours to film. ![]() The past, though, isn’t territory Schwarzenegger is especially happy to revisit. ![]() “He hasn’t taken anything for granted and he believes in doing the work.” After over 50 years in the public eye, Schwarzenegger still has a “global fan base that spans generations”, says Bela Bajaria, Netflix’s chief content officer. He also writes a daily newsletter for more than 500,000 subscribers. Later this year – strikes pending – he will begin filming an action thriller called Breakout, his first movie in four years. He has two new shows on Netflix: Fubar, an action comedy about a CIA agent who comes out of retirement to work alongside his daughter, and Arnold, a three-part documentary about his life. The book arrives as Schwarzenegger is having a late-career revival. It’s pure Schwarzenegger: droll, teasing, intimate. “It took two of us to get it up the stairs and into the house,” I tell him. A large box containing the very heavy book has been delivered. “Did you get a copy of the book?” he asks me. It is massive – 334 pages plus a 556-page companion volume – and features portraits by Richard Avedon, Annie Leibovitz, Robert Mapplethorpe, Herb Ritts and Andy Warhol, among others, alongside interviews and essays (1,947 signed copies, from £1,250 850 sit on a Capitello book stand, £2,500 and 100 include a ChromaLuxe print signed by Leibovitz, at £12,500). I have been invited here to talk about Arnold, a giant, limited-edition, pictorial retrospective of his career that took a decade for its publisher, Taschen, to curate. Arnold Schwarzenegger at his Los Angeles home © Tracy Nguyen And so is that jawline, though his skin bears evidence of years of flexing under the California sun. Those famous biceps are still large and well-defined – especially for a man who recently turned 76. He is wearing shorts, tall dark socks and a grey T-shirt. Schwarzenegger gives a little shrug and invites me to sit with him on the patio. “Of course,” I reply, feeling about 65 per cent sure that he is joking. “Are you schnooping?” announces an unmistakable booming voice, as Schwarzenegger steps outside his house. On a huge coffee table near an outdoor fireplace is a magazine featuring Schwarzenegger on the cover, alongside a well-thumbed script with handwritten notes, a wooden box of Cuban cigars and the guillotine he uses to trim them. Nearby is a bust of Abraham Lincoln, one of three statues of the great American president I have noticed since arriving. My eyes fix – how could they not? – on the bronze sculpture of Schwarzenegger, frozen in one of his signature poses, that towers over his pool. It feels like a tacit invitation to explore the grounds of Schwarzenegger’s mansion in the city’s exclusive Brentwood neighbourhood. It’s close to 10am in LA and Arnold Schwarzenegger is eating a post-workout breakfast of oatmeal and hardboiled eggs in his house, leaving me alone on the covered outdoor patio where we are due to have our interview. Simply sign up to the Film myFT Digest - delivered directly to your inbox.
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