Arnold Schwarzenegger

In 1970 a twenty-three-year-old Austrian bodybuilder landed on the set of Hercules in New York with barely any English. Producers changed his last name to Strong for the credits. They also dubbed over every line he delivered with a neutral-accented actor.

Nobody gave him a chance.

That body, with over a hundred kilos of muscle, didn't fit the mold of 1970s Hollywood, which was dominated by slim leading men like Dustin Hoffman or Al Pacino. Arnold made a point of training his diction for hours every afternoon. He took acting classes in Santa Monica while building a real estate business so he wouldn't depend on studio money.

In 1976 Bob Rafelson gave him a role with real dialogue in Stay Hungry. He won a Golden Globe as New Star of the Year. But his real breakthrough came when John Milius saw in his physique the perfect embodiment of Robert E. Howard's hero.

With Conan the Barbarian in 1982, Arnold proved his presence could dominate the frame through sheer physical intimidation. He earned 250,000 dollars for wielding the sword and tearing up sets across the mountains of Almería and Segovia.

The guy who didn't fit in the frame

In 1984 James Cameron thought of him to hunt down Linda Hamilton, but not as the machine; he was cast as the soldier Kyle Reese. One lunch in Los Angeles was all it took to change the director's mind. Arnold kept explaining how the killer robot should move, without blinking and without checking the magazine of the pistol when firing.

So Cameron gave him the lead role in The Terminator. The Austrian barely spoke seventy-four words in the entire film. That verbal restraint was enough to fill theaters across half the planet and launch a decade where action movies were measured in biceps.

In the following years he took on projects like Commando in 1985 and Predator in 1987. He insisted on controlling the lighting, oversaw distribution contracts, and collected salaries that could drain the budget of any production. But Arnold wanted more than gunning down mercenaries in the jungle.

The million-dollar comedy

And the gamble paid off.

En 1988 Ivan Reitman le propuso formar pareja cómica con Danny DeVito en Twins. Los ejecutivos de Universal creían que el proyecto arruinaría al estudio. Arnold aceptó trabajar sin salario fijo a cambio del veinte por ciento de la recaudación bruta en taquilla y venta doméstica.

Aquella decisión financiera le reportó más de treinta y cinco millones de dólares limpios, una cifra superior a cualquiera de sus cheques previos en el cine de acción. Repitió la fórmula comercial con Kindergarten Cop en 1990 bajo las mismas condiciones salariales.

In 1991 came the technical peak with Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Cameron had a budget of one hundred million dollars and revolutionized computer-generated effects. Audiences filled theaters just from seeing his silhouette on the poster.

Some high-profile missteps followed, like Last Action Hero in 1993, where audiences rejected the self-parody just as Jurassic Park hit theaters. Arnold blamed the bad release date and a hostile press campaign. He didn't lower his fee by a single cent.

The comeback after his stint in Sacramento

In 2003 he put filming on hold to take office as Governor of California after a whirlwind campaign. He served two terms leading the most populous state in the United States and left office in early 2011 with the state's finances in the red.

The comeback to the big screen didn't work.

In 2013 he starred in The Last Stand, directed by Kim Jee-woon from South Korea. The film barely grossed forty-eight million dollars worldwide against a similar production budget. Audiences preferred superhero adventures packed with digital effects, and flesh-and-blood heroes lost their box-office appeal.

Arnold took on darker roles. In 2015 he released the drama Maggie, where he explored a restrained side as a father facing family collapse. Later he moved into producing projects made for television streaming platforms.

In 2023 he headlined the spy series FUBAR for Netflix, performing fight scenes at age seventy-five. In 2024 he filmed the Christmas comedy The Man with the Bag in New York, directed by Adam Shankman.

By then, his hip replacement and three open-heart surgeries meant his usual stunt double had to cover eighty percent of the physically demanding shots.