Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend - Arnold Schwarzenegger

Episode Date: October 9, 2023

Arnold Schwarzenegger feels how the f@#k would he know about being Conan O’Brien’s friend.Conan the Barbarian meets Conan the O’Brien as the two discuss Schwarzenegger's philosophies on exercising, making oneself useful, and feeding little oatmeal cookies to tiny farm animals named Lulu, Whiskey, and Schnelly. For Conan videos, tour dates and more visit TeamCoco.com.Got a question for Conan? Call our voicemail: [phone].

Ich bin der Mann und Schwarz-Näger. Ich bin der Mann und Schwarz-Näger. Ich bin der Mann und Schwarz-Näger. Ich bin der Mann und Schwarz-Näger. Ich bin der Mann und Schwarz-Näger. Ich bin der Mann und Schwarz-Näger. Ich bin der Mann und Schwarz-Näger. Ich bin der Mann und Schwarz-Näger.

Ich bin der Mann und Schwarz-Näger. Ich bin der Mann und Schwarz-Näger. Ich bin der Mann und Schwarz-Näger. Ich bin der Mann und Schwarz-Näger. Ich bin der Mann und Schwarz-Näger. Ich bin der Mann und Schwarz-Näger. Back to school, ring the bell, brand new shoes, walking loose, climb the fence, books and pens. I can tell that we are gonna be friends. I can tell that we are gonna be friends.

Hey there, welcome to Conan O'Brien, needs a friend, joined by my crew, my posse, my gang. Matt Gourley, sonom of Sessie. Nice to have you guys here. Good to ride with you again. Yeah, ride for your die, I always say. Yeah. I've never said that.

Ride or die, is that what you mean? Ride for your die? Oh, I was thinking, live for your die. Live for your die. You're thinking of live for your die hard, the, this posse sucks. No, it's live free and die hard, or live free or die hard. Live free or die hard.

God, worst, guess what? We just won the award. I was just contacted, worst podcast open ever. I did it. I was bad. We just got it. We just got it. I think we can do this.

Let's review the host quibbled over whether it's live free and die hard or live free or die hard, never even mentioning the film itself. It was a muddled, tangled mess. It went on for 10 minutes, and then this reviewer's review was read off of an iPhone. Can we get a fact check on that? I'm getting the fact check right now, and it's verified. It's live free or die hard, not to be confused with a good day to die hard. The fifth installment?

Oh, then as Gourley continues the theme, I can't believe this review came out so quickly as we're doing it. As Gorylie continued the theme, the segment became even more flaccid, tangled and self-referential. A good day to die limp. Gorylie went even further. The imp who never takes a cue, kept chucking out different versions of Good Times Die Hard. Ha ha ha. Until the whole thing was literal oral diarrhea. Ha ha ha. Wow, this is, man, this is, this is serious, this is slate.

And still a better review than Good Day to Die Hard. Yeah, exactly. And what just when you thought it was over, Girly continued it one last time for the ultimate callback. This reviewer is now taking his life. That's crazy. Oh wait a minute, look, I just popped up. A new bitchy-wary.

Oh, no. Yes, prominent reviewer for Slate takes own life. This is fucking crazy. Podcast reviewer for Slate took their own life just after finishing a take down of Connor Bryan needs a friend. I love that you're actually miming the swiping of the phone. I'm scrolling up because I'm a guy to have good space work and this is all really happening. Yeah. In a first, O'Brien read the

obituary for the fake podcast or from the fake slate review while miming swiping up on his screen. Well, agile minds, I suppose, agile minds. We got him. You. Hey, look, we don't have a lot of time, but I do want to point out some other great people that are always here in the booth with us making this happen. The great Adam Sacks, a wonder kind who got us into the whole

podcast world, you know, without whom I would be virtually unknown except for the Almost 30 years of fame before and then Eduardo doing a great job killing it Eduardo designed this sound studio made it perfect and then of course Blay is here. Yeah, and I wonder can he design this to you and play. It's here. We'll also play this here. But a play has been with me for a long time. Blake came on. Is it you were a kid when you came on on play. That's right. Right out of college. 2001, uh, uh, 22 year old fresh out of the oven. That's right. And, uh, that was a long time ago. Yeah. I bring this up for a reason

because we were talking about it just before the podcast. Some would say I'm jamming this in to the conversation, but you still dress like a child. It's your generation, man. In World War II, 20-year-old stormed beaches. They had their lives cut short defending America and you're wearing, what is that t-shirt? I don't, it's got a bunch of t-shirts. And you wear ironic watches that are plastic and you wear, well, no, I've switched to bracelets. Is that a Taylor Swift friendship bracelet? No, these are just, these are just bracelets.

You know, I got these in Thailand. I got these in Thailand. Okay, whatever. I want to know where the real men have gone. Look at you. Every time you're always walking around, you've got a cookie back and you've got little, I have holes in my jeans.

Oh my God. Oh boy, you're just stepping in it now. Did you pay extra for the hole in your jeans? Was that extra? I will say that I've worked here for a number of years and I like to dress, I have my own style, but I would be lying if I said there wasn't a whisper every morning when I put my clothes on.

Oh yeah, what is going on? I know that feeling. Every morning. I do too. You done that to everybody who works up for you. What's that movie where, I think it's hard. Where that's saying die hard. Where I think it's the never ending story

where the kid has to walk by the statues and they might open up and obliterate that with Ibeem or whatever. And it's like the eye of Soran. It's like coming to work every day. I know the eye of Soran is going to pee up on you. My only question is this. And it's just for your entire generation. Okay, okay. Can't wait to answer this.

No, but isn't there a time for us to grow up? I think other generations had to go through the depression and they had to go through. I mean, just terrible events, the Civil War, everything. And they were forced to become men early. What did you go through? Oh, yeah, please don't even get away. What did you do? I know. please, don't even get out of your way. What are you doing? I know. I went through the cancellation of the show Chips. I watched a great show about two emoticycling policemen in Los Angeles go away. I watched Gerald Ford stumble on a tarmac.

Do you know what that does to a little boy? I had terrible, terrible things happen to me. Like, what else? Oh, please. Nothing is happy to me. Like what else? Oh please. Nothing is happening to you. Like that's not enough. You know? The sunscreen I used as a boy was not nearly up to snuff,

and I'm paying for it now by having things removed from my neck because that sunscreen was probably the equivalent of an SPF 10, not an SPF 50, which is what I should be of had. According to my person who works on my face. I have a whole team that crafts this body. I have suffered and I am a man because I went through things and Blay, look at you.

Well, okay, let me ask you a question. How do you think I should dress? What would be the ideal? Have you ever worn a suit? I think when you go to a funeral for a loved one, you're wearing a hoof- who farted t-shirt, a backwards baseball cap that says, what me worry? And then you've got like seven watches that are all plastic. Isn't it funny? They don't tell time quiped, Blay. Can you just take a look around this room, though? Because I am wondering

how you made it this far with shirts like that. We have all just relegated ourselves to basics because there a way to be invisible in front of this man. That's true. So now, I've only criticized you for only having one leather jacket for the last 25 years. Well, that's a high-class snub. I know. No, I'm saying it just looks like the one

that the general war and plan to the apes. Got little ridges on the shoulder. But when am I supposed to replace it like every few months? No, just one other jacket. Come on, get it. But you do have that kind of boomer trade. If you have to comment on everything the way everybody looks and the way they live their life.

Oh, boomer trade. I'm not a boomer. You are a boomer. I am not a boomer. I'm Gen Y. No, you're not. You're not boomer. I am not. You are. No, yeah. I am not a boomer. I'm Gen Y. No, you're not.

You're not? Yeah, as in why the fuck am I working with you people? Ah. Ah. Ah. I'm self conscious now. Is there an age that you think we should stop wearing baseball cap? No, no, that's always cool at Wardo.

You know what? And by the way, that's a football cap. It has everything to do. No, it's because you know you think Eduardo's cool and you like to beat up on Blake. That's not it. I really do have an issue with Blake. Blake, I'm worried you're always going to be a child and I don't want to visit you in a nursing home.

I'm going to live forever. Well, I don't want to visit you in a nursing home and he's like, oh, he's over there and you're, you know what I mean? You're dressed like a like a 16 year old Korean schoolgirl. I would like to see who's gone to a club, you know what I mean? I mean, and you're like, oh, this person on my t-shirt, that's Obishi. What?

He's a little squiggly, doodly. I love this squiggly doodly. I watch them every Saturday morning. Oh, I don't know where they got. They got it. Yeah, Obishi has some good merch. No, I'm on my side a little bit. I'm on Team play. I'm on team play. I just don't think you get it Oh, I get it completely

Well, I get it and you hate it. No, no, I get it completely. It's a it's a little story called Peter Pan I won't grow up on a lot of go to school just a no no no no no no powering in a fallously rule I'll just like play every day Can I say a thing which is oh No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no I was gonna say, which is, which is. This is a bad analogy, but you know, Batman, the reason why Batman wears a book. Oh, no, no. Can I just speak? Yeah.

The reason why Batman wears a big bat on his chest is because that's where the armor is thickest, so people shoot at the bat, okay? So I'm like the bat symbol on his chest. It's from the Dark Knight Returns, but, so basically everyone else should be thanking me because I am drawing his eyeer for you. But I don't want that for you.

I'm jumping on the fashion grenade, so to speak, for the office. But we shouldn't have to do that, you know what I mean? We should all... I take a little, I'm just a little worried about you, Blay, because you came to work with me as a young man and I thought, oh, this is cool. I like this young guy.

Maybe he'll stick with me for the long haul. And that was 22 years ago. Yes. And if anything, you dressed more like a man, then, and now you've just become like a theme park animal that's running around, you know, the other thing I'll say is, you know, I lost a bunch of weight a couple of years ago. And so now that allowed me, I could only had a certain amount of clothes to choose from when you're 6'3 and you're a bigger guy.

But now I'm like, oh man, that looks cool, that looks cool. So I'm kind of having a renaissance because I could never wear these kind of clothes when I was younger. And you're shooting on him. Okay. You never had a politician. No, can I say one thing, Sonat? He just did this jujitsu move where it now looks like I'm you're shooting on him. Okay. You never in a politics. No, can I say one thing? So he just did this jujitsu move where it now looks like I'm weight shaming him, which

is terrible. That's a terrible thing you just did to me. First of all, yes, you did lose a lot of weight. I just thought that you had terrible diarrhea. I didn't realize that you went on this regimen. Both things could be true. Yeah, but that's my favorite diet, by the way. That's gonna, you know, sweep the nation soon.

But I just wanna see you in a suit once. I will wear a suit, I will dress up. And that doesn't mean, and you can't put any pins on it for like DC or Mara suit. You can. You can, okay. No, this is a bank. This, from now on, this whole podcast empire is a bank.

This is bank of America. And I'm gonna start dressing up. I know I'm gonna get a little scooter right now. Okay, that's oh, let's get him. Oh, that's not gonna go well. Silicon Valley. Oh, let's fight Bruce Lee. That'll go well.

Good luck. I've got a spoon. I'm gonna go attack Bruce Lee. You're right. I don't know what to do. So, no, I just think Adam, you think as the guy who really is the power behind the throne, don't you think it would be a good idea? Like, I'm a big admirer and he's a friend of Jack White because Jack White makes everyone around him sort of dress up.

And I think that's really cool. And it has this cool effect when, when you see Jack and his gang, they're all dressed for the occasion. And in me, I just look like I run a daycare center. And you're the most casually dressed of any of them today. I am. But you have to admit, mostly I wear a tie a lot. I mean, today just happens to be an off day. Yeah. That was, I was going to say is that like they, it starts at the top, right? It starts

with Jack White. And then they all they all I guess mirror their style off of it like he also tases them if they don't think you're probably right but but what I'm saying is uh don't you think maybe we should start to have a dress code here where you've got to have we have to pretend it's a bank in 1955 and sure have to wear fedore hats like like hats from the 50s this is all the stuff I got mocked for in the first place I know it was a couple of years ago. I never wore a Fedora Comedy podcast I think it's a good idea But we'd have to work it into the budget because we can't ask people to go and buy We're talking so we have to figure out okay I'll pay for it, but it's have to be very shittily made clothing

I mean very bad like stuff that if it rains the color runs now I need a new leather jacket. I will give very bad. Like stuff that if it rains, the color runs. No, I need a new leather jacket. I will give you one of my old ones. What? No, you're gigantic. So what? It's not going to fit me. It doesn't matter. Buy me a new jacket. Yeah, I want a new Rivian SUV. Okay. Thanks. This is my stuff. No, I'm getting him the Rivian. I'm not getting you a jacket. Those things are expensive.

Those things are expensive for Rivian. I'm not getting you a jacket. Those things are expensive. Those things are expensive for a Rivian. I just think that this is a comedy podcast. And I want to say on the record, I like how Blay dresses and I'm totally fine with it. And I think you're being a bully. Yeah. Oh, I know. But I'm a bully.

I will dress up. I will dress up and come in. And you might, you know what? Change yourself. You might not like it. No, I love the idea of becoming an internet. Yeah, I like to shoot one day. It might freak you out.

No, and it's not gonna freak me out to see you dressed as an adult. You're 72 years old for Christ's sake. It's time to grow up a little bit. All right, today it's a big deal. This is a big deal. This is a big deal for my childhood. This is a big deal for anybody, I would think. My guess today is widely regarded

as one of the greatest bodybuilders of all time audience still thinking. Tom Hanks. He's also an actor, author, and politician. He's a massive figure. He has a massive figure. Now he has a massive figure now he has a new book entitled Be Useful seven tools for life I'm thrilled he's here today Arnold Schwarzenegger welcome I just walked into this studio and it put a piece of paper underneath me here and they say I'll read this off and comment on what it is like the big Conan's friend. I don't know I hope it's going to be a fantastic friendship It's a given take. That's what I hope but the men right now

I just saw him for two minutes Uh-huh, and we have been gibbiting for a little bit here But of course it's not the first time we have seen each other. I mean we have seen each other many times before, after he showed before, I was at a good time and he was in charge of promoting all my movies. That's why they went through the roof. So I hope that now I came out with a book called Be Useful and I hope it does the same with the book. Cell, cell, cell, this one of the chapters in the book. I read the book.

Cell, cell, cell. You're already much more successful because of the book. We should let Arnold just keep going because this is fantastic. This is absolutely fantastic. Did it talk too much already? I don't want to talk too much. No, no, no, it didn't talk too much at all.

To the next 50 minutes, I'm not gonna say anything. Nobody wants to hear me, they want to hear you. No, no, I wonder here, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, But that was so funny. I was laughing. It does no comedy movie. I'd be honest with you, did I have laughed that much? Then just listening to you in the dance movie. And Kevin Eelon and Robert Smigel. Robert Smigel. Yeah. Smigel.

Yeah. Emma. I was just making my life right now. We wrote a movie a long time ago. I'm just going to tell the viewers. We wrote a movie a long time ago. I'm just gonna tell the viewers. We wrote a Hans and Franz movie, and we wrote you as half the movie, even though we hadn't even pitched it to you yet.

And one of my favorite things is we depicted your house as being two flexed buttocks that opened. It was hilarious because I remember there was one scene in there that I still remember from the script one of the my cousins says I have to go to the bathroom and then and and he said where do I go and I said you go right down to the delt to it You can left and then you will see a huge calf also You can have he walks through the calf and they will do the six pack as if you see an eight pack That's not the one the six pack you go in it goes through that we have to make this movie now

And that is movie and that six pack that says you walk in and that's where you go to the bathroom But this is not a girl in my bathroom I mean it was all of this stuff It was so silly and I remembered yesterday I was talking to Robert and I was, and I talked to Dana a lot, and I was telling them, I remembered we wrote a scene where you're, someone passes, and it's, you're very sad, and you're one of the Paul Bears,

and with all of your friends, and then you get to the grave, and you all start doing lifts with the coffin. That's what I was like. We put all this foolishness in there. It was so much fun. But it was fantastic. It was so well written, and I hope to do it. Yeah, I really hope to do it.

I'll put up all money. You still have the money. I will say. I have it now. I have it. You bought, I mean, they paid you of almost a billion dollars for this podcast.

Two billion. Two billion. Two billion dollars. It was all Bitcoin. You mirrored? Yes, I am. $2 billion. $2 billion. $2 billion. It was all Bitcoin. You mirrored? Yes, I am. Then I understand twice as much.

My wife said no, I need to be 10. You know, I have to say, I'm going to, I'm going to, there's so much to talk about, but from the first time I worked at Saturday Night Live when you came there and you did a Hans and Fran sketch. And I always was a fan of your movie work. You are so fucking funny. You are hilarious. You are so naturally funny. You can see it in pumping iron. You can see it throughout your whole career. Always very funny, really funny. And you came on my show when we were out here in Los Angeles, the late night show, and you prepared, and that's a big part of your book,

is preparation, but you kept calling our second producer and saying, I can do better, more and more before, before you came on the show, you had so many great jokes, you prepared more than any comedian, I think I've ever worked with. You were absolutely fantastic, and then my favorite thing is we wheeled out a real photograph of me in boxer shorts. Just boxer shorts that we took before the show.

And it was life size. And you tore me apart verbally. My body. You went after my body. And the crowd was laughing so hard. They started stamping their feet. And the fire marshals were worried that they would do structural damage. It was so...

I remember that. This, as a matter of fact, one of the things I remember was that you producer, or showrunner, whatever they call it on those late night shows, taught me not to throw up. I said, when they're all out, the picture said, it wouldn't be great if I just throw up. I said, because I will find something on his body that will be throw up. And so you did. And you said, you know, they say that there will be two grows because it's a late show.

We more than the 10 people. We don't want to grow them out. Plus right after you, there is a food commercial. So your big it's your big achievement in show business among many is looking at my almost naked body and not throwing up. Do you do that is discipline? in show business, among many is looking at my almost naked body and not throwing up. Is that what you mean? Dude, that is discipline. And I talk about this in views for that is discipline.

I mean, I was doing everything that I could trying to kind of look at, you know, you doubt it's trying to not to look below the belt. And all this, I was thinking everything to try to stay as serious as possible and not to look below the belt. And all this, I was thinking everything would I just stay as serious as possible and not to throw up. But congratulations. But the bottom line is, you have a good body. You look lean.

Yes, I think that's the most important thing to stay healthy and to stay alive for a long time is to be lean. Tell me if I'm wrong. Yeah, Arnold. But when you first came into the the room and you can tell me if I'm wrong, I looked right in your eyes and you looked right in my eyes and you sized me up and we haven't seen each other in a little while and I saw in your eyes fear. Is that correct?

Oh, it's throwing up. I saw fear. I saw a physical intimidation. I did not know that you detected that. I saw it. I mean, I was trying to cover up. I was trying to cover up the fear and intimidation and how little I felt compared to you.

A career wise, intelligence wise, body wise, definition wise, size wise, six pack wise, everything. I mean, I said it was a... maybe I can hide my inferiority complex. Yeah. Yeah. But you obviously saw it. I saw it. You saw it. And not that I smelled it. It's a pheromone. You can smell when fear is released into the air. I could smell it. Absolutely. But I could smell it. It's sort of a sausage smell. So that could, yeah, so the meat's more like a vignage knitzel smell. You know, we're first of all, good God. This is already my favorite interview. I mean, I've talked to everybody, but you are just a delight. And I want to tell you something which is a few years ago, I've always been a fan of yours and always found you to be just an inspiring person in a lot of ways. And then two years ago,

you released a video after January 6th and it's called a Servant's Heart. And you did it, you put it out alone. It's at your desk talking. And it was your response to January 6th. And I thought it was one of the greatest public services I've seen anybody do for their country because you were elected, governor, as a Republican, but you worked very hard to be bipartisan. And then you came out at this crucial time and you're adored by people on the left and the right. You've got fans all over the world who don't even know what your political affiliation is and you just talked about how wrong this was.

And I thought I said to all my producers, I have got to get into a room with Arnold Schwarzenegger at some point and tell him how thankful I am. I really am. Very thankful for that. And also your post about war in Ukraine and Russia's invasion. I thought this man is speaking from the heart. He doesn't care about the consequences. He's telling us the truth. And I was just blown away. So thanks really seriously.

All that we'll get back to you mocking my body and there's a lot to mock. But I did want to tell you that I was heartily impressed and I think you've done a lot of good. So much good. Well, thank you. I appreciate you saying that and you know, it was really actually very kind of satisfying doing it. You know, when you see something that is so wrong, then you want to speak up and you want to let your voice be heard. And you know, we are very fortunate that we celebrate this and we have a huge following. And so when we say something, people pay attention. And so that's the idea is to use that power of influence and to make people pay attention. And so that's the idea is to use that power of influence and to make people pay

attention to something that is that important, such a very important issue, which is to protect our democracy and to defend our democracy and to do everything that we can to do that. Yeah, because it's a very scary time right now. Absolutely. And I don't know, this air is pretty soon, but I know Mitt Romney just announced that he's not going to run for senate again he's a republican he's another person who i found a lot to my about because he speaks his mind about trump and about what's going on politics and he just said he he said in one quote that i think is coming out he doesn't he doesn't believe that a lot of his

uh... people that he works in the senate really believe in the constitution and uh... that was terrifying to me absolutely but you know i think that uh... really believe in the Constitution and that was terrifying to me. Yeah, absolutely. But I think that we have gone through different court moments in the past. Yes. We should not forget that. I remember that when it came to America in 1968, it was the year where they shot Martin Luther King and where they shot Bobby Kennedy and the

derriere and the convention and the Vietnam War the hippies were running around their own stone beyond them but the mind including myself and I love hippie Arnold. Yeah, it's all good. No, the funny thing is I was only the opposite, but I didn't even know what it was. Bodybuilders were taking me up to San Francisco. The hate, what is it called? The hate, I'm very exactly. And I would be sleeping out there overnight and that would be getting stoned and all that stuff.

So it was like, it was just a really weird time. I thought it was America and it was quite normal. I didn't even know I was in the dead, in the weird zone in America where America was going through some really incredible challenges. And you know, then after that, it was followed up with, you know, Nixon got elected, which was terrific. But then he screwed up with the water gate

and there was all that going on. And, you know, and then finally, we found a leader in Ronald Reagan. I think that Biden is not going to be the guy. I don't think Trump is going to be the guy. But there's someone out there. It's getting late though. It's getting late though. If you don't want it, it means change very quickly in politics. Yeah. But there's someone out there in America because America has a lot of talent. So there's someone out there that has the energy and division and the strength to bring people together and to create a new kind of leadership, you know, with the new energy and stuff like that. So right now I don't see it, but what if that person is closer to you right now than you think? Sonah

Not so now looking at him right here. Yeah, I bring the country together. Yeah good the real Conan now you're talking right be the sword the Conan Brian Running mates Ryan Cohn and the Bavaria. Running mates. Exactly. Yeah. I'll run with you. You run.

We'll clear that whole immigration thing up. But that's right because I was, I think when you first became governor, people said, well, you're so excited and they thought, could, could, could Arnold Schwarzenegger be presidents? Like, well, no, you need to be born in the United States. Right. Yeah. And that's when we thought, time machine. Huh?

We go back in time. Yes. You're born in Maine coastal Maine we change yes The Constitution I always talk about That's a that's a time travel movie and you've done them I know you go back in time to change the Constitution so you can be present Yeah, the terminator is just the editor. Yeah. And instead of the Terminator, it's just the editor. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, I talk about the immigration reform. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Arnold Schwarzenegger goes back in time. Jefferson's scribbling away. Wouldn't really be Jefferson if it's the Constitution, but let's just play with that anyway. Sir, what are you doing here?

Get out of the way. Give me that quill. I told you I'll be back. What is he talking about? There's no such thing as movies. I do want to talk about your book, Be Useful, Seven Tools for Life, because I read this book yesterday, and there's so much in here that, as I said, if I had just seen your only your action movies over the years, especially in the early ones, I would think, well, this man, he's a great action star,

but then as you started to make other movies and I got to interview you and be around you a couple of times, I saw how hilarious you are, how funny you are, naturally, and that's in you. I thought, okay, there's more in this book that comes out that I never imagined. For example, you say that, and I would have thought, if you have to define the self-made man in Hollywood,

it would be Arnold Schwarzenegger. You come from a very poor part of Austria, you grew up, no running water, and you didn't speak the language and you came here and you managed to not only be a bodybuilding champion, but a biggest movie star in the world and conquer politics. You do all these things, you overcome all these challenges, and in your book you say,

you can call me whatever you want. You can call me schnitzel, you can call me Arnie, do not call me a self-made man. What do you mean by that? Well, it's, I know that people when they call me a self-made man, it's a compliment. They mean it as a compliment. But I also at the same time want to make it clear that a self-made man means that there is no one that helped me, that I made myself, which is not true. I mean, my parents helped me, my father, my mother, my teachers helped me, my coaches helped me.

I had all this bodybuilding coaches and weightlifting coaches that helped me, my coaches helped me. I had oldest bodybuilding coaches and weightlifting coaches that helped me. I had Joe Weeter, who was kind of like the king of bodybuilding and fitness in America. Bring me to America and make my dream become a reality. Got me an apartment when I came to America, got me some money, so I could get started here and become the greatest bodybuilder of all time.

It was you know the agents and the producers that helped me to get them into movies. So and to remember 5.8 million people voted for me to become governor of California. How can I say I made myself governor? Right, and so it's not a dictatorship point. It's like that. So so I think that I got a help I got the help from I got the help for millions and millions of people. And I want to have people understand that. That I know that I'm a product of a lot of help. Because that's important to each one of us to know that that we are product of a lot of help. Because that makes you then go and feel a response a browser to go out and help other people because a lot of young people and people that are helpless, people that are poor, people that don't know how to make the next move to help them. Yeah. Because we were helped. So let's help

them. So this is what made me an enthusiastic kind of public servant. Someone that got involved during a society with special Olympics in the beginning in the seventies and create weightlifting for special Olympians and become the international coach for them. That's what got me involved in the president's council and fitness and troubles for all 50 states and give something back in promote health and fitness. I started after school programs and then eventually I ran for governor when everyone said I'm not you're insane because you're going to miss out on two movies a year, which you make $20 million in movie. You're missing out on all that money for becoming governor. You crazy.

And I tell people is it look every dollar that they made was because of America. I became rich and famous because of America, not because of Austria, not because of Germany or any other place. America. So it's a natural for me to want to give something back. So it doesn't bottomy at all, not to go and make movies for a few years. The other surprise in this book is you talk a lot about failure. You make this point about bodybuilding, which is

built into the fabric of bodybuilding is failure because you need to grow the muscle. You need to push it to the point of absolute failure, recover, then add more weights and you need to push it to failure again. So it's in a weird way bodybuilding is repetitive failure over and over and over again, which I had never really thought about. Yeah, and that is why I tell people that what makes you sometimes not be successful is your fear of failure. And so as soon as you become kind of friends with failure, and you say just over a minute, Mike, he shorten talks about he became the greatest basketball player because he missed his 5,000 shots. And he screwed up 280 some games and all of this. And that's what made him the greatest basketball player. So it's failure where we learn really the most and embody building. It's built in that you do the exercise.

Like you say, until you fail in weightlifting, you go and lift until you fail because it's built in that you do the exercise like you say until you fail in weight lifting, you go and lift until you fail because it's the only way you know how much you can lift is if you go all out and always lift beyond of what you can lift. And then you know exactly what you can do. I missed the 500 pound bench press, at least 10 times in different competitions, but the 11th time I did it. You know, so it. So I didn't feel like I was a failure. I just felt like I have to do train more. And so, I think the key thing is to tell people, don't be afraid of failure because it makes you kind of

like freeze and not make a move forward. Be friends with that and understand that from failure, we can learn more and therefore let's go all out and just feel free of that and not be worried and afraid all the time. I also didn't realize just how much, I mean, there are all these cliches, no pain, no gain, and you talk about that, you're very, you say, look, there's a lot of cliches out there, but here's the reality of it. But when you talk about lifting and the pain that's involved, there's real pain involved. That's why I never got into professional bodybuilding.

Excuse me, what do you mean? I'm sorry, no, no, no. I have the frame for it, I have the natural genetic disposition. Oh, absolutely. Thank you. See, there's someone here who knows who I think we should respect. He seemed very genuine when he said that. What kind of mirrors do you use?

Oh. I got them from a circus, aren't I? Why do you ask? They were free. And I love them. I have a massive chest. Whenever I look at it, then I see these other mirrors and I spit on them. But it's that you became comfortable with paint

and you were kind of almost, it's almost sounds like you were addicted to Not in a bad way, but addicted so addicted to To working out. I love this section of the book that as a young man 15 16 years old you broke into a gym Because it wasn't open on the weekend and you wanted to work out now. I've broken out of gyms I have never broken into it. I've never broken into a gym. That intensity was always there. Wasn't it? Yeah, it was, well, our weightlifting club was in a stadium. And so in the weekends, there were always games, soccer games, because it was on the

knees of the stadium. And so you were not allowed to go in underneath where the wrestling club was with the boxing club, was the weightlifting club in order because it was for the soccer players. And so I had to kind of sneak in. So what they did on Friday night was I did open the latch of the window on top. And so that from the outside it can open up the window and then crawl in. And sometimes one time it was I forgot to open it and I open up the window and then crawl in and sometimes one time it was I forgot to open it and I just broke the window and I climbed in the back and then I worked out

for hours and hours and hours. It was like absolute heaven. But what is important here is to recognize that your brain and your mind is no different than the muscle. So the muscle grows by you know pushing it and going through pain and so discomfort. What the same is with David your head that if you really want to grow as a person and if you want to get tough you got to go through pain. You know, you shouldn't have chile away. This is a lot of times today with the day's youth. You know, when they talk about, you know, the boys are having a problem, the girls are having a problem. This is a problem. There's a problem. Everyone has a problem. It's like they're

getting softer and they're not willing anymore to kind of take themselves through this pain period and through this comfort, everyone wants to be in comfort. People, kids want to sleep in to 7, 8 o'clock at night. When I sleep longer than 6 o'clock, I already heard my father's voice who has been dead for more than 50 years, but I still hear his voice, Arnold, be useful, because that's what my dad always said. And he always would say, is, do you think this country was built by people sleeping in? No, this country was built by people that were able to work hard, to work their ass off, and to go through torch, and to go through pain, and to do all of that.

And so that's what motivates me, because I don't want to go lie around and to do all of that. And so that's what motivates me, because I don't want to go lie around and live in comfort. You have any convocation, of course, when we go skiing, I go to San Valer, yeah, then I live in comfort, I sit out in the jacuzzi after skiing and all that stuff. But I mean, throughout the year, it's all about, can we go to go and do something,

move the things forward. And if I don't have enough to do with my own work, then you do some stuff for the community. So there's always things to do. And so this is what I'm trying to teach people is to make this life rich, not to exist, but to live. And living means really to go all out 24 hours a day. Yes, you sleep six hours a day. Or if you need seven hours, so be it. But the rest of the time there's so much that we can do. Well, I need 15 hours to sleep. 15 hours. No, baby. Yeah. And then I need to sit in her bath of heavy cream cream. How many? You remember you just have to pour the cream into the tub.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. How many times you have to change diapers? Yeah. I mean, you need some puddle. Yeah. He has a person for the diaper changes. You know, it's fascinating to me is that because you talk about your father a lot and it's a complicated relationship because you've said that your father could be physically abusive.

Absolutely, yeah. We were beaten, uh, with the hands, with the fist, with the belt, with the branches. I mean, you can think of it and that's exactly what happened. There was a whole inventory of things that he would use. And at the same time, he was the kindest and the sweetest man. So what happened was, is that I realized that after I left home and I thought back about this time period, you know, that he was in no, in the second world war. I heard my mother talk a lot about that he had shrapnel in his body and that he that he had back surgeries and stuff like that. They were buried in a landing crad during the Second World War and then shipped to Poland and then shipped home with back injuries and all that stuff.

So he went through, he had malaria, so he went through a lot of pain. And so the guys, after the Second World War, and that was born in 1947, a lot of them were drinking. And so the problem was when they were in pain, they were drinking. And they were drinking together. It's like once or twice a week, they will come home and you could hear the radio three in the morning. We would live in fear because we knew that he would be violent when he could come.

He would throw around dishes and all of that stuff. And you know, so it would be that kind of an atmosphere because of his pain and because of the misery that he went through. But then again, he snaps into this kind of a wonderful man and very giving and giving us, getting us ice cream and disturge and treating us nice and be we're cuddling up with him in bed. And there was the sweetness. So it was confusing. It was confusing.

Very, very confusing as a young kid, but that didn't mean that we didn't learn a lot from him. The discipline, that we had to kind of do our 200 pushups in the morning to earn breakfast. We had to do our knee bends. We had to do running. Everything was always a competition between my brother and I. He set this up always to make us very competitive and so on. And so I think that all of that was really helpful for me. And then I think back what gave me the drive was him. Yeah. And it was my

mother. You know, my mother gave me the love. He gave me the discipline and both of them together made sure that they ran away from home as quickly as possible. So with the age of 18, I went into the military to become a tank driver. I wanted to go quickly as early as possible as I could legally to go in the military. So I could get my passport and I could leave the country and could leave that home that that I felt was miserable. I don't want to grow up like that. I don't want to continue my life like that. I want to go to America. You know, this is my new dream was the America and to live where the Empire State Building was, where the Golden Gate Bridge was, where that six lane highways were, where this Hollywood,

Muscle Beach and all of the stuff. So there was my motivation. So my father helped me in a way muscle beach and all of the stuff. So there was my motivation. So my father helped me in a way to get away from home and to build a new life. And it was his kind of brutality and his toughness and all of the stuff that made me who I am today. So I cannot say, oh, I hate my dad. I love my dad.

I love that he gave me that discipline and that he pushed me all the time and that I'm here and I'm successful because of my dad and because of all of that. There's some other books that say, oh, if you visualize it, it will happen. And you're careful to say, I don't, you don't really believe that, but you do think having an image in your mind can be quite helpful. And you had an image in your mind of your name on the top of a marquee, Swartz Nager. And when you come to Hollywood and you start to look like you're gonna have some success

in the business, you're getting a lot of pressure to change your last name. But you said, no, Swartz Nager is gonna look so great at the top of a movie marquee on the top of a movie poster. And you had all the experts telling you, no, you gotta change it and you said, it's gonna look great and you were right.

I mean, but that was just you imagined it and you made it a reality to yourself and you knew then that it could exist. You had to put in incredible amount of work, but I think the fact that you didn't change your name was and is a symbolic of a lot of things that you refuse to do. I think that the cliche thing that people say always is seed, believe it, achieve it. It's absolutely so accurate because the fact of the matter is that if you don't seed,

you're not going to go and become successful but accident. You know, you didn't have your show or this podcast because you never thought about it. Right? So, you first, of course, have to dream about it. You have to visualize it. And I could visualize because I think there was nothing around no TV or anything. So I was sitting a lot in daydreaming as a kid. And so I was kind of visualizing this stuff. And eventually I could see myself as a bodybuilding champion.

And then when I became a bodybuilding champion, I could see myself as a leading man, because I idolized Clint Eastwood in the semisofwa. If he can make it, and if my idol's rage park and Steve Reefs that did Hercules movies, if they can make it, why couldn't I? And then eventually it happened, even though, as I mentioned in the book, the what the naysayers, you know, for every great idea that you

have, I'm sure that you went through the same thing, every great idea you have people say, this is hard to do. That's impossible. Right here. You're sitting in a room. This is the naysaying crew right here. I told them I could be a great bodybuilder or a male model. No, no, no. And then once I achieve that, which I will. We're more realistic. That naysayers just bringing you back to Earth. Yeah. It's always the naysayers. So of course, imagine me as a way 250 pounds. I said, I

want to be a leading man. Of course the agents and the producers say look the Bodybling and the Hercules movies are out and this is the 70s. You know Dustin Hoffman is the the idol and you know the Woody Allen and and you need to lose 240 pounds Yes, okay, get some glasses. That's right and in New York, actually. access. That's exactly what this is. I'm walking here. Yeah. So they said, you're out. So why don't you just stay with bodybuilding and open up a health food store, something like that.

You can help you with that, but not to get into movies. So there was no no no. They said the body was too big. I have an accent. People are scared of the German accent. It did rubs people the wrong way. And the name no one can pronounce to announce is to forget it. And true enough, all of those things, and the end, became assets.

You know, when they did Conan the Biberian, John Millius the director, and the famous writer, said, if we wouldn't have had what's negative, we would have to build one. So, always in the body was, without this body, they couldn't have done Conan the Biberian. Right? So, there was a ruin in, without this body, they couldn't have done Conan the Biberian. Right? So, there was a ruin my life, by the way. Yeah. I, I, I, when I grew up, Conan was just an interesting name, and no one really knew about the comic books,

and then that movie came out, and everywhere I went, it was, hey, where's your sword? Where's your sword, Conan? Maybe alone. And that created something for me to fight against. Oh, absolutely. Where's your sword, Conan? Maybe alone. And that created something for me to fight against. Oh, absolutely. I can imagine. That's how I grew. That's how you grew.

Because I was sad. I was so different from Conan. That forced me to be a comedian. Because that was my only request. I don't even know how you did it. Well, I'm just going to say I haven't. Exactly. But I mean, it was like, it was really interesting that

over said in the body was the thing to have. Otherwise, we couldn't do Conan. The muscles were welcome. Then when the determinator, Jim Cameron said, if what's nigga wouldn't have talked like a machine, you know, naturally with his German accent, this movie wouldn't have worked.

You know, so over said in the accent became like a big plus. And then with the name in the 80s, over said, you know, the actors don't really change the names anymore. Now they keep the Gina Lolo Bridge, you don't know, and what's their name in order, it's long difficult names, they keep those names because if it's hard to remember, then it's hard to forget.

Hey, there you go. You know, you say something in the book that's very funny. You said at one point in the book, that you hired a coach to help you get rid of your accent and you want your money back. That's right. Well, let's be honest here. I mean, let's be honest. I don't remember sitting there. Have you ever heard of this guy, Robert Easton? So he was like a speech coach and a voice coach. And he was an expert in like hundreds of different accents. And he started and he worked with a lot of famous actors, helped them to get an Irish accent

or to adopt the Australian accent. He was just so good at German accent, whatever. And so you would go to him also if you have a German accent to get rid of it. And so he would do, have you to exercise. He says, you know, the German is always say every, every TH within S. So he says, there's 3,333. He says, no, it's 3,333 with a TH, not with an S. So he says, let's practice that now, over and over, that was running around in a 3,000, 333, and one third.

And then also, we don't have kind of the V in the W sounds. So for us, it says, I have similar red wine, not wine, but wine with the V. So he had me practice the fine wine grows on the vine. Oh, my God. And the sink is made out of a zinc. So things like that, because this is all this guy I'm pranking you. I know. But this is all this. I think he's a speech coach. This was a fraternity prank. Well, that's what I said. I'm gonna say give me my money back. Tell him to say this. Robert is. I'm gonna go after

his estate. He's already passed away. But I'm gonna go after her and say, because this did not work. You know, I'm still having the accent. But no one wants you to lose the accent. No, that's the thing. No one wants you. That's you. For how many years people say you would never make it because of this accent?

And then all of a sudden, I'm turning on Saturday night life, and there's Hansen Franz. Yeah. You know, having the greatest time and it's becoming this huge hit, because of the accent. So people ask me, says, you mind them, make fun of your accent. They said, no, they legitimize it. They make it real. Now it becomes part of America's fabric here. And that's fantastic. And so then they invited me on the show and we had a great time. And even when

I was in front of the White House and we did the great American workouts, you know, when I was in front of the White House, and we did the great American workout, you know, when I was the chairman of the president's council of fitness, I had Hansen Franz come and do a whole shit there. I remember that. I remember that. I remember that. I remember that.

I remember that. I remember that. I remember that. I remember that. I remember that. I remember that. I remember that. I remember that.

I remember that. I remember that. I remember that. I remember that. I remember that. I remember that. I remember that. I remember that. I remember that. every minute of it. So it was really great. This guy's terrific. It's also so much in the fabric that my son has grown up and he's aware of you and he's seen some of the movies. But primarily he knows you as your counterpart on the Simpsons Rainier Wolf Castle. And so you were woven into there's a Simpsons character who's based on you clearly who talks like you.

And he, to me, that's the real achievement is when, even if someone tried to avoid, I'm not gonna see any Arnold Schwarzenegger movies, I'm not gonna have anything to, I'm not gonna know anything about his time as governor, I'm gonna try and ignore everything he's done as a physical fitness champion. I'm just gonna watch the Simpsons,

you're gonna run into Arnold Schwarzenegger. You're everywhere. Absolutely, but it has become so odd in a way, because I would be sitting over in an elevator, and I would be talking to somebody in the door, open up, and then someone would walk in and say, I knew it was you. And I said, what do you mean? I said, I just heard your voice, and I knew it was you. So it's my voice, and my accent is so identifiable now. I know that people don't even have to see you and immediately detect that it was you. How do you order a pizza and not have a person

on the other end, like just go like, okay Arnold, you know, we know this is you. Do you know what I mean? And I'm sure you're eating ordering a ton of pizza. I would like to have 7,000 pizzas. So, 7,000 pizzas. You have to. How he orders a pizza. I want you to read in it.

I want the Venus Nitsa pizza. I want the Venus Nitsa pizza. I want the vice-washed pizza. I want a council. Is this Arnold Schwarzenegger again? No. Exactly. You're going to have pizza. You know, in the early part of the book, when you're talking so much about,

you come here to Los Angeles to be a bodybuilder and you realize that it's not as far along as you thought it was, you know, the bodybuilding and you really had to become part of changing that movement and adding a lot to the sport and that it was a challenge to become a bodybuilder, even though you had had all this success in Europe when you came to the US, you felt like almost like you were starting again. Well, it was really funny because the magazines that had got us a kid. Well, American magazines, a lot of them. And so in this American weed magazines, you know, he had pictures of bodybuilders in Hollywood, you know, this was Dave Traper was doing the movie, Don't Make Waves, We Turn It Counties.

And they were others that were doing movies in Chinatita and Rome and all this, the semis of others bodybuilding is really big Not here in Austria, but I mean in America. So they may go to America I Realized that people were asking what do you do? Why is a muscular and you a football player? Are you a bouncer? You know what what what's going on here? You know your wrestler. Oh, you're professional wrestler

But then they would guess everything except bodybuilder because it almost didn't exist. It didn't exist exactly so I realized that so that I of course love the sport and I felt like, okay, I don't know, you learned how to sell. You you want to print us in selling and being a salesperson. So let's sell bodybuilding. And so I started approaching it in the same way as a product, any product. And I started hiring a publicist. This girl by the name of Shelley Sullivan.

I remember her name. Did she was working for a big agency, publicity agency, and she was kind of like beginning on her craft. And that's why they gave her to me. And they said, okay, you deal with this bodybuilder. And as she was very good, beginning on her craft and that's why they gave her to me and they said, okay, you deal with this bodybuilder. And she was very good. She got me under the night show and on a birth group and show on the, you know, and all this various different talk shows and interview with the earlier times. And we got going and we started promoting the sport and then the book

pumping on started coming out and those guys Charles Gaines and George Butler did an extraordinary job with the photographs and with the writing of pumping on. And then eventually the documentary came out and we did that. And that was like a huge hit, one of the biggest documentaries in the 70s. And so all of a sudden bodybuilding started to grow and grow. And it became really fashionable and it became in. Do you, I'm curious now at this age, what do you do? to grow and grow and it became really fashionable and became in. I'm curious now at this age, what do you do?

You look fantastic, but obviously you've probably completely changed up your regimen because you have different goals now. What do you do when you get up in the morning? 6, 605, 606. You've had your Venus Nitsl pizza. You've made sure you've gone online and checked in on Conan O'Brien who what he's up to you listen to his latest podcast That's all out of the way you've watched some like classic clips Now it's eight o'clock nine o'clock, but you go to work out. What do you do? What do you do?

Is the goal now to try to freeze weights? Do you want to do anything that you say this? Absolutely true That's how many days does the only thing that you forgot, huh? Which is kind of like very selfish Thinking because you forgot my animals. Oh, you're right. You see before I watch Conan Before listening to you I go and feed Lulu and whiskey. That's right. And then I listen to you, I go and feed Lulu and Whiskey. That's right. And then I feed, of course, Schnely, which is my pig. You have a pig and then I have three dogs. You have three dogs.

And Lulu and Shushen Lulu is the miniature donkey. Miniature donkey. And Whiskey is the miniature pony. How did you get to have a miniature donkey? Well my girlfriend gave it to me Okay, so we're the most things. Yeah, I had I had whiskey, which is my daughter's miniature pony and and my daughter's somewhat Abandoned this whiskey. Mm-hmm. So you know she used to be hanging out and taking her around and everything like this, on shows and walking with her.

And then I was certain from one day the next she didn't do anything. And this whiskey was, this miniature pony was down at the stable, down a mandible cannon by herself. And no one really did pay attention to it. So I said to one of the skies down there, can you bring the whiskey up to the house? And so I have a big backyard, I have two and a half acres of flat ground. And so he brought whiskey up and so I had to run around up there and then I brought into the kitchen. I started feeding us some cookies and some carrots and all this stuff.

You have a pony in the kitchen. Yeah. There this. You have a pony in the kitchen. Yeah. There's a pony and a donkey in the kitchen. Minisher, but now, you know, kind of a few years later, my girlfriend says, okay, you can't have a pony alone. It needs company. Right. So she gets me for Christmas miniature donkey.

So I get this little miniature donkey, which was very young, nine months old. And the day fell in love with each other and they hang out together now They both come into the house in the morning So when I get up in the morning and they get them out of the stable at six in the morning to come into the kitchen And I feed them cookies and that the big cookies running Cookies when it is the oatmeal cookies. I thought you were just like, here's an audio for you. An audio for you, an audio for you. Now get the fuck out of here. Exactly. I got this oatmeal cookies.

I got this oatmeal cookies made for myself because I didn't want to have the regular commercial oatmeal cookies with the sugar. So it's just making it with the honey and the, so they did. So I have this big jaw of oatmeal cookies. So then I always said, and so I was eating this cookie and the horse was pushing

me. So I said, let me try it. So I give it a cookie, eating it immediately, then pushing me again. So I give it another cookie, then I give it a lul of the cookie. So I always said it became a stick, right? Now we make extra cookies for the horses, but the dogs sit down next to me, while the horses are eating the cookies. So now they're begging and they're reaching up with their paw. So now I give them cookies to the dogs. Then the pig comes around and now there's like all of them sitting there. And I'm just, you know, for 10 minutes, handing out cookies, your orders have to make pounds and pounds of cookies every day.

It's crazy. You're so white. He's Dr. Doolittle. Dr. Hines Doolittle. Listen, I don't understand. Every day Dr. Hines do little yeah, listen, I don't understand So that's what I do so you know, Conan that's what I do before I listen to your podcast. I mean for you Do it while listening to the podcast. This is the delight of Arnold Schwarzenegger is that we're talking and I think, well, here's what we're going to talk about is his new bodywork bodybuilding regime at this age. Now, what do you do now?

And before I know it, you're in a room, you're basically in a keyboard elf tree making cookies for pigs, donkeys and ponies. That's right, exactly. It's madness. And I go to the gym. So now I drive down to the beach. Do you ride the little pony? No, I've been killing me. I have my grandchildren. They ride the pony and they ride the miniature donkey. But I hold on to the kids because you never know. They're very feisty. There's animals.

They obviously charge and run off and all this stuff. So I want to make sure that they're safe. But the grandchildren love coming over to the house and seeing all the animals. I want to come. Everyone of the grandkids has their favorite animal. They can't see cherry. Can't see it snowly. Can't see Lulu. Can't see this again. Everyone of the grandkids has their favorite animal. The Kenese cherry, Kenese chnelli, Kenese lulu,

Kenese desu, again. So then what I do a lot of times is I have a cousin that is 95 years old in New York, and he's kind of old. And so he's very fragile. So what I do and I have also a cousin of the name of Monica in Austria. So what I do a lot of times is while I'm feeding the animals, I go and dial their number on my iPad and I film the whole thing and they love it. They talk about it the entire day.

They just really love it. So people really get entertained that a lot of times people ask me, can I come over to your house and see the animals. Not to see can they come and visit you. No, no one is interested in that. They just want to go and see the animals and then they come over and see the animal with their kids or whatever it is. Now, then I go to the gym. But anyway, so then I go down to the beach. Yeah, tell me what you do. What do you do off my Yukon? And then I drive to Goldschimm. Then I work out 45 minutes as Goldschimm. And then I ride back, put my bike back on a truck,

and then drive home. And if breakfast, well, have nothing. And then it just continue on with my work. I would love to work out with you someday. Yeah. And you might be surprised. I might love to work out with you someday. Yeah. And you might be surprised. I might be in better shape than you think I am. You know, I'm just saying.

Or you might be surprised the other way that a man, my age could let himself go that much. It could go either way. And why would I have to be surprised in the first place? That's true. What is the obsession about me being surprised? You're right. I guess I'm trying to impress you one way or the other.

Well, that's okay. Even in the positive way or the negative way. I just want to make some impression. I want to be the last thing you think of at night before you say good night to Schlübel. So he wakes up due to watching Conan. Right. Going to sleep thinking about you. Exactly. Yeah, I'm pretty sick. It's a great night to do. Good night to do. Good night to do. That is his vision. Yeah. That is his vision. Yeah. It's unbelievable.

Yeah, I'm sorry. What is going on? I need to be medicated. Yeah. And I am medicated. Yeah, I'm sorry. What is going on? I need to be medicated. Yeah. And I am medicated. I just need more medication. I, you talk in the book that you say that you're favorite and you've had so many great jobs. I mean, you, in your life, you achieved all these great dreams.

You said your favorite job ever was being governor of California. Yeah. All-time favorite job. The toughest job without any doubt, because to bring 120 legislators together and make them agree on anything, it's kind of like impossible. But we made it possible. We figured it out. And I think that to serve 40 million people and to be the governor of the greatest state

in the union, greatest state in the country, out of 50 states, California is without, by far, the greatest state, with the most revenues and the most power, the most diversity in the world. Unbelievable. And not only that, but we are actually now the fourth largest economy in the world. So to be governor of that, it's just unbelievable the responsibility. And you learn a lot. I mean, it was the most extraordinary learning experience to sit in that capital and to have meetings. Think about that. If a meeting from 9 to 10 with the nurses union

If a meeting from 9 to 10 with the nurses union, and they want to have a better ratio between patients and nurses, if you know for every four patients, one nurse, rather than for every six patients, one nurse. And everyone heard of that before, the ratio. So you learn about all of that, and what is it that nurses go through? And why is it important? Because we lift a patient from the operating table. You know, only the bed,

and there's two women cannot sometimes do it. If it's a heavier patient. So they need a male patient there. So they were fighting also, they have male patients that are a little stronger to lift the male. The male nurses, yeah, yeah. So all of this stuff, I've male patients, they're a little stronger to lift the pain. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So all of this stuff I've never even heard of, those debates, then the prison guards come in

and say, we're working so many over time, so much over time, we need to have more prison guards, we need to hire more, and we have to have more salaries, more wages, and more benefits in order. So they talk about that issue. Then the teachers come in, the teachers union, they talk about the teaching and the challenges teachers go through. Then the people that represent the kids come in. So this is how it goes on and on and on from

one night. And it's always issues that you have not really been aware of. So in the beginning it was kind of like a university where you study new subjects and new issues all the time and you become so smart with all of this stuff. And I had one advantage and that was, I was not a real ideologue. You know, yes, I was conservative. Yes, I'm a Republican, but I'm not stuck in this ideological corner. And I didn't look at the Democrats as the enemy.

I always felt kind of like in order to make this work, you have to have Democrats and Republicans work together. So we work together and we figure out what is it that we can do together and then let's fight over the other issues. People are so hungry for that. Yeah, and so that is what we did. And that's why we were able to do build all this infrastructure and why we were able to do the redistricting reform and get rid of cherry mentoring and why we were able to go and pick so many minority judges and women and all of this so we were able to do things and the environmental issues that we tackled. I mean it's the only

state that really reduced its greener's gases, its pollution by 25% within 10 years. So there was a lot of great stuff that was going on, but together, Democrats and Republicans together did this work, not me, not the Republicans, but Democrats and Republicans. Here's what really I took away from your book and what you're saying right now is early in your career, it's you and you are in a situation where you can control your body, you can control what you do to your body and how you build your body, you can be in full control as a body builder, then control was very important to you when you got into movies. How can I prepare myself? What roles are right for me? What roles are

wrong for me? If I'm going to do a comedy, what should that comedy be? And what would the best way for me to, how could I best show my humor? What would work? Who's the best? Who's the best that? When you become governor, you put yourself in a situation where a governor can do so much. It's almost like you willfully put yourself in a situation where you don't have a lot of control.

There's a lot you can't control when a job is that big. Do you think there was some part of you that was pushing you into a situation where you can't control everything? All you can do is try pushing you into a situation where you can't control everything. All you can do is try, but there's a lot you can't control. You're absolutely right, but you don't want to. Because you don't want to dictate a ship, you don't want to have one person make all of

the decisions because we're not perfect. Sometimes that goes overboard and instead going power crazy and stuff like that. So you need always to have a check in balance. I think that's really terrific. But what you can do and where you have total control always motivating people to move forward and to do great things. So it doesn't matter with the philosophies,

but to say we must sit down guys and we gotta build more highways and freeways, more tunnels and bridges, more on-ramps and off-ramps, my school buildings, my university buildings, affordable housing. Let's do it. We can do it. So now they go and they go, oh, this is great. And they sit down and you can motivate. So you become kind of the motivator and the force behind bringing people together and

creating a vision. Like I said in the book, the visualizing is the most important thing. I had very clear visions, of course, crazy visions of what California can't be. I visualized, I told them, I visualized, you know, every city having a thousand cranes. And the building and building and building new dams, new highways, new desert, that's not as a and it was a crazy vision, but you have to have a vision, but it motivated them to sit down and that we were able to do $60 billion of infrastructure, half of what I wanted, but we did it. And so this is really the great thing. So I think that one

thing we have control always motivating, and that's one of the things I feel like is missing the day. motivating and that's one of the things I feel like is missing the day. There is no one in Washington that is really rallying up the troops and is motivating them and becoming kind of like their motivational kind of force behind it to bring people together because there's a way of doing it. There's a way of doing this. People are not saying I don't want to get together with the other side. I think you just need someone that motivates them and really make it attractive and kind of like talk to them and communicate the right way. And so this is I think there's certain powers that we do have that was that I was able to use. And that was always a positive person, you know me. I mean, it was never kind of like I always see the world kind of like a Norman Rockwell. You know me. I mean, it was never kind of like, I always see the world kind of like

Norman Rockwell. You know, Norman Rockwell, he always painted everything. There was fun. Kind of optimistic and optimistic and fun and colorful and stuff. So that's the way I, that's the lens that I look through when I look at America or when I look at any of the issues of the problem sizing. It's always through that lens. I see brighter, since don't see dark, and black and white or anything like this. I always see bright, and there's a bright future ahead. And I think that to me, is much more helpful than always being depressed.

And play, say, oh, I got things that terrible, things that going downhill and all that. Yeah, I was very impressed too, which I didn't realize in the book, is you had surgery that was supposed to be routine just a couple of years ago and something went very wrong in the surgery and it was touch and go. Oh, yeah, I mean, I was really pissed off and you I can tell you I mean, think about it. We go and pissed off that I had a life in death. No, but I mean,

think of it. I mean, you go in behind, you say, they say, it's a two-hour procedure. And the next thing you know is you wake up and they say, okay, this is 16 hours later. Yeah. And you're trying to talk. And you go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. They say, well, don't try to talk, Arnold.

You still have this thing. They put it to me. They throw it in the throat. And so they're not put at the tube thing in your throat. And so they're not put to the tube out of my throat. You know, coughing and they say, all right, let us explain to you things went south. We punctured through the hard wall with the wire. Accidentally, this was the wire that was to go up

and remove your old valve, a wadig valve. And then the other way I was supposed to replace that and put a new wadig valve in. But by accident, we punched it, punctured through the wall and it created internal bleeding that we had to do an emergency opening of your rib cage, rib everything open very quickly out of as you would have died. And now we had to then do this, and then we, by accident, also damaged the other valve, and this is how it went on. And so now 16 hours later, but we saved you.

You say, well, that is really fantastic. I had to kind of like what I call their shifting gears. You know, I had to shift gears because now this thing like going after in the afternoon then out and having a good time was out the window. Now I'm trying to survive. And this is to just reiterate, you thought you were going in for arthroscopic, like the stuff.

Or the stuff. Or the stuff thing. And then you go home that night, have your pizza and your donkey. And then you wake up 16 hours later and they took all of your insides out and put them back in. Exactly. Exactly. So this is what would happen. And so now you have to shift gears because now you have to say, when they tell you that you're not out of the woods yet,

because what happens a lot of times they say, you can die because of pneumonia. And so this is why it's very important that we, in a day, you must get out of bed and you got to go and start walking to really get lung exercises, because that's what usually trips you up. And so it's very, very important that I now start setting my mind, okay, I'm going to go

and I'm going to get out of bed as soon as they will me from this station over to my bedroom, I'm going to get out of bed in a matter of what and I'm going to start walking. And so this becomes like the mission, you know, to start walking, I don't want to die because of pneumonia. I've gotten through surgery and blah, blah, blah. And so, you know, it was kind of a touching ghost situation the first few days, but then I got strong and stronger. And three months later, I started with terminator six. I started filming. Three months later, I started filming again. They couldn't believe it on a set. And I was back again working out regularly and all that stuff. So, you know, I think that again,

it's a positive way of thinking. And I can do it. And nothing is going to stop me. You know, with that kind of an attitude, I was able to do that. This book is, I recommend it to everyone. Be useful, seven tools for life. I recommend it because the quality that comes through

again and again and again in this book that's really sweet is humility. You have a lot of humility for someone who is almost like the cartoon representation of you can do it all and achieve everything. You're very, very humble. And you have a lot of empathy for people who maybe don't have some of your qualities or struggle.

You have an incredible amount of empathy. And I could see that when you made these videos after January 6th and Ukraine and that really spoke to me and I thought, God, I'm happy this man's out there and he's doing this now with his platform. So thank you very much. I love being a motivational speaker out there and writing a motivational book and having a motivational newslet that is out there every day. And to do all of those kind of things, the pump club in order,

I felt kind of like I was motivated my whole life by people and I want to motivate other people, now millions of people around the world. That's my mission. I feel motivated. So I don't, I mean, I don't think you're motivated. Oh, oh, you don't, um, she's not more motivated, but I think I'm motivated. I'm still stuck in your hate ashery days.

She, well, I, I, I see that you're motivated. I don't know why come in this after you. I mean, it's like you're the only woman in this room. They, and who is your attacking? Oh my God. Yeah, unbelievable. You know what I'm saying? Yes. I'm gonna start a rumor that he has a hostile broken biomass. Oh, it's not a rumor. It's not a rumor. I will bet you. That is all I need. It's not a rumor.

It's not a rumor. It's not a rumor. It's not a rumor. Yes. Yes. Arnold Schwarzenegger, thank you very much, God bless. Absolutely, thank you very much, thank you, it was fun. Conan O'Brien needs a friend, with Conan O'Brien, Sonom of Sessian, and Matt Gourley, produced by me, Matt Gourley, executive produced by Adam Sachs, Nick Liao, and Jeff Ross at Team Coco, and Colin Anderson and Cody Fisher at Your Wolf. Themesong by the White Stripes. Incidental music by Jimmy Vivino.

Take it away, Jimmy. Our supervising producer is Aaron Blair and our Associate Talent Producer is Jennifer Samples. Engineering by Eduardo Perez. Additional production support by Mars Melnick. Talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Batista, and BrittCon. You can rate and review this show on Apple Podcasts and you might find your review read on a future episode. Got a question for Conan?

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