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| “I vill crush you like the pencil neck geeks you are!” |
BEVERLY HILLS, CA–And now a man who needs no introduction,” said ESPN vice president Connor Schell. “Do it anyway,” said Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The former “Governator” was ESPN’s way of getting us to stick around to the very end of this summer’s TCA press tour. While some journalists had already bolted for the airport, everyone who was left got in on the Schwarzenegger session.
He was here to promote Arnold’s Blueprint, the first 30 for 30 short being introduced this fall on ESPN. The 12-minute film, by documentary filmmaker Michael Zimbalist, chronicles Schwarzenegger’s one year of obligatory service in the Austrian army. The army stint was mandatory if the future Mr. Universe was going to get a passport. He packed on 25 pounds of muscle in that one year, chowing down on all the meat and working out every chance he got. He repeated several times during the session how important that one year was in his life.
“I wanted to be the strongest man in the world and all those kind of things,” he said. “It was just a matter of now putting the work into it and keep seeing it in front of you and chasing that vision.”
The Guv was relaxed and smooth throughout the session, showing flashes of humour as he worked the room. He says he’s doing a bunch of films now with Sylvester Stallone because, “we’re in love with each other.” He says he worked four hours on the first Expendibles movie, four days on the one about to be released and will work four weeks on the next one. Hey, the man is 65.
Schwarzenegger admitted he took steroids back in his body building days, suggesting the artificial enhancers were “experimental” back then. He doesn’t recommend that route today. “Every sport is trying to get rid of the drugs,” he says.
He’s proud of his accomplishments in office, pointing out he was the lone Republican in Sacramento, surrounded by Democrats. Then he’s piss off the Republicans by backing same sex marriage. Life is so much easier in the movies.
He says he never pays attention to the naysayers, a belief that has informed his whole life. “When people say no, I hear yes,” he said, triggering a few of us in the room to think about his former housekeeper. it had been a long press tour, and we were all out of steroids.
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