Playboy Interview: Arnold Schwarzenegger

The legend is well known: how an Austrian-born muscleman, having singlehandedly transformed the sport of bodybuilding into a national pastime, went on to conquer Hollywood. There, portraying a series of entertaining comic-book superheroes—from gargantuan cavemen to monster robots—he created a new kind of strong man. His characters were invincible, often brutal, yet betrayed, if one squinted, a certain vulnerability.

The formula proved highly bankable for Arnold Schwarzenegger. Blockbuster films such as "The Terminator," "Conan the Barbarian," "Conan the Destroyer" and "Commando" grossed more than $100,000,000 each. And as the revenues rolled in, they made Schwarzenegger rich. His subsequent investments, mostly in real estate, enhanced his reputation for shrewdness. The record shows that he owns several apartment complexes in Los Angeles; that he sold a $10,000,000 investment property in Denver a few years ago; that he owns another $10,000,000 office block in midtown Santa Monica; and that he's thinking about developing a Chicago-style Merchandise Mart in California. Forbes magazine recently estimated his two-year income from investments and holdings to be approximately $26,000,000.

Such wealth, especially among the movie-star elite, is not unique. What sealed Schwarzenegger's grip on the American dream was his remarkable entry into society. In the spring of 1986, he walked off with one of the country's great romantic prizes, Maria Shriver. A niece of John F. Kennedy, Shriver had beauty, brains and breeding—and served to replace her groom's recently expired green card with the ultimate blue-blood credentials. The man who had won five Mr. Universe and seven Mr. Olympia titles had completed his conquests.

Yet this remarkable journey from Austrian weight room to international stardom has not been easy. Born 40 years ago in Graz, Austria, Arnold Schwarzenegger had a strict upbringing. His father was a military man who, after World War Two, became the district police chief; his mother also had a strong sense of discipline. Feeling penned in, he sought release in sports.

His father had wanted him to be a soccer champ, so at the age of 15, Schwarzenegger began lifting weights to strengthen his legs. He was taken with the regimen and began to study bodybuilding muscle by muscle—learning how each muscle worked, how to shape them. Soon he began to devote himself entirely to weight training. His obsession alarmed his parents, who eventually forbade him to go to the gym more than three nights a week. Undaunted, he built his own gym in an unheated room in the house. He watched Steve Reeves and Reg Park muscle movies. Enlisting in the army in 1965, after high school, he used his stint in the service as yet another vehicle for weight training. His dream, however, was to compete in America.

He arrived in the U.S. in 1967 with "little more than a gym bag" and high school English. Schwarzenegger knew that he had two things going for him: a charismatic personality and a strong will. "My desire," he stated in his autobiography, "was to train one whole year and beat everybody in America." The hard work paid off in the form of titles, most dramatically in 1970, when he was named Mr. Universe (for the fifth time), Mr. World and Mr. Olympia—a hat trick that no other professional bodybuilder has repeated in a single year.

In addition to his determination, Schwarzenegger also showed another trait in those early years: sly manipulativeness. During competition, he would use a variety of tactics to psych out his rivals. In the documentary "Pumping Iron," he was shown playing on competitors' insecurities en route to grabbing the Mr. Olympia title. The New York Times, in a review of the movie, described Schwarzenegger's methods of " '[messing] up his opponents.' ... He uses the guarded camaraderie that precedes the competition to play all kinds of one-up games."

Comfortable in his adopted land, Schwarzenegger began to think about making the United States his home. He had already evinced a shrewd head for capitalism, starting a weight-lifting mail-order-catalog business under the name Arnold Strong. Now, bored with the limited glories of competition, he became enamored of that tried-and-true American path to celebrity: movie stardom. Though prepared for a struggle in Hollywood, he got lucky fast. Running into a friend who was working on Robert Altman's "The Long Goodbye," Schwarzenegger was invited to the set to meet the director. Altman eventually hired him as the character whose primary purpose was to beat up Elliott Gould. In the credits, he was billed as Arnold Strong.

Pleased with the experience, he began to take his budding acting career seriously, working with professionals on his accent, his voice, his talent—lessons he continues today. His next major appearance—in "Stay Hungry," with Jeff Bridges and Sally Field—was his breakthrough film, earning Schwarzenegger a Golden Globe as best newcomer in films. From there, he was on to title roles, specifically in the "Conan" series.

But it was Schwarzenegger's portrayal of the title role in "The Terminator," in 1984, that secured his fame: He was named International Star of the Year, and the movie was listed among the ten best films of the year by Time magazine. The subsequent top-grosser "Commando"—as well as "Raw Deal" and last year's "Predator"—confirmed his growing popularity. That popularity was not limited to the screen. He proved a charming and witty guest on his numerous appearances in front of "The Tonight Show's" TV cameras, just as he had charmed the camera in "Pumping Iron." Yet, clearly, Schwarzenegger was a man who kept tight control of his cooperation with the media. Even after he had agreed to sit down for the "Playboy Interview," it took months for him to slot it into his schedule. And when the summons finally came, it was abrupt. He called Playboy interviewer Joan Goodman in Los Angeles on a Tuesday afternoon and told her to take a Wednesday flight to Chicago, where he was making a film. Goodman reports:

"When we began the actual interview, he was pulling on a long, black Cuban Davidoff cigar, which he said had cost $25. Only half joking, he commented, 'Your time will be measured in stogies. When I finish one, the interview ends.'

"In that instance, Schwarzenegger was merely demonstrating the fine art of control—keeping everyone slightly off balance. He is one of the more finely tuned control freaks I have met in a career of celebrity interviews. He has said, 'The only thing that makes me nervous is when I don't get my own way'—and he means it.

"My first reaction to him was, there's a new Schwarzenegger on the scene. A normal-sized Schwarzenegger. He was 30 pounds off his top competition weight and ten pounds down from his previous movie low of 210 pounds. The planes of his cheeks looked taut and sharp, the waist narrowed and hard-toned. In other words, he looked as near to regular-sized as can be expected from a man who has spent his life developing his pecs, abs, glutes and quads to outsized proportions.

"He explained that his new size was tailored for his character in 'Red Heat,' the movie he'd been shooting in Chicago. In the film, he plays a Moscow cop on the tail of a Soviet drug smuggler in the U.S. Although the film has the usual murder and mayhem woven into the script, Schwarzenegger was happy to defend it—as he does all his films.

"As you might expect, Schwarzenegger is a charmer with a slightly Teutonic sense of humor. He's old-fashioned and European with women. He won't let you pick up a check, he opens doors and he watches his language.

"I think he's probably at his best with men. A pal says he calls Schwarzenegger 'the elephant,' because he's a Republican. That, and because he never forgets his friends. Or his objectives."

[Q] Playboy: If there's one thing your movies are noted for, it's violence. Sometimes it's cartoonlike; sometimes it's gory. Do you ever think that too much screen violence may be bad for people?

[A] Schwarzenegger: If I thought it was, then I wouldn't do those films. As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't influence people. I watched violent movies all my life and it had no influence on me. Something on the screen doesn't turn a person into a killer unless there's something already wrong with him. And I don't think when you make a movie you can say, "There's some crazy person out there who may take this the wrong way, who may do something crazy." If you did that, you would never make a movie.

[Q] Playboy: But the danger isn't just from the random crazy person, is it? Some studies show that younger people, especially, are influenced by the violence they see on the screen. And some people are acting against it.

[A] Schwarzenegger: Yeah, yeah, I know about the P.T.A., but this is just parents who don't want to take responsibility for controlling their kids. They work or are divorced or something. They think they don't have the time. Besides that, the press and the TV news focus on violence—real violence—all the time. Every local news show starts with how many killings happened that day.

[Q] Playboy: Doesn't that drive movie people like yourself to think up more and more violent scenes to outdo the real stuff?

[A] Schwarzenegger: There is less violence and gore in my latest movie, The Running Man—you don't see it as much. The cameras focus more on the faces and show the fear and the tension. Still, people get entertained in different ways. Some like love stories, some like historical movies, some like emotional films. And then there is that category of people who just like to go and see action movies with some violence throughout.

[Q] Playboy: And the effect on younger viewers——

[A] Schwarzenegger: Movies are rated, for adults or for kids. So it's up to the parents. It's a tough job. I remember when my father would say, "Don't go to see this movie," I would run twice as fast. That's how I could tell how much I would like a movie: by how much my father disapproved of it.

[Q] Playboy: Then you know that young people will get in to see your movies—or rent them on video—no matter what the rating.

[A] Schwarzenegger: Of course; whatever is forbidden as a kid you want even more. We had much stricter controls in Austria, because we had a police officer standing at the entrance to the movie theater checking our identification. If you were not the right age, you couldn't get in.

[Q] Playboy: How did you get in?

[A] Schwarzenegger: [Laughs] My method was to walk in backward when the people were coming out, like I was part of the audience. I always found a way to get in there.

[Q] Playboy: So what you are saying is, if a kid is like you, there is no way to keep him from seeing the kind of violent action films you make.

[A] Schwarzenegger: That I don't know.

[Q] Playboy: What about the kinds of characters you play—terminators, eliminators, commandos? Do you think the message they send is that violence is heroic?

[A] Schwarzenegger: No, because the bad guys do worse. My characters just defend themselves. The message that is sent is to be strong and to be smart and to rely on yourself to get out of danger, to save your own life.

Look, you've had assassinations before now. Presidents were shot before Reagan and Kennedy, before there was television or radio. You can't say what puts a crazy idea in a crazy mind. It's easy to blame a movie rather than to blame yourself. Which is what parents are doing.

Another thing about these reports that come out: They can be interpreted how you want. Many movies reflect what is happening in society and are taken from real stories. Maybe showing that is helpful, because it makes people know what can happen to them if they kill someone.

But the newspapers and news media are much more sensational. There was violence on the California freeways before, but now everyone's doing a story on it.

[Q] Playboy: So you think the press is at fault?

[A] Schwarzenegger: In the case of the California freeway killers, I think the big mistake is that people keep guns in their glove compartments. The deal with that is, when you have a permit, you're always supposed to keep your ammunition and your gun separate, so if you get emotional, by the time you get your gun from the glove compartment and your ammunition out of your trunk, you have a chance to cool down.

But the bad thing about all this is that it makes people think that we have to eliminate guns.

[Q] Playboy: And you don't think so?

[A] Schwarzenegger: Outlawing guns is not the right method of eliminating the problem. If you outlaw guns, people will still have them illegally. In Europe, they're outlawed everywhere. They have very strict gun control in Italy. Yet the Pope was shot. They have very strict gun control in Germany. Yet you see pimps shooting one another. Politicians have been shot in Sweden and Holland, where guns are outlawed.

I don't know how you handle this. I'm no expert.

[Q] Playboy: Has playing so many violent roles had any influence on you personally? For example, do you have a bad temper?

[A] Schwarzenegger: No; I used to lose my temper more easily, but then I realized it's not worth it. It doesn't interest me to have revenge, either. It takes too much time and energy.

[Q] Playboy: Although your movies have plenty of gore, they don't have much sex. And your character rarely has a love interest. Is that deliberate?

[A] Schwarzenegger: I have a love interest in every one of my films—a gun. [Laughs] It doesn't always have to be a woman. That's boring. Besides, you have to understand: In most action movies, women are in the way.

[Q] Playboy: Interesting rule of thumb. Any exceptions?

[A] Schwarzenegger: If the story specifically revolves around the woman or the woman's role is written to make the story work. But when women are thrown in, the way Hollywood does—as bait to get sex in the movie—I don't want to be part of that.

[Q] Playboy: Is that a principled stand?

[A] Schwarzenegger: As long as the woman is a token, I won't do the movie. It has to be like The Terminator, where the woman is the main character—where the story revolves around her. Then it is perfect. Then she comes out the hero. Conan is another great example. Or any of the movies where the woman has a specific purpose. But if they're just used for bait, then fuck it; I don't want them treated that way.

[Q] Playboy: There is probably a feminist thought in there somewhere. Actually, surveys show that there is a growing audience of women who do watch your films. Why do you suppose that is?

[A] Schwarzenegger: The vulnerability factor, I think. I play that on purpose. First of all, I am vulnerable in many ways. And I think that what you are comes out in a movie. I also think that people respond to a sense of humor in a character, especially when he's playing the stud, the big, strong guy.

[Q] Playboy: So you think that a gentler, more vulnerable man shows through?

[A] Schwarzenegger: Yes, I think so. I mean, it depends. There is no such thing as a gentle man or an aggressive man; it just depends on the circumstances. Professionally speaking, I'm much more aggressive than I am gentle. In sports, I'm more aggressive than I'm gentle; but there are moments when you ought to be gentle, and then I can be gentle, too.

[Q] Playboy: Do you think you projected that same vulnerability when you broke with the stereotype of the bodybuilder?

[A] Schwarzenegger: Yes. I think I made the sport more acceptable when I promoted bodybuilding in the mid-Seventies. For one thing, I didn't say the kind of things that put people off. In the old days, bodybuilders talked about eating two pounds of meat and 30 eggs a day, how they had to sleep 12 hours a day and couldn't have sex, and so on. And I said to myself, "Who the fuck wants to be part of that kind of sport?" First of all, it was not accurate; and second of all, if you want to make people join a particular activity, you have to make it pleasant-sounding.

[Q] Playboy: What did you talk about?

[A] Schwarzenegger: It's like promoting anything: You make it fun. I talked about diet—but I said I eat cake and ice cream as well. I said I stay out nights and I have sex and do all the things that everyone says you shouldn't do. I said all you have to do is train three times a week for 45 minutes to an hour and you will get in shape.

[Q] Playboy: Do you think you made muscle-bound guys more attractive and likable?

[A] Schwarzenegger: Yeah. I think for many years people always said that women weren't interested in men with bodies that were physically developed, men who had a lot of muscles. But all that stuff was only talk. The reality was quite different. I never felt that women didn't like me, nor have any of my friends felt that.

[Q] Playboy: You mean your bodybuilding buddies?

[A] Schwarzenegger: No one ever complained to me that since he got muscles, he couldn't get a woman. I think a lot of talk was the jealousy of men, because they felt inadequate around people who were in shape. That was in the Seventies, and it's all changed.

[Q] Playboy: You mean the fitness trend?

[A] Schwarzenegger: Now every man belongs to a gymnasium or a Y or a club of some sort. People work out with weights. From the time I got to this country until now, it went from having 2500 gymnasiums to having between 30,000 and 40,000 clubs. That's what really changed.

[Q] Playboy: Where did your original goal to be a bodybuilder come from?

[A] Schwarzenegger: I think I wanted to do something unique, something that not everybody else did. I was also very impressed with the idea of weight lifting, and when I joined the sports club, that was all that was in my mind.

[Q] Playboy: How old were you?

[A] Schwarzenegger: Fifteen. It was my own idea to join this club. It was in Austria, and it was the first time I had made a decision on my own, without my parents. I had grown up in a very strict household. My father wanted me to be a champion soccer player, because I played soccer a little bit at that time. So to join the bodybuilding club on my own gave me a really great feeling of independence.

[Q] Playboy: Did the other kids make fun of you? Bodybuilding wasn't exactly a varsity sport in Austria, was it?

[A] Schwarzenegger: No one made fun of me, but there was a lot of misunderstanding about bodybuilding. But that was fine. I understood that people were ignorant of this new thing. Now, of course, it's a very big sport in Austria and everyone is doing it. I was just ahead of my time. Whenever you're ahead of your time, you find resistance.

But, you know, resistance is a very healthy thing. It makes you a fighter. If everything comes easy in life, you become a softy, and my luck was that I grew up in very difficult conditions. I grew up just after the war, and there was no food around and very little money. It made me a fighter. When you're born in comfort, it's sometimes harder to struggle through things. So I was fortunate about that.

[Q] Playboy: You have a reputation as a very determined person. Do you think your upbringing explains that?

[A] Schwarzenegger: Partly, yes. My mother and father were very strict, very proper—like everyone else around us. Or it may also be hereditary; my father was a very driven person, a perfectionist. Or it could have been competition with my brother; he was a year older than I was. Or it may have been all of it together.

All I know is I had tremendous drive. I was taught that pain and suffering were not obstacles you should even think about. You just go through them. You just go on and conquer, then move on. When people say to me, "It must have been so difficult," it didn't even cross my mind. It was just part of it all.

[Q] Playboy: Looking back now, was it enjoyable to spend all those years lifting weights?

[A] Schwarzenegger: Yes, it was the most fun thing to do. As a young guy, I trained with guys who were at the level of Mr. Austria. And that was a great inspiration. You don't usually start out so high. To work out with them and go to competitions and see myself getting stronger and more muscular and becoming a weight-lifting champion—something just clicked in me.

Everyone has something in him that will give him the same kind of joy. People have to give themselves the chance to find it by trying out different things. Some people never overcome the routine of life where you go to school, then go to work from eight to five and then have no time to try anything else, because you're tired. I was fortunate to stumble onto something that I really enjoyed.

[Q] Playboy: Are you saying it's all luck?

[A] Schwarzenegger: No, not at all. I stuck with it and I struggled and worked very hard. It gave me a sense of accomplishment and a sense of independence.

In bodybuilding, you're not part of a team. You test yourself, learn to rely on yourself. That was always a big thing for me. I always hated to ask anyone for help, though I've gotten plenty of help in my life. Everyone needs help, but it was always more difficult for me to ask for help than to give it. I always wanted to do everything myself. It's my own craziness.

[Q] Playboy: Bodybuilders traditionally rely on more than just themselves—chemicals, for instance. When you were competing, did you take steroids?

[A] Schwarzenegger: Oh, sure, sure.

[Q] Playboy: Does that concern you now?

[A] Schwarzenegger: No, I don't worry about it, because I never took an over-dosage. I took them under a doctor's supervision once a year, six or eight weeks before competition. I was always careful and checked, and I never had any side effects.

[Q] Playboy: What is your attitude today toward steroids? Can you become a champion without them?

[A] Schwarzenegger: I always tell people to stay away from them and rely on hard work. Today, there is a whole new breed of bodybuilders who rely just on hard training and use food supplements and amino acids and things like that. A lot of the guys who relied on steroids have retired.

There was always too much emphasis on what steroids could do. They might help you five percent, but they couldn't make you an overnight champion.

[Q] Playboy: Then why did you take them?

[A] Schwarzenegger: Because at 20, all you want to do is be a champion. You take anything that anyone else is taking. You try to find out what are the best proteins, the best supplements around. When I came to this country, I found out about steroids and I tried them out. But I wish that in those days we had had drug tests. It would have been much better. Bodybuilding is what the name implies: to make your body healthier and stronger. Drugs do exactly the opposite.

[Q] Playboy: What about other drugs; have you done them?

[A] Schwarzenegger: Never in my entire life. When I came to America, someone gave me a drug like speed. He told me it would make me sharper and I'd lose weight. But I lost muscle tone. It was like having a hard-on that's not hard, that is half limp. I don't like that. I like to feel fully pumped. I threw the pills away. Nor has anyone so much as smoked a joint when I was there. Or sniffed coke. Or taken any drugs. In Hollywood, I have never seen any drugs on the set or anywhere. It could be because people know me well enough to know that I don't want anything like that. I'm around actors all the time—and I've worked with them in Mexico, on jungle locations where you'd think it might happen just to pass the time—and I've never seen it.

[Q] Playboy: That probably says something about your clout on a movie set. But the power you have now didn't come overnight, did it?

[A] Schwarzenegger: I experienced a lot of prejudice. The people in Hollywood had many reasons why I could not make it: my accent, my body, my long name. That made it very difficult—until I realized that you cannot compete at that level out here. You have to create your own position where you establish yourself in such a way that no one else can compete with you.

You just turn the whole thing around. That is what black actors do—including people like Bill Cosby and Eddie Murphy. They've created a certain thing that no one can touch; no one can compete with them. Studios can't do what they did to Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield and all those girls years ago. "If we can't get one, we'll get the other. She's blonde, she has tits, she has an ass, she has a good body...." If one didn't want to do a script, they would get the other. That's what The Jayne Mansfield Story, which I did for television, was all about. [Schwarzenegger played the role of Mansfield's husband, bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay.]

[Q] Playboy: You learned a lesson in power from The Jayne Mansfield Story?

[A] Schwarzenegger: I learned that you have to establish yourself in an area where there is no one else. Then you have to create a need for yourself, build yourself up. While their empire goes on, slowly, without their realizing it, build your own little fortress. And all of a sudden, it's too late for them to do anything about it. And they have to come to you, because you have what they want. Because you're stable and your films always make money for the producer or the studio.

[Q] Playboy: But can't that stability lead to a vicious circle, where you always make the same kind of films?

[A] Schwarzenegger: I feel I like to specialize in action adventure films right now. I know that a lot of people say, "I don't want to be typecast," but that's crap. It's all typecasting. If they want a black guy for a movie, no matter how fantastic an actor you are, if you're white, you will not be hired. Not even if you're Dustin Hoffman. And if they want somebody ordinary-looking for Kramer vs. Kramer, they're not going to hire Sylvester Stallone and they're not going to hire me, because we don't look ordinary.

[Q] Playboy: What about your own acting? Most critics refer to your performances as "wooden." Don't you ever feel as if you'd like to show a little more emotion?

[A] Schwarzenegger: I don't say to myself, "Gee, I wish I could show my emotions." I think The Jayne Mansfield Story was a very emotional film in many ways. Stay Hungry showed a lot of emotion. So did Commando.

But you're right. In action films where you do the action yourself, you can't always show emotion. I think the majority of people out there appreciate that. They like to be able to disconnect emotions and go after what they want to go after, destroy what they want to destroy. That's why they go to see those films. It's a fantasy.

I'm portraying something that everyone wants to do. Everybody wants to say, "I'm upset with my boss. I wish I could finish him off. I wish I could just be cold and not let anything get to me." When people see one of my films, they subconsciously think it's them handling all these situations so easily, fighting back and getting even. So in those situations, you don't want to show too much emotion.

And producers also hire me because I don't look ordinary. If you do heroic things in movies, you can't look like a skinny rat. You have to look accordingly, and that's typecasting.

[Q] Playboy: Was all of this—the movie career, the fame—an ambition you had from the start?

[A] Schwarzenegger: No. When I was younger, I wanted to do exactly what my father did—to be in the military or to be a police officer or with the Gendarmerie, which is the country police, or something like that. As a kid, I always ran around with my father's uniform on. I had to stand on a chair, because the coat would hang down below my feet. I put on the hat and all that stuff that went with the uniform. That was my first dream.

[Q] Playboy: You had a brother who died.

[A] Schwarzenegger: Yes, in a car accident in 1971, when he was 24 and I was 23. I still think about it many times. I'm now bringing his son Patrick over to America. He's 19 and has just graduated from high school. He wants to study in America and will go to college to study business.

[Q] Playboy: You were close to your brother, weren't you?

[A] Schwarzenegger: We were close. The whole family was close, but there was a competitiveness, too—obviously in sports and in school and every other way. There was always competition, because we were so close in age. I'm sure that's part of what spurred me on.

[Q] Playboy: Which of you was the favorite child in the family?

[A] Schwarzenegger: The way I remember it, as a kid you get pissed off on a daily basis, because you feel there is no justice. Whatever you want to do, people tell you, "No, you can't." But my brother told me he went through the same thing. There was a no to him and a no to me, but sometimes ... I felt he got more of the yeses and I got more noes. But then my brother would say to me, "You're so lucky that they like you more." My mother now says that they always made an effort to treat us the same.

[Q] Playboy: Your father had an enormous influence on you, didn't he?

[A] Schwarzenegger: Oh, yes, more than I ever realized. We spent a tremendous amount of time together. I grew up in a time when family was extremely strong. You'd have dinner together and breakfast together and lunch together, so you became much more a product of your parents than of outside forces.

Today, women work and they give the kid to some nanny or school and the kid becomes the product of that. That's why there is a breakdown in families today—kids don't feel close to their parents because of the lack of time they spend together.

My father was a musician. He tried to turn me on to classical music. I had no interest in it whatsoever. He was interested in cultural things, which is not unusual in Austria.

My father had this thing that every Sunday, something had to be done, if it was going hiking or going into town and seeing buildings or going to a play or listening to him when he played with the police band. Then, the next day, we had to write about it, of course, and hand it in to my father. A ten-page paper or so. He insisted on that. He would then correct it with a red pencil, putting marks all over the place. "This sentence makes no sense. This sentence is not true; we did not go there. We did not see this exhibit. You made a mistake in the spelling; write this word 50 times." [Laughs]

[Q] Playboy: Has this carried over into adulthood?

[A] Schwarzenegger: I remember when I was 19, when I was in Munich, I was writing letters home to my father and he would say, "Why do you write so big? You don't want to write more?" And I would say, "No, my handwriting is just like that." [Laughs] So it was always something like that, correcting spelling mistakes or grammar or something like that. That's the way he was.

[Q] Playboy: And did that kind of experience become a tool for you later on?

[A] Schwarzenegger: Oh, of course. The thing is that at first you bury it. You put it way back in your mind and you just ignore it. I thought everything my father said was wrong, but then you get to be 25 or 30 and you think back and say, "Goddamn it, can you believe it? All the things that I like now, my father was saying I should learn!" So somehow it surfaces again.

[Q] Playboy: Someone said that that was what he noticed most about you—that you always wanted to learn, to absorb.

[A] Schwarzenegger: That's true. It's just part of being hungry. Hungry for learning. Continuously learning. This is what I always try to teach my friends that are around me all the time. You can't waste time. If you want to do something, learn about it, read about it, do it. Even in my bodybuilding days, I always hated just lying around on the beach in the sun. At least you could have a book and read. I had a professor in school who said, "Instead of wasting time, read 15 or 20 minutes a day about something that really interests you. By the end of the year, you will be an expert in it."

[Q] Playboy: You seem to be saying two things—that you resented your father's exaggerated strictness but were enriched by it.

[A] Schwarzenegger: Of course. You have to understand, mine was a difficult background. I was born two years after World War Two ended. There was no food in Austria. My mother had to go around with us to various farms until she got enough food and sugar and stuff. I had only shelter and love from my parents; but after that, nothing. We had no television set in my house when I grew up. There was no phone, no bathroom in the sense that we know it.

[Q] Playboy: And you began to plan almost immediately to get away?

[A] Schwarzenegger: It was a very small world and I had big visions and big goals. How they came into my mind, I don't know. They were just there. I had great fantasies always about where life could go, and I went after the fantasies rather than just dreaming them. I made them happen. While my friends were dreaming about working for the government so they could get a pension and that shit, I was talking about big things.

At the same time, we lived in a pretty large house. It was a good place to grow up, and my father was interested in antiques and art. As a kid, I never did appreciate it. All the things that were very common in Europe, I didn't like. When I came over here, it went back the other way. So I've learned now to appreciate what my father instilled in me. I even like to paint now myself.

[Q] Playboy: When did your father die?

[A] Schwarzenegger: In December 1972. I was in America, in a hospital with a leg injury. I couldn't go to the funeral, because I was in the hospital. And I took it badly, because I knew how much he had done for me. When you have parents who mold you in a certain way, it's a great effort for them. You have a chance of paying them back, making them feel that all that effort meant something. Then that's all cut off. My father saw my progress—that I was developing in my sport and was smart in business—but he never saw the full circle. But death never comes at the right time, no matter when it is.

My mother is also a very important force in my life. I bring her over here to America once a year for two months, and we often spend Christmas and New Year's together. She usually comes on my film sets, too.

[Q] Playboy: What does she think about your life in the fast lane?

[A] Schwarzenegger: She thinks I'm a workaholic, that I'm always on the go. You have to remember that she's from Graz, a little town in Austria where people sit around and sip coffee—one cup can last two hours—and talk. Then she comes to my house in California and gets up at eight in the morning—I'm just coming home from training—and she says, "Why so early? Why don't you eat first?" I say, "No, you have to train before you have breakfast." "This is healthy?" she asks.

Then the phone starts to ring and I'm eating breakfast and talking business. Then I go to the office and later I do workouts at home. I have people to the house. When I get an hour free, I play tennis on the tennis courts at home. Or I go to the park and ride my horse or go for a motorcycle ride. There's always a lot going on. My mother worries that I'm doing too much, but she's a very proud Austrian mother.

[Q] Playboy: When people think of Austria these days, the subject of Kurt Waldheim comes up. What do you think about the charges against him?

[A] Schwarzenegger: I hate to talk about it, because it's a no-win situation. Without going into details, I can say that being half-Austrian and half-American, I don't like the idea that these two countries that mean so much to me are in such a disagreement. Austria is a very important place for Americans, because it is a neutral country. With a little bit of good will, the problem will be straightened out. I think it's well on the way.

[Q] Playboy: Spoken like a politician. Have you ever thought of running for office? In the family you've married into, the topic must come up.

[A] Schwarzenegger: I have no interest in that. I love politics; don't misunderstand me. It's extremely important to participate in the future of the country. But I love the job I do and the idea of being somewhat free. If you're in politics, you're supposed to serve the public, and then you have to clean up your act.

[Q] Playboy: And you wouldn't want to clean up yours?

[A] Schwarzenegger: No. I don't have anything to clean up. I don't live the kind of life that will backfire. I don't believe in cheating on taxes or in secret deals to set up companies to escape the IRS. I do this out of moral principles—not because I'm worried about what the public will think. Although I admire the people who run for office, I cannot conceive of taking the risks and making the sacrifices they make.

Still, it's a question that comes up periodically. Every so often, people ask me if I'd run for office; but, like I said, the will isn't there. And the timing is wrong. I never want to leave anything incomplete. I wouldn't want to leave my business at this point, and I haven't reached my goals in acting yet.

There's something you learn very quickly in sports—to follow through with the motion. In weight lifting, you always talk about not choking the motion. The same is true for careers. There are many aspects to the entertainment business besides acting. There's directing and producing. You can take on many challenges, and until you feel saturated and done, there's no reason to think about anything else.

[Q] Playboy: When you talk about getting to the top in acting, do you mean winning an Oscar?

[A] Schwarzenegger: The Oscar is only one way of establishing yourself.

[Q] Playboy: What's another?

[A] Schwarzenegger: You can establish yourself as the actor who makes the most money for the studio. Or the one who actually receives the highest salary. Or the one who has the biggest percentage of ownership of the film. Like Clint Eastwood, for instance. He has a unique deal. He is truly the king of the film industry and the box office world-wide.

[Q] Playboy: Are you forgetting your friend and fellow action-movie mogul Sylvester Stallone? Isn't he the highest-paid actor?

[A] Schwarzenegger: First of all, I don't know about that. Second, he is not my friend.

[Q] Playboy: Why not?

[A] Schwarzenegger: He just hits me the wrong way. I make every effort that is humanly possible to be friendly to the guy, but he just gives off the wrong vibrations. Whatever he does, it always comes out wrong.

I'll give you an example. We had breakfast together not long ago, because we are making films for the same company. We discussed not getting in each other's way and when the films should be released. It was a very agreeable conversation on every subject, and then he said, "You've got to become a member of my new club." I said, "What club?" He said, "It's going to be an all-male club with no women allowed. Just like in the old days. Only men. And we sit around and smoke stogies and pipes and have a good time." I told him it was the worst thing he could do. That we're living in a very sensitive time period when women are struggling for equality. I said that I didn't agree with half the stuff they were talking about, but a club like that would offend every smart woman in the country. I said to stay away from it. "If you want just guys, invite them up to your house. That's what I do."

[Q] Playboy: He's had some trouble with his image lately, hasn't he?

[A] Schwarzenegger: Just because you're a big star doesn't mean you have common sense about these things. Listen, he hired the best publicity agents in the world and they couldn't straighten out his act. There's nothing that anyone can do out there to save his ass and his image.

Just the way he dresses. Seeing him dressed in his white suit, trying to look slick and hip—that already annoys people. And the gold ring and the gold chains that say, "Look how rich I am"—all that annoys people. It's a shame no one taught him to be cool. He should have L. L. Bean shoes and corduroy pants with a plaid shirt. That's cool; that's how a director should look, rather than have that fucking fur coat when he directs.

[Q] Playboy: Haven't you ever gone through a flashy phase with your clothes?

[A] Schwarzenegger: No; since 1976, I've had a tailor in New York who always says, "I'm going to make you look like old money." So I wear mostly conservative clothes and I don't go with trends. I love the preppie look, which, many times, is bright colors—green-corduroy pants or red pullover shirts. The thing is, you have to be very careful when you're big.

My favorite outfit is my shorts and my L. L. Bean loafers or Topsiders and a T-shirt. But you can't go to business meetings like this.

[Q] Playboy:Forbes estimated your 1987 income at close to $18,000,000—which you may want to comment on——

[A] Schwarzenegger: Probably not.

[Q] Playboy: In what field do you make most of your money?

[A] Schwarzenegger: It's a combination of things—the films, the real estate and other investments. I love making movies, because you make a great salary and you know ahead of time what to do with it, such as investments. That way, I pay my income taxes with pleasure. I know that whatever I give the Government, my investments will bring back. I enjoy paying taxes in this country, because you can make a fortune investing the right way.

[Q] Playboy: How much money do you make per picture? We've heard that you got something like $3,000,000 for Predator.

[A] Schwarzenegger: I don't like to get into the financial side of it. It doesn't sell any tickets and only makes people jealous. There are too many people out there who don't have it, so why rub it in?

In any case, I can't talk about a salary, because for years now, my salary has doubled annually. So there's no salary per se. With certain actors, you can say, "He's getting $5,000,000" or "He's getting $3,000,000, because that's what he's gotten on the past six movies." It's a standard fee.

With me there is no such thing, because I am a rising person. If, for instance, one year I get $1,500,000, then the next year I get $3,000,000 and $6,000,000 the year after that.

[Q] Playboy: Do you also participate through your production company?

[A] Schwarzenegger: Yes. That's why I cannot say what I get. Let's say for the last movie I got $6,000,000. I then have Fox come after me for $8,000,000. Then I have Keith Barish, who did Running Man, offer me a five-picture deal for $50,000,000.

[Q] Playboy: And you took that?

[A] Schwarzenegger: No, I won't take it.

[Q] Playboy: Why?

[A] Schwarzenegger: Because that's not the bottom line. The number-one thing is the project itself. If the project is good, then they will all come to me with the money. Fox wants me to do another Commando and another Predator and then a prison picture.

[Q] Playboy: You're in a nice position—all the studios want you to make films for them. The money keeps rolling in.

[A] Schwarzenegger: There are such enormous amounts of money that can be made in the movies. I mean, you're talking about profits on Predator of more than $60,000,000 or $70,000,000 for Fox.

[Q] Playboy: Hasn't most of your movie money been invested in real estate?

[A] Schwarzenegger: Some has. But I owned apartment buildings and office buildings before I ever did a film. That was a great asset to my career. In the beginning, when people came to me and said, "I have a great part for you where you play a truck driver and you're on screen for ten minutes, but we'll use your body," I could afford to say no, because I didn't need the $20,000 they offered. It meant nothing to me. What I wanted to do was to build a career.

[Q] Playboy: As a newcomer from Austria, how did you know how to invest your money?

[A] Schwarzenegger: When I first came here, I began to take classes. I didn't have a student visa, so I could take only two classes in one school. That meant I took evening courses in business at UCLA and general-education courses at Santa Monica City College. I took art classes at West Los Angeles College—I was scattered all over the place.

Then I finally did a research program for Special Olympians at the University of Wisconsin. I submitted all my credits to them and needed only ten more credits for a degree. Altogether, I went to school for six years. It's all part of being hungry.

[Q] Playboy: And it helped you become a smart businessman.

[A] Schwarzenegger: Yes, but you have to have a feel for business. It's something that you're born with or grow up with. Then, as long as you have an interest in it, you will want to learn and reach out and find out how it works and apply it to yourself.

[Q] Playboy: Do you have an advisor for stocks and real estate?

[A] Schwarzenegger: No one specific person, though there are some people around me who give me advice. I read a lot about the subject. And I hear things. I belong to the Regency Club in Westwood, which is a very conservative businessmen's club.

[Q] Playboy: Do they accept you as a businessman or as an entertainer?

[A] Schwarzenegger: It's not a place for entertainers. It's a place where I can meet people in real estate and business. I also talk with people in the stock market. It makes you aware of new companies and take-over bids. I also follow people like Donald Trump and Marvin Davis, people with a history of good business dealings. You watch their moves. That will educate you.

[Q] Playboy: Does that mean that you handle your own investments?

[A] Schwarzenegger: Yes. I always do my own business dealings. Most people in the film business have their checks sent to their agent; then the agent sends it to the business manager. That's a sad situation.

[Q] Playboy: What about your bodybuilding business? Is that highly profitable?

[A] Schwarzenegger: We have a mail-order business that deals with T-shirts and souvenir items that kids want. Lifting belts with my picture on them, tank tops, gym bags—that sort of thing. But they're priced so any young kid can afford them. It was never meant to be a big profit source—just something to support the office.

[Q] Playboy: You also sponsor world championships. Do they make money?

[A] Schwarzenegger: I produce Mr. Olympia and Mr. Universe with a partner, Jim Lorimar, in Columbus, Ohio. It's become like the capital of bodybuilding. Listen, in my heart, I'm still as much a bodybuilder as I ever was. I just don't compete, because I don't have the interest or the time. But I love the sport and the idea of supporting the young guys coming up. We always raise a lot of money so we can give good cash prizes.

[Q] Playboy: Have you made financial mistakes?

[A] Schwarzenegger: I'm sure I have. In retrospect, I can say I would have done a few things differently. But you ask me if I have ever lost money. No, I have been far away from ever losing money.

[Q] Playboy: Hasn't it been relatively easy to make money on real estate these past ten years?

[A] Schwarzenegger: People say you never lose money in real estate. That is the case if you invest wisely. But if you don't, things can fracture very quickly. There are developing situations that you're not always aware of: a change of leadership in the White House or the balance of Democrats and Republicans in the Congress. All these things create a swift change in the economy. So does the outbreak of war or a hostage crisis.

[Q] Playboy: So you keep up with politics in order to be aware of these changes.

[A] Schwarzenegger: Oh, sure. When the Iran crisis happened, I could foresee it and I pulled out in time. When the shah was still in power, the Iranians invested in Los Angeles real estate. That drove up the real-estate market tremendously. When Khomeini came in, he stopped all that. On top of that, a proposition to bring controls on real estate was introduced. In a short period of time, a building that was once worth $1,000,000 was down to $750,000.

Whenever a Democratic Administration is in power, we in the real-estate industry make more money. Real estate goes with inflation. Under Carter, real estate made the most money.

[Q] Playboy: So you can't be too happy with Reagan on that score.

[A] Schwarzenegger: In the long run, what Reagan did was better for the country. You have to look at it in a less selfish way and say, "Do I want to make a quick buck now or do I want to have a stable economy for us and the next generation?" For me, Reagan was heaven.

[Q] Playboy: How does this point of view go down with your wife's relatives, the Kennedys?

[A] Schwarzenegger: They understand where I'm coming from and I understand where they're coming from. You have to understand that my situation is quite different, because I'm not really part of the family in the way that, say, Sargent Shriver is. He worked directly with them and had a working relationship with President Kennedy. My business—whether it is real estate or show business or whatever else I'm doing—is much more disconnected from the family.

[Q] Playboy: Then you don't feel that you have to live with—or explain—the Kennedy mystique?

[A] Schwarzenegger: Now, knowing the family so well, I would say that the outside world analyzes them in certain ways that are largely inaccurate. The whole dynasty trip and all that stuff that people put on them—none of that is the case. They are just very full of life, energetic people, because that's the way they grew up.

[Q] Playboy: Do your in-laws see your movies?

[A] Schwarzenegger: Sargent and Eunice see every one I make, and they immediately call me up to tell me what they think of it. They are very supportive and concerned that I make the right moves.

[Q] Playboy: What about the rest of the Kennedys? How would you assess them?

[A] Schwarzenegger: I admire what Teddy Kennedy does, though I don't agree with his politics. I think he is the best in his field. Teddy Kennedy is one of the smartest about getting a bill through and dealing with other Senators.

[Q] Playboy: Is he as smart as his brothers?

[A] Schwarzenegger: He is as smart, but he may not be as ambitious. He is the youngest, and it is hard to have that ambition or make that effort when you are the youngest.

[Q] Playboy: Did you admire President Kennedy?

[A] Schwarzenegger: Are you kidding? I loved Jack Kennedy. He combined the best of each party. He was a Democrat who did things like a Republican. He hired Robert McNamara, who was the head of an auto company, to run the business of the Government.

[Q] Playboy: How do you rate the new generation of Kennedys?

[A] Schwarzenegger: It's hard to say who will be the most successful. Certainly Maria and her brothers. The youngest brother has a great personality. Caroline Kennedy is very ambitious. She is going to law school now, and she wouldn't be putting herself through that shit if she weren't ambitious. She's a great girl. Jackie is lucky to have two kids like that. She deserves all the credit for it, because she raised them that way.

Bobby Kennedy, Jr., and his brother are very good. They have political ambitions, and so does the girl Emily [Bobby Jr.'s wife]. She's very smart. I don't know the Smith kids or the Lawford kids at all to comment on them.

[Q] Playboy: Despite your political differences with Teddy Kennedy, do you see much of him?

[A] Schwarzenegger: When Teddy comes to town, he visits us or we have a small dinner for him. I also see him on family occasions, or sometimes we go out to dinner. He calls Maria when he's coming to town.

[Q] Playboy: Maria is very close to her family, isn't she?

[A] Schwarzenegger: She is extremely close to the whole family. As a matter of fact, I've never seen, especially in America, any family so close. They're always on the phone with one another. She spends a lot of time talking with her relatives. If it isn't Teddy, it's her parents or Jackie or Caroline or the Smiths or the Kennedys or the Lawfords. It's always something. One has a birthday, the other one gets married, the other one graduates—so there are always congratulatory phone calls and sending flowers and letters to one another. It's just continual communication.

It's wonderful to see the support they give one another. When Maria starts a new job, the phone doesn't stop ringing from her relatives congratulating her and being excited about it.

[Q] Playboy: Was Maria very upset when CBS took her off the CBS Morning News?

[A] Schwarzenegger: I think that she felt it was time to get out of there. They got caught up in financial problems and there wasn't the support there. She was glad to move to another network—one that had more foresight as to where she could go with her career and also had the money behind it.

[Q] Playboy: But all in all, would you say that her family has not changed your political views?

[A] Schwarzenegger: I'm too strong. I cannot be changed. My political point of view has been the same since I was 18. When I came to this country, I was in heaven, because Richard Nixon was President and Reagan was governor of California. I said, "This is great. This is right up my alley."

[Q] Playboy: What about women's rights? Your wife also has a very visible job; has that been a problem for someone with your old-fashioned views?

[A] Schwarzenegger: When I first came to this country, I thought I would marry a woman who would take care of me and cook for me and take care of the house, the way my mother did. That's what I knew and it worked well at home, so I thought, That's exactly the way I would like it.

[Q] Playboy: What changed your mind?

[A] Schwarzenegger: I lived here and went to school here and was exposed to new ideas. In bodybuilding, I saw women who wanted to get into the sport and were treated like second-class citizens. I felt that it was very unfair. So, in the mid-Seventies, I made a move to include women in bodybuilding, even though it isn't my trip to see women with big muscles. But I appreciate their intentions. Sport is for all people, not just one sex. I learned that you have to look at women differently. It came very slow. But after being called a male-chauvinist pig by every girl, I now understand the struggle of women.

[Q] Playboy: Has marrying Maria helped?

[A] Schwarzenegger: Of course. She's out there competing in a man's profession, and I see how hard it is. And it adds to my life, too.

[Q] Playboy: In what way?

[A] Schwarzenegger: When you have a woman who has a profession, the nice thing is that there is an exchange of ideas. When you come home, you don't just talk about yourself and what you did. Maria tells me who she interviewed, what she learned. And I learn from that. So when we sit at dinner, we have the most interesting conversations. It's a two-way street. We are on equal grounds. There is no boss—though my wife sometimes tries to make me believe differently. I know for sure the way it really is.

[Q] Playboy: You say you have a big ego. Do you ever get jealous of Maria because she gets a great deal of media attention, too?

[A] Schwarzenegger: Not at all. I'm doing fine the way I am. Sometimes I don't want to pose for a cover with Maria, because I know then an editor wants to do an Arnold-and-Maria story rather than something that will promote a movie. But it's not jealousy of Maria. If they want to put her on the cover instead of me, great; I'm very happy. But I don't want to sell the Kennedy shit, because that's something totally different.

[Q] Playboy: You've built tennis courts at your new home. Have you always been interested in tennis?

[A] Schwarzenegger: No, I became interested in it because of Maria.

[Q] Playboy: Can you beat her?

[A] Schwarzenegger: No, I can't.

[Q] Playboy: That's good for you. It keeps you humble.

[A] Schwarzenegger: No, it's good for her. It makes her feel good.

[Q] Playboy: How does it make you feel?

[A] Schwarzenegger: It inspires me. [Half jokingly] I say to myself, "I'll take 1000 hours of tennis lessons and I'll beat her."

[Q] Playboy: You've said that you don't allow Maria to wear pants. Now, what's the story?

[A] Schwarzenegger: I hate pants. This is something I have inherited from my father. He despised pants, and my mother was never allowed to wear them at home. We're talking about a different time period now, when the man was much more the ruler of the house. But I still feel that way, and neither my mother nor Maria is allowed to go out with me in pants.

[Q] Playboy: You prefer your women in dresses and skirts?

[A] Schwarzenegger: Definitely. Although sometimes when I see models wearing pants, it looks great. It looks sexy when you see them dance and stuff like that. But, in general, I still like the old-fashioned way. A dress represents the opposite sex. It's more feminine and it's sexier. There are times when I can understand that a woman would want to wear pants. A stewardess doesn't want anyone looking up her dress. Maria would never wear pants, believe me.

[Q] Playboy: Why not?

[A] Schwarzenegger: Because she knows she looks better in dresses. Maria has the kind of look—the kind of face and hair and eyes and mouth and body—that is very royal. Like a queen. And I don't like to see a queen in pants. Maria looks great in very strong colors, because she has such strong features and dark hair; her clothes have to counterbalance that. She needs royal blues and red or black and white; she needs to stay away from earthy colors.

[Q] Playboy: You and Maria had known each other for ten years before you got married. Why did you wait so long?

[A] Schwarzenegger: The day I met her, I felt that she was a very special woman, but our relationship started very slowly. Looking back, I can say that every year I've been with her, I've loved her more. But a commitment to marriage is not like a business deal where, if it doesn't work, you go to arbitration or to court. That's why I didn't jump in when I was 25 or 30 or 35. It was right to wait, because I wasn't ready. I jumped in when I was 39. I knew that Maria was the right woman for me, and she has been the greatest addition to my life and my happiness.

[Q] Playboy: Before you were married, you and Maria kept separate residences. Why?

[A] Schwarzenegger: It was better. Maria comes from the number-one Catholic family in America, and it just would not be right. I didn't want people to write about how she lived in sin. I wasn't thinking selfishly. I'm Catholic, too, but I don't care about all that. But I have all due respect for the family and I didn't want to hurt their image.

[Q] Playboy: You've come from different backgrounds, to say the least. Does that cause problems?

[A] Schwarzenegger: That's always been a big asset to us. Maria has a great sense of humor, and she laughs at my being a perfectionist. As soon as I take a sweater off, I want to hang it up. When I have laundry, I put it in the right place. I'm very neat, and because I was a bachelor for so long, I picked up certain habits. My mother was a fanatic about cleanliness. Also, my love for clothes and my possessions is much greater than Maria's for hers, because I never had anything. And whatever I did have, I had to take care of. For instance, if we're going to throw a football around, I'll put on a five-dollar sweat shirt. You know, you jump on the grass and roll around. Maria doesn't hestitate to put on a cashmere sweater and roll around in the grass. I'm amazed that she can put on a $400 cashmere sweater so comfortably and sweat and throw a football or play tennis in it. I couldn't.

This, of course, is my upbringing. In Austria, silk or cashmere wasn't heard of.

[Q] Playboy: So America's leading macho man is concerned about cashmere. Is it true that Maria gives you her buttons to sew on?

[A] Schwarzenegger: She doesn't do that anymore; she will have them sewn on by somebody. But she knows I love domestic work. I used to love washing my own laundry or cooking for myself or vacuum cleaning the apartment. I really enjoyed it. When we have dinner at home, I will go and take the dishes away and rinse them off. Having lived alone so long, I know that if you leave dishes in the sink, they get sticky and hard to wash the next day.

[Q] Playboy: We've never thought of you as being domestic.

[A] Schwarzenegger: You should see me iron shirts!

[Q] Playboy: So, for all intents and purposes, yours is the ultimate American success story. You have more money than you can count; you have married a beautiful woman from one of America's most prominent families; your career is going great guns—what do you fantasize about now?

[A] Schwarzenegger: The only fantasies I have are about my future. Daydreams, I would say. I have a very strong power of vision. When I used to train, I was very much into visualizing my body. I saw the body in front of me, the way it should look, and then I would do the exercises according to that vision. Many people attributed my winning all those competitions to that.

It's not something I do with a conscious effort at all. I don't say, "Let me think about where I would like to be ten years from now." It just runs by, like a movie. The visions come in from somewhere, and then I go after those things. I think, That's a great idea, what I just saw, and then I go after that. I may be guided by my visions more than by conscious decisions.

[Q] Playboy: But the practical side of you is concerned with making money, more and more profits.

[A] Schwarzenegger: No, money doesn't mean anything to me. When I think about money, I want to have enough so I can have fun. Fun is the most important thing. I want joy. I want fun. I want to play tennis and go mountain hiking, river rafting and skiing. I want to have a great time with my life.

"I watched violent movies all my life and it had no influence on me. Something on the screen doesn't turn a person into a killer."

"I think that people respond to a sense of humor in a character, especially when he's playing the stud, the big, strong guy."

"While my friends were dreaming about working for the government so they could get a pension and that shit, I was talking about big things."

"I have pants on women. Neither my mother nor Maria is allowed to go out with me in pants."