THE MYTH AND REALITY OF ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER

By: Thomas McKelvey Cleaver

I first saw Arnold Schwarzenegger in action 21 years ago. As an aspiring screenwriter, I had figured out that writing about the movies was a way to be around the movies, and a damn good way to learn about making them from an otherwise-unobtainable perspective. That summer of 1984, an actor friend told me he was working on "The Terminator" with a genius director and an original scripts - it would be worth my time to write about it.

"Starlog" magazine set me up to do an interview of the star, Arnold Schwarzenegger. This was back when Arnold was mostly thought of as a joke in Hollywood. Friends said I should be sure I only used simple questions to get a "yes" or "no" answer, since that would be the maximum extent of his ability.

The day I was there they were on location, shooting the scene where the Terminator kills the second Sarah Connor. I'm sure you've all seen this great movie - still to my mind the best of the three - so you'll know the scene as I tell you what went on there in the working class suburb of Van Nuys. The action required Arnold to drive up in front of the house, get out, walk to the front door, grab "second Sarah Connor" when she answers, go inside and kill her, come out, get back in the car, and drive off - crushing a child's toy under the tire. That's a total of perhaps three minutes of final screen time - including the scene inside where he does the deed (which they were shooting at the same time in order to stay on budget). Those three minutes are a day's work in movie production - and a long day's work at that when the director is James Cameron, who even back then was a big believer in multiple takes of each shot.

Arnold was holding court from a captain's chair in the front yard. The news had gone through the neighborhood about who was there like a bucket of water spilled on a kitchen floor. Every kid for several blocks around - and their mom - was there. They were in awe of Arnold. I had covered a few productions, and had never seen a movie star acting like this. A kid would decide if he had the guts to approach Mr. Schwarzenegger, who would spot him (or her), and beckon them over. While he was talking with that kid, there was no one more important in the world. Then he'd ask mom over and the moment would end with a picture taken by mom of the kid sitting on Mr. Universe's lap. Every once in awhile, the Assistant Director would come over to tell him they were ready for the next shot. Arnold would turn to his fans and tell them he needed their help, that it would be really, really helpful if no one made noise. "That way, I can do this, come back, and we can all talk some more." There was dead silence on the street - something I've never seen before or since. True to his word, he was right back, socializing with those kids.

Lunch break came and it was time for the interview. I commented I'd never seen another movie star act the way he was. He answered, "Then you have only been hanging around with idiots! Those kids - without them, I'm nothing, I'm nobody. They're the ones who give me the chance to do this." That was the moment I realized Arnold Schwarzenegger was completely unlike his public image, that those who thought he was an idiot were the idiots.

The interview - conducted in a haze of cigar smoke ("hahve a cigah?" as he handed me a 12 inch Cubano) over a very good Cabernet Sauvignon from his personal collection - had a lot more to it than grunts. He gave me a very detailed analysis of why "The Terminator" was going to be very successful commercially and would as a result "make my career." Film history proves he was right. He demonstrated a detailed knowledge of the business of "the industry," and a deep awareness of exactly what he had to do to make things click in his chosen profession. In all the years since, I've never been surprised by anything Arnold - who really does qualify as Hollywood's most unlikely star - has done.

There was another story he told me, which is also of interest. When asked how he'd become involved in the project, he said the head of Orion Pictures had offered him the script, to play Reese - the hero. "But I immediately saw that the role for me was the Terminator, it's the one everyone will remember." He told that story with complete believability, and most film historians believe that's how he turned himself into a major star. The truth is otherwise. Arnold was originally offered the role of the Terminator, which he turned down because he wanted to play the hero. He had to be convinced to take the role that made his career! If you hooked him up to a lie detector and asked him to tell you the story, his version would record as the truth, he's that good at believing his own baloney. This is important in understanding Arnold Der Governator today.

I wasn't surprised when he ran for Governor of California. While I didn't vote for him - being biologically incapable of voting for a Republican - I didn't vote with any expectation other than that Arnold would win (all those 7 and 8 year old kids who sat on his lap in 1984 were old enough to vote in 2003, as I am sure they did, as well as their mommies and daddies). I wasn't surprised when he hit the deck running and scored some impressive political victories right off - he had the other side thoroughly cowed. And I'm not surprised by what he's doing at present for his "reform" agenda, with his attacks on the "special interests" as he plays the role of a modern Hiram Johnson while he seeks the support of the same sector of society the great reformer saw as The Enemy, or by his breaking all the political promises he made last year. What does surprise me is the number of otherwise-intelligent, politically-experienced people who are surprised by all this. Their problem is they fail to understand Hollywood. And you can't understand Arnold Schwarzenegger if you don't understand the jungle he came out of.

Probably the biggest thing the Sacramento Democrats don't understand is that, in Hollywood, a promise is only good for so long as it makes profitable business sense to the party in the strongest power position of those participating in the promise. As that most-astute observer Samuel Goldwyn once put it, "A verbal contract's not worth the paper it's written on."

In fact, a written contract's not much better, as any number of famous contract fights going back to the beginning of Hollywood demonstrate. The party with the power in a contract knows that the other - less-powerful - party most likely wants to continue working in their chosen field, and is in no economic condition to make a fight of it in the Delaware Chancery Court (there's a reason why so many corporations are chartered there, and it's not for the Chesapeake crab). Thus, the more powerful party - usually the one who can say "yes" and thus "greenlight" the less-powerful one's desire to make a movie, or one whose "yes" to doing the movie (like Arnold) will lead those who can do the greenlighting to say yes - can and will do what they want, secure in the knowledge that the other party won't complain, since complaining will to insure one doesn't do further business.

This is not to say people in "Duh Biz" go around making promises they are planning not to keep. Far from it!! They are notably sincere when they make such promises. At the time they make a promise, they are absolutely committed to carrying it out.

The important words are "at the time."

In Hollywood, a screenwriter knows as he or she options a script to a producer who promises they'll fight to the last ditch to insure said screenwriter is the sole writer on the script, that this will only last till the first executive the producer believes can get the picture made suggests "why don't you use so-and-so for a rewrite?" Even if the promise is in writing, it will only say the producer will "use best efforts" to insure a solo credit. That's why the Writer's Guild pisses off lots of writers every year with a credits arbitration system that strongly favors protecting the original writer.

The same is true for any director or actor. Even when they've signed a "pay or play" contract, the possibility still exists that decisions and events down the road will result in them not seeing their name in lights on that particular project.
So far as Hollywood is concerned, none of these people should complain, since they're being compensated for their pain with money (though not as much as most people outside the business think - when you survive to the point where they pay you Serious Money, they stop this stuff).

Promises are different in politics. In Hollywood, someone who is powerful will likely remain powerful; the studios will always be powerful vis-a-vis the supplicants seeking to get their movie made. In politics, this year's majority may become next year's minority - in the back of their minds, politicians know ultimately they are subject to the will of the people. Thus, promises are more sacrosanct, since messing someone over today means that at some point in the future that person may be able to mess you over back. In politics, revenge is "a dish best eaten cold," and everyone knows it. Thus, it's in everyone's interest to not create future fights where none need exist.

This is why the "special interests" - who were promised a year ago by Der Governator that he would not only not ask them to make such a sacrifice again as he was then asking, but would restore them to their previous condition - are so angry now.

The fact he has no political experience, and thus no personal knowledge of why in politics one does certain things in a certain way, is why he is so genuinely surprised people are angry over the broken promises. He's a Hollywood Boy. Don't they understand he sincerely tried to do as he promised, but that the situation is such that despite his "best efforts" he can't make good? He can't upset those who can "greenlight" his career, can he? Don't they understand "best efforts" don't always pan out? What are they doing, being "complainers"? Don't they know complaining means you don't get to keep doing business?

It's time for the Sacramento Democrats to stop behaving like a gaggle of 8-year old kids in a Van Nuys neighborhood standing in awe of Mr. Universe. Of course, given the facts of political life with Term Limits, we in California have the situation of a Governor with no experience playing against Democratic leaders in the Assembly and the Senate who don't know where the bathrooms are. As someone who used to play the game when there were real players around - guys like Jesse Unruh and Willie Brown - the current gaggle of amateur stickballers trying to convince everyone they're the New York Yankees are a joke. If there's any hope for this gaggle of sandbox superstars to not be outmaneuvered, outplayed, and defeated, it's time they learn The Five Rules of Hollywood:

Rules Number 1-3: As the great screenwriter William Goldman once put it: "The three rules of Hollywood are: Nobody. Knows. Anything." Hollywood is a crapshoot. Nobody - not Steven Spielberg, not Michael Eisner, not any of them - knows if a movie's going to be a hit until the receipts are in from the opening weekend. I'll transfer this to Sacramento in simple terms: Make a real fight of it - he's not a dead-set winner unless you morons let him win.

Rule Number 4: You're only as successful and powerful as your last success. "Bad buzz" kills movies more surely than bad reviews. This means for the Sacramento Democrats that if you can actually figure out what in hell you believe in, and organize a real opposition, you can win. Especially since your "special interests" really are THE PEOPLE OF CALIFORNIA.

Rule Number 5: As that very astute observer of Hollywood David Freeman said, "the difference between a producer who calls you from his office on the Paramount lot, and a producer who calls you from a pay phone at Santa Monica and Fairfax, is one hit." What this means for the Sacramento Democrats is: CAMPAIGN FOR WHAT YOU BELIEVE - the worst that will happen is you lose.

Der Governator has spent his life sucking up to the people with the power to "greenlight" his career and really does believe his own baloney: to him, the teachers, the nurses, the public employees and all the others who work for a living by helping create a civilized society are "special interests," while banks and corporations and those who can pay $100,000 per person to sit within spitting distance of him at a fund-raising dinner are "the people of Kaleeforneeya." The man who campaigned against Grey Davis by accusing him of being a tool of the"special interests" for having raised some $70 million dollars in political contributions over six years is on the way to raising $150 million in three years!

In 2003, even a majority of Democrats voted for Arnold. His approval ratings have been "stratospheric" for a year. But his approval polls are now down to 54 percent overall, well within striking distance. Among Democrats - a majority in California - his disapproval rating is twice the size of his approval rating. He isn't "Der Governator," unless you mistake hype for reality.

It's time for California Democrats - and Democrats across the country - to step out of Arnold's tent, shake their heads to clear their lungs and their eyes of the cigar smoke, and realize that Arnold Schwarzenegger is only The Hero when the script is written that way. And that only works in the movies.