Arnold Schwarzenegger’s indie movie Maggie has just been released in India. In this interview, he talks about receiving his greatest scripts at the most unexpected places and why he wants to encourage indie cinema
Were you worried about Maggie not being a mainstream Hollywood movie?
It was totally different in every aspect. But I am happy with the way it developed. Otherwise, I might never have been part of this movie. If they weren’t having a difficult time doing the movie in the first place, I don’t think they would have come to me. I don’t know exactly what the facts are but since Henry Hobson has been involved with this project for four-and-a-half years, obviously they must have struggled to get it done. At a certain point they said, ‘Why don’t we get some big name actor to help get it going?’ I think that’s when my agent said, ‘Hey Arnold, here’s an idea: You can squeeze this in between other projects. It’s only a five-week shoot.’ I totally agreed with him: It is very unique. It was very clear that this wasn’t the sort of thing going for a big box office result or any of that. But I knew that if I did a good job it would be a great movie for me and it could show a different side of me.
How do you usually choose your projects?
Most of the jobs I’ve done, I’ve gotten them myself and then agents make the deal. People come up to me in restaurants and say, ‘Arnold, I’ve got this great script.’ They send you stuff. They give you stuff in the gym. For Eraser, I was hanging out with Lorenzo di Bonaventura. I was sitting on a chairlift in Sun Valley. It was snowing. The snow was coming down. You couldn’t even see three feet in front of you. And we were taking off in the chairlift to go skiing together.
The chairlift took off and he went, ‘By the way, Arnold.’ He pulled the script out for Eraser and gave it to me. He said, ‘Put it in your jacket, read it, I am here this whole weekend.’ That’s normally the way it happens. There’s no agent, nothing. That’s how the Terminator happened — Mike Medavoy coming up to me after a movie and saying, ‘Arnold, you have to play Reese. We have OJ Simpson as the Terminator.’ Of course, it all changed later. So agents usually claim they got the job and it’s not true. But in this case, it was one of those very extraordinary things. My agent got me to do this movie. It was like the ideal situation — the way agents should work. They see something they believe in and give it to you because they have this writer they also represent.
How important is box office to you now?
I think it’s important that we make sure the money comes back. If I spend $6 million like they did on Maggie, then I want that to come back and have them make $8 million, so they’re encouraged to make another independent movie and the next one. They should get rewarded for making good decisions and sticking with it. When they spend $200 million on a movie I want to make sure they get $600 million back. Half of it goes to the theatre owners, then you have to pay off your promotion and marketing and then there’s some profit in the end. So that’s important to me. Then there’s your ego, of course. One should not forget that. It always feels good when you have great box office success.
Since this is more of a dramatic role, is this the path you see your career taking now?
When I read the script for this film, I felt like I could play the character because I could understand what it’s like to be a father. But 25 or 30 years ago, I would not have been able to play this type of role. First of all, I wouldn’t have had the time because there were so many big projects then. I was chasing the big money and working my way up to being the highest-paid actor.
Today that doesn’t mean anything to me because I’ve made a lot of money and I’m in a different place in my life. But when I get an offer to do Terminator 5, I’m still very excited about that. When Universal calls me and says, ‘We’re almost finished with writing the script for a new Conan movie,’ I’m also excited about that. But I’m also very excited when I read a script like Maggie. I believe that I can play that character and also work with the director and the other actors together. So yes, I will be looking for more dramatic roles.
At this stage of your career, are there film-makers you’re eager to work with?
I just met Darren Aronofsky while I was in China. He and I talked about whether we could do something together. He’s a director who’s so talented that I’d love to work with him and we may find something. Steven Spielberg and I have talked many times about doing something together. It hasn’t happened yet but that doesn’t mean it won’t. So there are a lot of creative directors out there. But I also like to go back to the ones I’ve worked with in the past.
I’d love to do another film with Jim Cameron, John McTiernan, Paul Verhoeven, those guys. They’ve been so good and if you give them the right project and support them as an actor-producer, if you protect them, they can do extraordinary work. It’s just the way Hollywood works, the new broom sweeps well. It’s always about the new guy on the block. The old guys are always being forgotten.
If you have to change one thing about yourself what would that be?
I am very happy with myself and I am pretty much the happiest guy around. I have made mistakes in life that I regret but I would say that when it comes to career and those kind of things, I would not change anything. Physically I would like to have the body that I had when I was 30. It is actually a sad story, when you get older, you actually see your muscles decrease, it is very depressing.
