Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story

by Arnold Schwarzenegger

  Then, as soon as you were done with the first set, you went to the wall and crossed off the first line so it became an X. All five lines would have to be turned into Xs before that exercise was done.

  This practice had a huge impact on my motivation. I always had the visual feedback of “Wow, an accomplishment. I did what I said I had to do. Now I will go for the next set, and the next set.” Writing out my goals became second nature, and so did the conviction that there are no shortcuts. It took hundreds and even thousands of repetitions for me to learn to hit a great three-quarter back pose, deliver a punch line, dance the tango in True Lies, paint a beautiful birthday card, and say “I’ll be back” just the right way.

  If you look at the script of my first address to the United Nations in 2007 on how to fight global warming, here is what you will see:

  Each stick at the top of the page represents one time I rehearsed delivering the speech. Whether you’re doing a bicep curl in a chilly gym or talking to world leaders, there are no shortcuts—everything is reps, reps, reps.

  No matter what you do in life, it’s either reps or mileage. If you want to be good at skiing, you have to get out on the slopes all the time. If you play chess, you have to play tens of thousands of games. On the movie set, the only way to have your act together is to do the reps. If you’ve done the reps, you don’t have to worry, you can enjoy the moment when the cameras roll. Filming The Tomb in New Orleans recently, we shot a scene with seventy-five people in a prison brawl. The choreography was so complicated, with dozens of fistfights and wrestling matches and prison guards coming in clubbing people, that just the rehearsals took half the day. By the time we shot, everyone was tired but at the same time really pumped. The take was a success. The moves had become second nature to us and it really felt like a fight.

  7. Don’t blame your parents. They’ve done their best for you, and if they’ve left you with problems, those problems are now yours to solve. Maybe your parents were too supportive and protective and now you feel needy and vulnerable in the world—don’t blame them for that. Or maybe they were too harsh.

  I loved my father when I was little and wanted to be like him. I admired his uniform and his gun and the fact that he was a policeman. But then later on I hated the pressure he put on my brother and me. “You have to set an example in the village because you’re the children of the inspector,” he would say. We had to be the perfect kids, which of course we were not.

  He was exacting, which was his nature. He was also brutal at times but I don’t think that was his fault. It was the war. If he had lived in a more normal way, he’d have been different.

  So I’ve often wondered: What if he’d been warmer and nicer? Would I have left Austria? Probably not. And that is my great fear!

  I became Arnold because of what he did to me. I recognized that I could channel my upbringing in a positive way rather than complain. I could use it to have a vision, set goals, find joy. His harshness drove me from home. It made me come to America, and work for success, and I’m happy it did. I don’t have to lick my wounds.

  There’s a passage near the end of Conan the Barbarian that has always stuck with me. The lines are said not by Conan but by Thulsa Doom, the sorcerer who makes Conan as a young boy watch his father be devoured by dogs and who slaughters Conan’s mother before his eyes. As Conan is about to kill him and avenge his parents, Thulsa Doom says, “Who is your father if it is not me? Who gave you the will to live? I am the wellspring from which you flow.”

  So it’s not always obvious what you should celebrate. Sometimes you have to appreciate the very people and circumstances that traumatized you. Today I hail the strictness of my father, and my whole upbringing, and the fact that I didn’t have anything that I wanted in Austria, because those were the very factors that made me hungry. Every time he hit me. Every time he said my weight training was garbage, that I should do something useful and go out and chop wood. Every time he disapproved of me or embarrassed me, it put fuel on the fire in my belly. It drove me and motivated me.

  8. Change takes big balls. While on a trade mission to Moscow during my last year as governor, I took a little time out to visit former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev at his home. We’d become friends over the years and I’d given a speech for him and sat with him at his eightieth birthday party in London a few months before. Gorbachev’s daughter Irina made lunch for us and several friends from the Gorbachev Institute. We ate for at least two and a half hours.

  I’ve always idolized Gorbachev because of the courage it took him to dismantle the political system that he grew up under. Yes, the USSR had financial troubles, and yes, Reagan outspent them, and they were backed into a corner. But for Gorbachev to have the guts to embrace change rather than further oppress his people or pick fights with the West has always amazed me. I asked how he did it. How could he change the system after being indoctrinated from childhood to view Communism as the solution to every problem, and after rising to leadership in the party, where you had to show passion for the system all the time? How could he be so open minded? “My whole life I worked to perfect our system,” he told me. “I couldn’t wait to get to the most powerful position, because I thought then I would be able to fix problems that only the leader can fix. But when I got there, I realized we needed revolutionary change. The only way things got done was if you knew somebody or you paid somebody under the table. So what system did we have? It was time to dismantle the whole thing.” Maybe it’ll take fifty years for people to understand his achievement. Scholars will always be debating whether he did it the right way. I’m not going to debate it; I just thought it was great that he did it. I’m amazed by the courage it took to not go for immediate gratification but to look for the best direction for the country in the long run.

  To me Gorbachev is a hero, at the same level as Nelson Mandela, who overcame the anger and despair of twenty-seven years in prison. When given the power to shake the world, both of them chose to build rather than destroy.

  9. Take care of your body and your mind. Some of the earliest advice that stuck in my head was Fredi Gerstl channeling Plato. “The Greeks started the Olympics, but they also gave us the great philosophers,” he would say. “You have to build the ultimate physical machine but also the ultimate of the mind.” Focusing on the body was no problem for me, and later on, I became really curious to develop my mind. I realized that the mind is a muscle and we should train it too. So I was determined to train my brain and get smart. I became like a sponge, absorbing everything around me. The world became my university, I developed such a need to learn and read and take it all in.

  For people who are successful with their intelligence, the opposite applies. They need to exercise the body every day. Clint Eastwood exercises even when he’s directing and starring in a movie. Dmitri Medvedev worked endless hours when he was president of Russia, but he had a gym at home and worked out two hours each day. If world leaders have time to work out, so do you.

  Many years after hearing it from Fredi Gerstl, I heard the same idea of balance from the Pope. I visited the Vatican with Maria and her parents in 1983 for a private audience with John Paul II. Sarge was talking spiritual talk because he was an expert in that. Eunice asked the Holy Father about what kids should do to become better people and he said, “Just pray. Just pray.”

  I talked to him about his workouts. Just before we went, I’d read a magazine story that described how athletic the pope was and what good shape he was in. To him, besides religion, life was about taking care of both your mind and your body. So we talked about that. He was known for getting up at five in the morning and reading newspapers in six different languages and doing two hundred push-ups and three hundred sit-ups, all before breakfast and before his workday began. He was a skier too, and he skied even after he became pope.

  And he was already in his sixties, twenty-seven years older than me. I said to myself, “If that guy can do it, I’ve got to get up even earlier!”

  10. Sta
y hungry. Be hungry for success, hungry to make your mark, hungry to be seen and to be heard and to have an effect. And as you move up and become successful, make sure also to be hungry for helping others.

  Don’t rest on your laurels. Too many former athletes spend their lives talking about how great they were twenty years ago. But someone like Ted Turner goes from running his father’s outdoor advertising business to founding CNN, to organizing the Goodwill Games, to raising bison and supplying bison meat, to having forty-seven honorary degrees. That’s what I call staying hungry. Bono starts as a musician, then buys others’ music, then works to combat AIDS and to create jobs. Anthony Quinn was not happy just being a movie star. He wanted to do more. He became a painter whose canvases sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Donald Trump turned his inheritance into a fortune ten times as big, then had a network TV show. Sarge traveled the world till he died, always hungry for new projects.

  So many accomplished people just coast. They wish they could still be somebody and not just talk about the past. There is much more to life than being the greatest at one thing. We learn so much when we’re successful, so why not use what you’ve learned, use your connections and do more with them?

  My father always told me, “Be useful. Do something.” He was right. If you have a talent or skill that makes you happy, use it to improve your neighborhood. And if you feel a desire to do more, then go all out. You’ll have plenty of time to rest when you’re in the grave. Live a risky life and a spicy life and like Eleanor Roosevelt said, every day do something that scares you.

  We should all stay hungry!

  My son Patrick and I flew to Europe in 2011 for the unveiling at the Graz Museum of an eight-foot tall, 580-pound bronze of me as Mr. Olympia in a favorite pose, the three-quarter back. © Heinz-Peter Bader/Reuters

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND SOURCES

  MEMOIRS ARE ABOUT LOOKING back, but I’ve lived my life by the opposite principle. So when people over the past two decades asked me to write a memoir, I always answered, “At home I have a hundred photo albums starting with my childhood in Austria, and I never look at them. I’d rather do another project or make another movie and learn from looking forward!”

  Digging up and piecing together memories proved to be as difficult as I imagined, and yet what made the work unexpectedly enjoyable was the help I got from others. I found myself swapping stories with old friends from the worlds of bodybuilding, business, sports, Hollywood, and politics—a large cast of characters, too many people to name here. I’m grateful to all of them for helping me re-create the past and for making it immediate and friendly.

  I want to thank first my coauthor, Peter Petre. Books like this require a collaborative partner with not just writing skill but also endurance, tact, judgment, and a great sense of humor, and Peter has them all.

  My friend and close colleague of many decades Paul Wachter was generous in sharing recollections and editorial suggestions and providing practical acumen. Danny DeVito, Ivan Reitman, and Sylvester Stallone added funny Hollywood stories (Sly added Planet Hollywood stories also). Susan Kennedy, from 2005 to 2010 my gubernatorial chief of staff, gave us the benefit of her encyclopedic knowledge of my time in office. Her master’s thesis, an inside analysis of turning around my governorship in late 2005 and 2006, was of great use. Albert Busek in Munich, one of my oldest friends and the first journalist ever to single me out, provided advice and photos. Bonnie Reiss contributed her recollections and notes to the accounts of my governorship and of the environmental and after-school movements. Steve Schmidt, Terry Tamminen, Matt Bettenhausen, and Daniel Zingale also helped reconstruct aspects of my governorship. Fredi and Heidi Gerstl, Franco Columbu, and Jim Lorimer reminded me of shared experiences from our lifelong friendships.

  Because my life has been extraordinarily well covered by the media, we had the benefit of almost fifty years of books, magazine and newspaper stories, interviews, videos, photos, illustrations, and cartoons about me documenting my careers in the muscle world, the movie world, the business world, and the world of politics and public service. Three people were key in organizing these troves of material: my executive assistants Lynn Marks and Shelley Klipp and my archivist Barbara Shane. Lynn and Barbara, with help from my former assistant Beth Eckstein, also tackled the massive challenge of transcribing hundreds of hours of recorded conversations between Peter and me as well as other interviews conducted for this book. Rebecca Lombino and Chris Fillo supervised logistical and legal support.

  Peter’s wife, Ann Banks, speeded our writing by selecting and refining the research. His literary agent, Kathy Robbins, did excellent work getting this project launched.

  Joe Mathews, who covered Sacramento for the Los Angeles Times and whose book The People’s Machine details my first term in the statehouse, gave generously of his time and wisdom to help shape the political chapters of Total Recall.

  I’m grateful to the other journalists, too numerous to mention, who have chronicled the accomplishments and adventures and dramas of my life—the writers from muscle magazines, entertainment publications, and political writers who interviewed me over the years and captured on the page jokes and conversations and observations and outrageous remarks that I’d forgotten all about and loved being reminded of. Among the books and publications we consulted, I will list some that proved particularly helpful: Arnold hautnah by Werner Kopacka and Christian Jauschowetz; Arnold Schwarzenegger: Die Biographie by Marc Hujer; The People’s Machine: Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Rise of Blockbuster Democracy by Joe Mathews; Fantastic: The Life of Arnold Schwarzenegger by Lawrence Leamer; and Arnold and Me: In the Shadow of the Austrian Oak by Barbara Outland Baker.

  To help bring back the bodybuilding days, we drew on the extensive coverage in Muscle Builder/Power, Muscle, Muscle & Fitness, and Health and Strength, as well as in Sports Illustrated—and of course the book Pumping Iron by George Butler and Charles Gaines and the film Pumping Iron by Robert Fiore and George Butler. We also consulted my own book/training manual about becoming a champion, Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder, cowritten with Douglas Kent Hall. Brooke Robards’s filmography Arnold Schwarzenegger was especially useful in reminding me of details from my movie career, as was the coverage of my work in Variety, Cinefantastique, and other movie journals. Seven Years, a commemorative volume that my office published privately in 2010, was an invaluable resource in revisiting the governorship; Gary Delsohn, who worked on that book, contributed notes and recollections from his time as one of my speechwriters.

  I’m grateful to Audrey Landreth for helping make sense of scores of photo albums and tens of thousands of photos and guiding me through the selection of images to illustrate my story. Kathleen Brady handled the fact-checking challenges with outstanding skill, speed, and judgment.

  Adam Mendelsohn and Daniel Ketchell provided communications support and managed our presence on the internet; Greg Dunn contributed valuable practical backup; Dieter Rauter not only opened up his trove of videos and photos but also was there to challenge me at chess when I needed a breather.

  Simon & Schuster provided the expertise and enthusiasm that a book like this needs. From the beginning, editor in chief and publisher Jonathan Karp shared my vision for Total Recall. He did me the favor of recommending Peter as my coauthor. He edited the manuscript and orchestrated the entire publication. As an editor, Jon is lively and imaginative and engaged and never loses sight of the big picture. His questions and suggestions were astute and always on target.

  The political chapters of Total Recall also reflect the fast, deft work of Simon & Schuster executive editor Priscilla Painton, who refined them. My thanks also to Richard Rhorer, associate publisher; Tracey Guest, director of publicity; Emer Flounders, senior publicist; Elina Vaysbeyn, online marketing manager; Rachelle Andujar, marketing specialist; Nicholas Greene, assistant editor; Marcella Berger, Lance Fitzgerald, Mario Florio, rights directors; Jackie Seow, art director; Jason Heuer, jacket designer; Nancy Inglis, production ed
itor; Phil Bashe and Patty Romanowski, copy editors; Joy O’Meara, design director, and Ruth Lee-Mui, senior designer.

  For helping make Total Recall an international event, I’m grateful to my publishers abroad: Ian Chapman and Mike Jones of Simon & Schuster UK; Günter Berg, Hoffmann und Campe (Germany); Joop Boezeman and Joost van den Ossenblok, A.W. Bruna (the Netherlands); Abel Gerschenfeld, Presses de la Cité (France); Tomás da Veiga Pereira and Marcos Pereira, Sextante (Brazil); Agneta Gynning and Henrik Karlsson, Forma Books (Sweden); Michael Jepsen, Forlaget Turbulenz (Denmark); Elin Vestues, Schibsted Forlag (Norway); and Minna Castren and Jarkko Vesikansa, Otava (Finland); Javier Ponce Alvarez of Martínez Roca/Planeta (Spain).

  Finally I thank my family. They were generous in helping me make sure that this memoir delivers on its name. And thanks especially to Maria, for her patience with the project and for remaining as always the person I could go to whenever I got stuck.

  ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER was born in Thal, Austria, in 1947, and served as governor of California from 2003 to 2011. Before that, he had a long career, starring in such films as the Terminator series; Stay Hungry; Twins; Predator; and Junior. His first book, Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder, was a bestseller when published in 1977 and, along with his Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding, has never been out of print since.

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