Arnold Schwarzenegger revealed his reaction to son Patrick Schwarzenegger getting naked on camera as they paired up for this year’s edition of Variety’s “Actors on Actors” series.
The action hero and the rising star discussed everything from nudity to nepotism in the hour-long conversation, which was released on Tuesday.
During the chat, the championship bodybuilder and ex-governor of California explained how it took him time to stop getting typecast as a muscle man, telling his son, “‘Terminator’ was the first time that I was doing a film that had nothing to do with the muscles. It was with leather jackets on and being a machine.”
But he did admit that his brawny build came in handy during his first scene in the action classic, where his cyborg assassin character time-travels back to 1984 Los Angeles wearing absolutely nothing.
“Only the opening scene was naked,” Arnold recalled. “But I’m talking about naked.”
Patrick grinned as he reminded his dad, “I’ve done it.”
The “Total Recall” star got a hearty chuckle out of his son’s shocking nude scenes in “The White Lotus,” which involved a scandalous brother-brother incest story arc.
Arnold said, “I couldn’t believe [it]. I said to myself, ‘I’m watching your show, and I’m watching your butt sticking out there.’ And all of a sudden, I see the weenie.”
“What is going on here? This is crazy,” he said, laughing.
But the “Predator” actor told Patrick how he realized he had to get over his gut reaction, knocking himself in the head as he remembered telling himself, “Well, Arnold, hello! You did the same thing in ‘Conan’ and ‘Terminator,’ so don’t complain about it.”
Still, the Hollywood legend said “it was a shock to me that you were following my footsteps so closely.”
During Variety’s father-son sit down, Patrick talked about how his famous last name was both a burden and a blessing as he got his start in the entertainment industry.
“There were times earlier in my career where I was wondering, does it make sense to go under some sort of alias?” he admitted.
“It took a while for me to get to a point where I was less worried about comparison and living in your shadow versus me just wanting to carve my own path and wanting to do it the way I thought I should do it.”
20 Years Of Free Journalism
For two decades, HuffPost has brought you the exclusives, scoops and hot takes on the news all your friends are talking about. Support our mission to keep us around for the next 20 — we can’t do this without you.
Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages.
Ever the proud father, Arnold said, “I’m glad you kept the name, because now I can take credit,” adding, “If you show you have the substance, you can get rid of this whole idea of nepotism.”
