RE-RELEASE Arnold Schwarzenegger

Summary

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Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade

RE-RELEASE: Arnold Schwarzenegger

Date: December 29, 2025
Key Guest: Arnold Schwarzenegger

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Episode Overview

In this lively and revealing episode, David Spade and Dana Carvey—joined by guest co-host Conan O’Brien—sit down with Arnold Schwarzenegger at his memorabilia-filled office. The conversation spans Arnold’s extraordinary journey from Austrian weightlifter to Hollywood superstar and California governor. The trio dives deep into Arnold’s philosophies on success, overcoming naysayers, building wealth, integrating humor into leadership, and his enduring legacy in pop culture. The tone is buoyant and sharp, packed with laughter, impressions, and signature wit, making listeners truly feel like a “fly on the wall” to showbiz history.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. First Impressions & Setting

[04:42 – 07:00]

• The hosts describe Arnold’s office as massive, filled with film memorabilia (notably Predator statues), creating a fitting backdrop for an interview with such an iconic figure.
• Arnold and the hosts reflect on their early podcast collaborations and the value of having two dynamic hosts for energy.

“But I think it’s a great idea because I think it creates more energy if you have two people kind of back and forth.”
– Arnold, [06:52]

2. SNL Connections & The Hans and Franz Legacy

[08:05 – 11:22]

• Arnold recalls inviting Dana and Kevin Nealon (“Hans and Franz”) to the White House for the “Great American Workout,” a twist on the President’s Council on Physical Fitness.
• The hosts reminisce about how their comedic character based on Arnold’s accent brought legitimacy and acceptance to his unique speech in America.

“You guys made me laugh…more often than anything…from that point on, it became much more accepted…to have an accent.”
– Arnold, [11:22]

3. Turning Weakness Into Strength

[10:25 – 11:36]

• Arnold recounts shifting public opinion on his accent by embracing and emphasizing it, rather than concealing it.

“I had to kind of make the accent actually something, not to hide it, but to make something of it…they legitimized it.”
– Arnold, [10:25]

4. Humor in Politics and Public Life

[11:49 – 13:14]

• Discussing “girly man”—a phrase that started as gym banter and became a political flashpoint. Arnold explains using humor to distinguish his political style but recognizes modern sensitivities.

“I actually wanted to just entertain the crowd…But I went back [to Sacramento]: ‘How could you call us girly men?’ I said, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to offend you.”
– Arnold, [12:58]

5. The Philosophy of Positivity (and His Book)

[14:46 – 16:04]

• The group discusses Arnold’s self-help book, Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life, which boils down his experience into accessible, positive life lessons for people everywhere.
• Main themes: positivity, big goals, overcoming fear of failure, and not succumbing to victimhood.

“It’s about how can anybody, no matter who you are and where you are in the world, be more successful…there’s seven rules…that will help people become more successful and more free…”
– Arnold, [14:49]

6. Early Hustle and Street Smarts in America

[16:04 – 23:01]

• Arnold recounts his arrival in America as a champion bodybuilder but still hustling with odd jobs—selling mail-order booklets, and notably, starting a bricklaying business with Franco Columbu.
• He describes learning to sell, utilizing “street smarts,” and negotiating tactics with dramatic, humor-filled reenactments.

“We started a mail order business to kind of like sell booklets…then Franco [Columbu] and I started a bricklaying business…we put a little ad in the LA Times…the next day an earthquake happened…”
– Arnold, [17:01]

7. Selling Yourself to Hollywood

[27:03 – 37:59]

• Arnold shares his goal of being a leading man, not settling for typical “muscleman” roles. His break came with Lucille Ball, who mentored him through his first TV appearances, boosting his confidence and credibility.
• Arnold never auditioned in the typical sense after those early breaks. The offers began to come to him directly.

“No, I never read again…For some reason or the other, from that point on, they came to me.”
– Arnold, [39:13]

8. Adaptation, Vision, and Chasing Big Dreams

[10:25, 33:02, 34:10, 35:08]

• He emphasizes the power of having a clear vision and not being discouraged by people who say something hasn’t been done before.

“Everything is always impossible until someone does it.”
– Arnold, quoting Mandela, [34:35]

• Arnold learned the language, took business classes, and steadily educated himself—persistence over many years.

9. Hollywood Evolution & Iconic Roles

[46:46 – 53:53]

• Arnold describes not foreseeing the full scale and variety of his career roles, from Conan and Predator to Kindergarten Cop and Twins.
• Behind-the-scenes stories: originally, O.J. Simpson was expected to play the Terminator; catchphrases like “I’ll be back” were never anticipated to become legendary.

“We had no idea that even ‘I’ll be back’ would be the most repeated kind of line.”
– Arnold, [52:07]

10. Financial Philosophy & Real Estate

[42:22 – 46:12]

• Arnold candidly explains becoming a millionaire through early, consistent real estate investments—not just through show business.
• Outlines his strategy of leveraging small deals into larger investments, diversifying, and never losing sight of practical, long-term planning.

11. Giving Back & The American Dream

[60:56 – 68:07]

• Reflections on his responsibility to help others and his reverence for the unique opportunities America offers immigrants.

“There’s no other country in the world where we could have done that.”
– Arnold, [62:08]

12. Hard Work, Grit, and Avoiding Victim Mentality

[66:05 – 68:07]

• Arnold’s message to future generations: value hard work, grit, and resilience over the “pleasures” or seeking easy comfort.

“…Get up at 5 o’clock in the morning, 6 o’clock in the morning, and kick some serious ass…I believe in that, you know, but it’s important to know we gotta grind it out…”
– Arnold, [66:05]

13. Comedic Legacy & Favorite Quotes

[54:04 – 54:41, 71:47]

• Discussion of Arnold’s catchphrases (“I’ll be back,” “Get to the chopper,” “It’s not a tumor”) and their surprising staying power in pop culture.
• Dane and Dana humorously rib Arnold about how his comedy quotient is higher than many actual comedians.

14. Physical Fitness, Health, and Longevity

[73:44 – 76:49]

• The group swaps “lean living” tips: eating clean, sleeping well, steady exercise, and the benefits of maintaining leanness over bulk.
• Arnold draws a memorable parallel with his dogs—leaner ones live best!

15. Physical Comedy—Push-up Challenge

[76:50 – 77:48]

• Conan performs a push-up demo for Arnold, meticulously critiqued and enthusiastically affirmed on his form.

“It was fantastic. It was very, very strict. And what was good about it was that your body stayed absolutely flat.”
– Arnold, [77:28]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "You have to make your accent actually something, not to hide it...they legitimized it."
  – Arnold Schwarzenegger, [10:25]

• "No one has ever made it in America that had an accent…so I had to kind of make the accent actually something, not to hide it."
  – Arnold Schwarzenegger, [10:25]

• "Don’t be afraid of failure…have a clear vision, not listen to the naysayers, pick big goals."
  – Arnold Schwarzenegger, [66:05]

• “Everything is always impossible until someone does it.”
  – Arnold Schwarzenegger quoting Nelson Mandela, [34:35]

• "You occupy a room, but you live here [points to head]."
  – Conan O'Brien, [69:57]

• On ‘I’ll be back’:
  “We had no idea that even ‘I’ll be back’ would be a line…everyone wanted me to repeat that line.”
  – Arnold Schwarzenegger, [52:07]

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Timestamps for Major Topics

• 04:42 – Introduction and first impressions at Arnold’s office
• 08:05 – Hans and Franz at the White House; accent acceptance
• 11:49 – Accent as comedic and political tool
• 14:46 – Positivity and lessons from Arnold’s book (Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life)
• 16:04 – Bodybuilding hustle and bricklaying business origin story
• 27:08 – Breaking into Hollywood; Lucille Ball’s mentorship
• 33:02 – Dreams, vision, and resisting naysayers
• 42:22 – Personal finance, real estate investing
• 54:04 – Iconic movie quotes and their origins
• 60:56 – Giving back and the immigrant American experience
• 66:05 – Hard work, discipline, and avoiding victimhood
• 73:44 – Tips on staying lean and active lifelong
• 76:50 – Conan’s push-up challenge for Arnold

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Flow & Tone

• Arnold is characteristically optimistic, direct, and playful, never shying from poking fun at himself.
• Dana and David provide irreverent asides, ride the rhythm of the conversation, and draw out both intimate career stories and belly-laugh moments.
• Conan brings a mix of awe, self-deprecation, and sharp questioning—a fan, peer, and comedic equal.

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Final Thoughts

This episode is a master class in ambition, resilience, and reinvention—delivered with punchlines, nostalgia, and true Hollywood camaraderie. Arnold emerges as a living legend who succeeded by making his “weakness” a strength, never letting others’ doubts deter his vision, and always finding the humor—whether in politics, movies, or a push-up contest. For anyone needing inspiration or just a dose of old-school showbiz storytelling, this conversation delivers in spades.

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Transcript

[David Spade]

You know, some mornings feel impossible, Dana. Like today. Freezing cold holiday to do's piling up. And you just want something from your wardrobe. You just want it to make your life easy and just perform.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah, you want your. Yeah. Something to perform. You want a wardrobe to perform.

[David Spade]

Yeah, you want a wardrobe to bring something to the table. That's why I'm turning to quints. They're Mongolian cashmere sweaters, Dana.

[Conan O'Brien]

Mongolian cashmere sweaters. Awesome.

[David Spade]

Insanely soft. 50 bucks for a cashmere sweater and looks way more expensive than they are. Italian wool coats. Structured, polished, perfect fit for these chilly months. Honestly, the down jacket, I got to get that from Quince because that's a go to it. Keeps you warm, looks sharp, holds up through the whole season.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes, Quince really nails the essentials. They got denim and chinos that actually fit. David outerwear that lasts. From leather jackets to wool top coats, all made from premium materials by trusted factories. And because they cut out the middleman, you get luxury quality without the crazy price tag.

[David Spade]

You were in a high school band called Denim and Chinos if I recall.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes, and BBQ was the lead singer. Actually, she was good.

[David Spade]

I've been starting grabbing a few gifts for home, bath and kitchen. I don't stop at home. I go bath, kitchen.

[Conan O'Brien]

Nice.

[David Spade]

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[Conan O'Brien]

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[David Spade]

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[Conan O'Brien]

I've heard this.

[David Spade]

I've heard this. Yeah, I went out in the snow barefoot. Of course I was a little out of LA a little bit, but yeah, I just want to feel something real. I want to touch grass, touch snow. It made me think about how disconnected our nutrition has gotten. My cupboard used to look like a graveyard of supplements with ingredient lists and it would come over and go, are you okay?

[Conan O'Brien]

A graveyard of supplements?

[David Spade]

Yeah, I'm trying to read labels. It's like the Hunger Games. What brand can I trust? What's filler? What is artificial? Why does every clean product have something different? Feels like I'm being tricked. That's why. Cachava in a breath of fresh air. It simplifies everything. Since adding it into my routine, I felt a real difference. Steady energy, better digestion, a supported metabolism in mind and even immunity benefits. Huh.

[Conan O'Brien]

My go to lately is the chocolate flavored blended with frozen bananas and nuts Milk. But, but David, with six flavors, you really can't go wrong with six. And their Cachava kitchen recipes make it redonkulously easy to whip up a superfood packed shake.

[David Spade]

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[Conan O'Brien]

Remember, if you're hungry for a snack, it's. All right. This is a fun one. Arnold Schwarzenegger and we went to his sort of office space which is like really huge. And he's got all of his Predator statues and posters. It's a very fun place. And he's just fun to talk to. I mean he has a great sense of humor and he's just fun. Everything about him. And you'll see what happens.

[David Spade]

Yeah, he likes comedy. It's the first time I think we went to somebody we didn't know how to do it. It was early. We go to his office, we set all this crap up, we got on the ground, we goofed around, we had some laughs and he was just upbeat, light hearted. Yeah, I thought one of my favorites. Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

And I just wanted to do push ups in front of him so you'll hear that. I think we Posted a picture. Yeah. And he's a his and always has been the most positive, you know. Yeah. You had good form and the politics were going up and down and I was looking at them and with delight.

[David Spade]

I like, because I have to give it to you guys. Just so puny. But, you know, you don't get fat.

[Conan O'Brien]

How do you say, how do you stay so lean? Because the whole thing is to be lean like a little Chihuahua. You don't want to be a big bear.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Ah.

[Conan O'Brien]

You know. So anyway, the whole thing is really fun. And Arnold Sor. He's the only, one and only Arnold Z. Sch.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Don't say anything positive.

[David Spade]

So it'll be kind of quiet.

[Conan O'Brien]

What is this? He's got wires all over. Let me do your trick. It's a little tiny.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Guys been doing this.

[Conan O'Brien]

This 18 months.

[David Spade]

18 months, is that right? Yeah.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

And how did you end up together?

[Conan O'Brien]

We. I met him before SNL, believe it or not, in the 80s at the clubs and stuff.

[David Spade]

80S, Jesus.

[Conan O'Brien]

Well, whatever. And then I moved back down to LA and we started hanging out, and then I had a little podcast I was doing. He came on, then our manager said, you got to do this. So. Yeah, that was it.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

But I think it's a great idea because I think it creates more energy if you have two people kind of back and forth.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Type of thing.

[David Spade]

It's a lot better. Yeah. It makes it go quicker. And he's pretty smart. And we both know a lot of same people, this guy, and it happens.

[Conan O'Brien]

Sorry, Arnold. You're smart, too.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Oh, man.

[Conan O'Brien]

Let me tell you.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

I mean, it's. It's really. I think this is the first one that we are doing with comedians.

[David Spade]

That's a fun one.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Am I right?

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

First podcast. Yeah. Because, I mean, you guys made me laugh, let me tell you, more often than anything. I mean.

[Conan O'Brien]

Conan's a comedian, you know.

[David Spade]

Conan. Not as funny as we are. Yeah, I mean, sort of Conan.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

But I. I don't see Conan as much as a. A comedian.

[Conan O'Brien]

Well, he's not a standup, but he's.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

But. But in general, because I know him more as a host of. Of a very popular kind of a talk show. Right. I have done his show several times, but not as a standup comedy and all this stuff. But I mean, we have all known each other on the personal level.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

And have had a lot of fun together on the personal. And then you, of course, you guys came to the White House.

[David Spade]

Oh, yeah.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

We're doing the Hans in France because we had this great American Workout, which was kind of like a copy of what Kennedy used to do in the White House. Because all the other presidents really never really capitalized on this idea of President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. Right. Created under Eisenhower, but then Kennedy made it kind of a 50 mile walk.

[David Spade]

I did that in school. It was when I was sixth grade. It was like 50 push ups, you know, pull ups. You did all that.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

You got a medal when you could do certain things. And so what happened is that we had now the event, the Great American Workout at the South Lawn of the White House.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

But you don't just want to make it a fitness event. Right. And make it boring. So we wanted to make it hip. So we asked them. Hans in France had to be at the White House and entertain the people and the kids and everybody. And they made everyone laugh and howl and it was just huge. And it got. Got us also because of them. Great ratings.

[David Spade]

Yeah, good.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

And so the, all the press was there and you know, they were like the big shots from Saturday Night Live. And Hans in France still looking for, you know, Uncle Arnold and all.

[Conan O'Brien]

And we walked around and just berate.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Walk around. Exactly.

[Conan O'Brien]

Don't undo your belt. You might cast a flower.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Yeah. And then flip everyone through the ear to land in their own baby boo.

[Conan O'Brien]

That was the. That was one of the best that. That buttocks are like marshmallows. You're lucky I don't have a campfire here. So they're threatening to burn someone's apples.

[David Spade]

Odds and PR was so funny. It was so great. When you did it, you didn't, you didn't host, right? You just came out.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Yeah, I was on snl. I was a guest. He. He invited me to come to the show and to be a guest there and with Danny DeVito. One time I was there with Danny DeVito. Danny was twins.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah. And he was like trying to attack the audience. You were holding him back. But we didn't know how you were going to react. We started doing it and we hear, arn, Arnold's coming. Arnold's coming. And then they said, Arnold is waiting down the hall. This is an 8H in New York. So Kevin and I are a little nervous. We went in and you're in some chair and you lean back and you go, how do I do the accent again, fellas? Then we knew you loved it.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Well, no, but to me it was heaven. Because you have to understand that when I first wanted to get into acting, one of the first things they said was, it won't work. No one in America has ever made it that had an accent. No one could be a leading man or anything. It's really tough to do. People want to hear someone talk like John Wayne, like Clint Eastwood and Al Pacino. This with the guys, you know. So anyway, so then I realized that I had to kind of make the accent actually something, not to hide it, but to actually make something of it. And then out of nowhere, without me controlling it, they came along and they legitimized it. Because now there was someone that actually took that subject of accent and had a good time with it, not to make fun of it, but to actually entertain people with it and to do it overboard. And so all of a sudden, from that point on, it became much more accepted, the whole thing and really became much easier for me.

[Conan O'Brien]

Oh, I didn't even know that.

[David Spade]

It's also comedy. And, you know, you doing a lot of action. It's good now you're involved in comedy. It's just one more thing in the comedy field that people think of you. Then it's funny.

[Conan O'Brien]

And it's also. You were in on the joke. You were inside the tent. I love having fun.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

I always had a good sense of humor, and he always was the first one to be able to make fun of myself and of my situation. The body, you know, coming from Germany and all of this kind of stuff, the German accent, the flabby little puny.

[Conan O'Brien]

Arms and the little girly man, which girly man was to me was just like, you know, gym talk. Like your little puny arms. You look like a girly man. And then when you became governor, sometimes you would use that to describe the legislatures, right? You would use some of it. That bunch of gullymen.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Exactly. So I would go out and say, you know, that we should sign this bill. But, you know, there's the legislators up there in Sacramento, they're such girly men. They're afraid to do the hard work and all this stuff. And they were really offended by the whole thing. So I actually stopped it, you know, because I said. I said, you know, I want to work with those guys. I didn't mean it in a negative way. I just wanted to actually, I didn't want to insult them. I actually wanted to just entertain the crowd. I was out in the shopping mall, and I was like saying to the people, I said, be with me. Vote for those initiatives that are coming up in November. I said, I have to take it directly to you, the initiatives, because this girly man in Sacramento wouldn't go for It. And they were laughing. But I went back to Sacramento. How could you? Cause girly men. This is not fear for you to. I said I'm sorry. I didn't want to offend you.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

To me it was just silly. The New York Times called me and tried to get me to explain what it meant. And to me it was just two guys lifting weights in a gym teasing each other. There was no homophobic undertone.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

No, no, not at all. But today you have to be so careful when you say all this stuff. Yeah.

[David Spade]

If you say baby man, your little baby, and then they're like, why is that against babies?

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah, this is a baby man. You know what I like is we.

[David Spade]

Were saying you as a politician are one of the few that does. You were putting humor in and it does make people listen.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Ye.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah, exactly. You did it before you had nicknames for foes and stuff.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

That's right. Exactly. Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

You. You came out of the box as a breath of fresh air in California. Like the anti politician telling it like it is. I remember your first debate, I think was they taxes. When we go to the bathroom in the morning, they tax us. When we're driving our cars, they tax. You know, it was such a complicated.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

When you have a cup of coffee, they tax us. Tax taxi.

[Conan O'Brien]

But that made you stand out. But anyway, so your book, I read it.

[David Spade]

It's called. You don't know this, but it's called be useful seven tools for life.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes, your ghost.

[David Spade]

I'm gonna read you one chapter.

[Conan O'Brien]

This, by the way. This is true. Chapter one. Oh, you have the book.

[David Spade]

Oh, fuck yeah, I do. I got questions, I got books.

[Conan O'Brien]

My brother and I, I've got three older brothers, we have this thing that.

[David Spade]

We used to say, all registered girly.

[Conan O'Brien]

Men, we would always say, what would Arnold do? When we're up against any kind of challenge or something negative. I'm not kidding. What would Arnold do? Because I noticed a long, long. Now I'm just. Because I'm with you. I'm talking with a slight Austin accent the whole time. But I'm always thinking, what would Arnold do in this situation? Which would always be positive. Always. So I'm not surprised at all you wrote this book.

[David Spade]

The book is a lot about positivity, pretty much overall.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Yeah. It's about how can anybody, no matter who you are and where you are in the world, be more successful. And because there's just certain things that hold us back. And it's simple things sometimes like the fear of failure or picking little goals rather than big Goals and whatever it is, or listening to the naysayers, whatever it may be as it's. I'm trying to go through this in his book and to just tell people here there's seven rules. I could put 15 rules in there, but since the publisher said that you should have no more than 260 pages. So we, we made it, we kept it in that kind of a framework. But in any case, it's basically just simple rules and tools that will help people to become more successful and more free and more able to kind of like go and expand and. And, you know, follow their dreams. And how do you create a dream for yourself? How do you create a vision for yourself in order. So that's what I get into in the book.

[David Spade]

I think lately there's. There's sort of a victim card being played too much. And it's nice to have refreshing old school. There's a chapter, work your ass off. It's just very basic, but it's not what people say out there as much anymore, you know?

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Yeah, yeah, but I talk about exactly what I did. You know, when I came over to this country, I was into working. I was not shying away from working. I was. I say I'm willing to work, even though I was a Mr. Universe several times over, and Mr. World 7 and Mr. Olympia. Mr. Olympia seven times.

[David Spade]

Jesus.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Not at that point in the early 70s, I was like five times Mr. Universe, Mr. World, Mr. International, and two times Mr. Olympia. So now.

[Conan O'Brien]

There was nowhere to be.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Already at the time, it was kind of like in bodybuilding, there was no money. We didn't make any money.

[David Spade]

It's like Miss America, right?

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

So it was like one of those crazy things that still we had to make a living. So, you know, I started a mail order business to kind of like sell booklets and how to train your biceps and your chest and all those kind of things.

[Conan O'Brien]

So with 20 steps doing to do that.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

That's right. So. But the thing is still we need to go and let's go out and work. So my friend Franco Colombo, the bodybuilding.

[Conan O'Brien]

Champion, remember him very well and loved you and him together.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

That's right, yeah, yeah. So he was a bricklayer, professional masonry worker. Learned it in Italy and Sardinia, then continued working in Germany. That's where I met him. And so when he came over here and we kind of always trained together, I said to Frank, I said, franco, you're a masonry worker. Bricklayer. Why don't we start a bricklaying business? I said, in America, they love this European I said, you know, so we call it as a Italian masonry expert.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

And we put a little ad in the LA Times. What the next day after we put this ad. And without beyond our knowledge. I mean, a earthquake happened. Expectation the earthquake happened. It's 1971. Chimneys fall down the patios, the timing, everything.

[David Spade]

And you had nothing to do with.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

So now we started getting. It's funny, nothing to do with it. But anyway, the next thing I know is we get all these phone calls. Can you come out and give me an estimate how to build, rebuild my chimney and how to rebuild my fireplace, how to do my patio. I have a huge crack going through the whole patio. And we cannot continue like that, blah, blah, blah. So Frank and I started going out and doing estimates. And of course we, we were not really experienced in all this stuff. So we just started, you know, measuring the stuff. And then we had always arguments about, you know, I was always kind of like the good guy, he was the bad Italian who always charges too much. And then I would say, this is outrageous, Frankie. You cannot judge in a $7,600 for this stuff. We can do it cheaper than that. No, no, no, no. And it would be. Then we started in German and in Italian, we started arguing. No one understood what we were saying. And just imagine I said to the guy, I wouldn't say to the customer, said, well, I got him down now finally, see if you can do it for $5,000. And they said, thank you so much. And they hugged me and then we did the job and all this stuff.

[Conan O'Brien]

How do you teach street smarts like that one is the Italian name in the paper. And then the collapsing. But then this whole song and dance, I mean, that's just like street smarts or what would you call that idea?

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Well, but remember that I, when I was in, in school, I was an apprentice in selling.

[Conan O'Brien]

Oh.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

So. So when I was 15 years old, instead of going to go on to a university career or anything, I learned to be a salesperson. And so I was kind of an apprentice for three years and I learned how to sell. So sell, sell, sell. This is. And I have one of the chapters in the book that is in there because I realized of how important selling is. So the art of selling was in this case was when I go to a customer and he says, can you show, can you tell me how much it costs to redo this chimney? It sounds better if you go like you do in the store, 50% off.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes. No matter what.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

But first they add the 50% and then they give me 50% off. I said, I measured it out and I said, Franco said, I think it would cost us by the time we buy the material, which will be $2,000, our workmanship, it would take us a week to do this. $1,500. Each is 3,000, so that's $5,000. So then Frank said, yeah, 5,000, we can do it. So then I would go to the guy, says he wants $7,800. And the guy would freak out and say, oh, my God, I don't know if I can afford this. This is like outrageous. Let me work on it. And so I would go to Frank, and then all of a sudden, we will have the screaming match in the corner. And all of this stuff. And then the next thing, as I go back to the guy and say, I brought him down to $5,000, the guy, oh, thank God. Thank God. And they will hug me and we get the job. You know, so this is. It's about. So we. We gave them a good deal, but I mean, we also kind of sold the idea that they got a special, special deal.

[Conan O'Brien]

Did you.

[David Spade]

Do you do physical work or just sort of.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Yeah, yeah. No, I was the. I was the. The guy that was mixing the cement and, and the sand, the water. So I had. I. I picked up the. The. The mixer at the construction place where you rent construction equipment, and I picked it up with my car that put it on in the back, and I just took it to the construction.

[David Spade]

You just used blenders to save money?

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

And it just. Exactly.

[Conan O'Brien]

Did they notice how. How pumped up you guys were? They comment on it and what did you say?

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Bodybuilders? And they said, but why do you. We really didn't want to say that we have to work for a living. We just said. We said, look, we have two choices. One of the things is I lost one of the Mr. Universe contests because it didn't have enough of a tan.

[David Spade]

So that's why you're out there.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

I said, I said, which was in Florida, which is really true. One of the reasons was I didn't have a 10. The other one was it was a little bit too chubby. I didn't know I wasn't cutting exactly 4% body freeze. So anyway, so I said, you know, I lost my bodybuilding competition because didn't have enough of a tan. I said, that will never, ever happen again, right? I said, so now not only am I training every day on Muscle beach down there in Venice beach, you know, the weightlifting platform. I said, but I want to Work out here, we rip off the shirt and we work outside. Because then you get the natural tan all over the place. You get brown. I said, and this way how we can win. So this is why we work a few hours every day in the sun, right?

[David Spade]

You give that a little.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

This was one of the rap. I said, and he happens to be a bricklayer, an outstanding bricklayer from Italy. He did all the special masonry work, even worked in the Vatican.

[Conan O'Brien]

And the work was good.

[David Spade]

Basically built the Vatican.

[Conan O'Brien]

Hey, David, when it comes to gifting, you know, I've learned there are two types of presents. Okay. The ones that get returned and the ones that instantly become a favorite. Do you agree?

[David Spade]

Yeah. That's Jenny Bird jewelry definitely falls in the second category. These designs, as you know, are very modern. They're timeless, always feel special.

[Conan O'Brien]

Oh, well, isn't that special?

[David Spade]

That makes it my secret weapon. When I want to give a gift that really, you know, lands. That's why Jenny Bird makes it easy. The packaging is beautiful. It's very thoughtful. The pieces are comfy enough to wear every day. Yep. And they ship fast.

[Conan O'Brien]

That's right. Perfect.

[David Spade]

If you're last minute shopper like me.

[Conan O'Brien]

That's right. I mean, I just want to do this when I hear that. Way to go.

[David Spade]

Way to go.

[Conan O'Brien]

And because the styles are so versatile, they always make an outfit feel pulled together. David. Without trying too hard. David. Not talking about you. Some of my wife's ghosts are the best selling Florence earrings, which always get compliments. And the Remy Bengal lightweight, water resistant and just as good stacked as it is on its own. These are the gifts you'll actually want to keep.

[David Spade]

And you can get 20% off your first order with Jennybird by visiting jenny-bird.com and using code F OTW at checkout.

[Conan O'Brien]

You know, David, last year I gifted masterclass to my sister for her birthday and she couldn't stop talking about it.

[David Spade]

See?

[Conan O'Brien]

See how that works? She integrated it into her mornings as a little personal growth ritual. Inspired me to do the same.

[David Spade]

Okay.

[Conan O'Brien]

Now it's part of my routine too. Just a few minutes a day, and I feel sharper, calmer, more creative.

[David Spade]

We needed to get you, like, honed down into that zone.

[Conan O'Brien]

I'm so glad you. You just heard that. Like you've. You heard me. You felt. You felt my.

[David Spade]

I hear what you're saying.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah, exactly. You listen.

[David Spade]

That's my crime. I'm a listener. You hear, but you don't listen. You look, but you don't see. One of the favorite classes that I've heard about is Amy Poehler. You know what I mean? Amy Poehler does a improv class. And those are, those are things you can actually use in your everyday life. People have when you're writing emails and you have presentations when you're in conversations, it sort of makes you think a little differently. But there's so many with Masterclass. I mean there's how many 200 world classes with genius people teaching you. And the plan started just $10 a month billed annually. So you can watch or listen anywhere on your phone, laptop, where else, or.

[Conan O'Brien]

Even online if you're traveling. And David, every membership comes with bonus guides and a 30 day money back guarantee. Thousands of bite sized lessons fit right into your schedule. Make it easy to learn from the best on your own time.

[David Spade]

That's right. Masterclass always has great offers during the holidays. Sometimes up to as much as 50% off. Head over to masterclass.com fly for the current offer. That's up to 50% [e-mail] fly Carvana is so easy.

[Conan O'Brien]

Just a click and we've got ourselves a car. See so many cars. That's a clicktastic inventory. And check out the financing options payments to fit our budget. I mean that's Clickonomics101.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Delivery to our door.

[David Spade]

Just a hop, skip and a click away.

[Conan O'Brien]

And bought. No better feeling than when everything just clicks.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Buy your car today on Carvana.

[Conan O'Brien]

Delivery fees may apply. So I don't want to jump ahead here, but then is the biggest selling point you did. And how did you apply this to selling yourself to Hollywood?

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

Not wanting to play the second or third lead, but starting at movie star.

[David Spade]

Yeah. Did he not, did you not do any small. What most people do? Small part. Small part.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Yeah, no, I, I did, but my goal was to be a leading man.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

So I remember, for instance, Lucille Ball would call me and say I was at Gorge Gym working out and she saw me on the Murph Griffin Show.

[Conan O'Brien]

Arnold.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

And she said she, she called me Arnold. Oh, this is Lucy Ball. That's right.

[Conan O'Brien]

A little bit of smoking. Yeah, that's right. I met her.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

And so she says, I saw you on the M. Griffin show. I want you to come in and read for this part. Chose sandal, which is a masseur from Italy. There's an Italian accent, but most people don't know the difference between a German accent, Italian accent, blah blah blah. Come on in and read. And so I would go in there and I would say, oh my God, this is a TV show with art Carney. Lucille Ball, Art Carney just won the Academy Awards and all that stuff. That this was, like, really big. So I went in there and she opened up the script and said, read this part. But I had no idea what that means. So she says, well, I need to come in and my back hurts and all this. How do you know how to massage? And I said, my name is Joe Sandow and I am from Italy. I am a truck driver from Italy. And in Italy, every truck driver also does massages. And she says, oh, wait, yeah, you.

[David Spade]

Went to my acting.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Let's go and take the script away.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah, no scratch.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

She says, the idea of it is this, blah, blah. So she explained to me the idea, and then she asked me some questions, right? And then I would just say, yeah, yeah, I'm from Italy. I'm a truck driver, and my name is Joe Santo. And of course, in Italy, everyone does this massages. And then she was, like, laughing, and everyone else was laughing. And then she says, you see, guys, I told you. I told you he will be good. I mean, you know, he's not used to the script idea and the reading idea, but, I mean, he gave me. By the time we shoot this next Friday, he will be perfect. I promise you guys that. And are you here ready to be here every day for rehearsal? And I didn't even know what rehearsal meant, but in any case. But the bar. I said, yeah, yeah, whatever you want me to do, I do. And so I came every day. I worked with her every day. She was very patient, patient. And we shot then on Friday, and she kept saying. He says, and you need to project more. You need to project more because we're shooting life. So I had no idea what life meant. I had no idea what that meant. So anyway, we rehearsed and rehearsed, and then we shot this scene that I'm ringing the doorbell, the green light lights up at the door, and I open out the door. She opens up the door and she says, you are the monsieur. And I say, yeah, I'm the monsieur. You know, she's coming in, and so I go in there and all of a sudden, huge applause.

[David Spade]

Oh, my God. You don't know that there's people.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

So now I'm standing up with my massage table and I'm looking out like this, staring out. I'm in shock. I'm frozen.

[Conan O'Brien]

First time you heard of that.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

So this is not what the scene's supposed to be. To be frozen. You come in there and to be, like, this Italian, flamboyant guy that opens up the massage table professionally. Chuck, Chuck, Chuck, Chuck.

[David Spade]

Boom.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Flips it open and says it lie down. You know, I'm not standing there like this, you know, totally frozen. And then she says, well, on the massaging me get the table set up. So she immediately saw what was happening. Oh, yeah, totally. And then so I said, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. And the applause continued. So I flipped the table over. Now, of course, I only had the tank top on, so I had like the big guns hanging out and the whole thing.

[Conan O'Brien]

Did you get applause?

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

It was fantastic, the whole thing. Connie came in in the middle of the scene. The whole thing was like a seven minute scene and it played like a jewel. I remembered all my lines. She said it was fantastic. And then I tell you something. From that moment on, Lucy Ball, as long as she lived, she always wrote me a letter. Every movie that I did after that, she saw me on Streets of San Francisco to play a guest starring role, which I got after that. Two years later, she saw Stay Hungry. When that came out with Bob Rafelson. He directed me, Jeff Bridges and Sally Fields, she wrote me a letter. I'm so proud of you, Arnold. You're fantastic. I knew you had this potential. You're gonna be a big star. I mean, what a sweetheart of a woman. As tough as she was, everyone knows she was one of the toughest women in town, you know, and Art Carney could tell you that because she kind of directed the show even though she was not the director. And Gary Morton, who was her husband, could also tell you how tough she was.

[David Spade]

She ran a studio.

[Conan O'Brien]

I did a pilot with Desi Arnaz Jr called Whacked out and we're doing the pilot. Audience is there and we're really bombing. I mean, it's silent. And all of a sudden I hear a voice from the bleachers going, what's wrong with you people? So Lucille Ball had grabbed the microphone and was yelling at the audience, this is funny. Then the whole audience flipped out, made a big line, and it took an hour and a half for everyone to get her autograph.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

That's fantastic.

[David Spade]

You know, for her to take time to do that with you is pretty nice because she could have just said, tough reading, get out. You know, next. But absolutely to work with you and to be that big of a star and, and get you going, and that was really probably one of the biggest things, even just confidence wise.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Yeah, no, but I, I, as much as people were negative about the idea of a muscle guy getting into movies, because what they felt kind of the 60s, the era of the Hercules movies. Steve Reeves and Ridge park and Mark Forrest and Blue Dagny and, you know, Gordon Mitchell and all those guys kind.

[Conan O'Brien]

Of bad movies or B movies.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

They were little. They were not significant movies. But I mean, for me, big. Because when I was 15 years old and I saw Steve Reeves and Rich park on the screen, said, oh, my God, can you believe bodybuilders then become leading men in movies? So that was my motivation, getting into bodybuilding. I said myself, oh, then I can be an actor. So then I go to Hollywood. There's Muscle beach and there's Hollywood. So you have your own fantasies. As a kid with 15. So that was my fantasy, and that made my fantasy become a reality. And I talk about that in the book. How important it is that we have a vision and that we have a goal and that we have something to chase, no matter how stupid it may sound to other people. But just don't listen to the naysayers. Chase your dreams. And that's exactly what I did.

[Conan O'Brien]

And that part of the book, don't listen. That seems like a lot of people. Like, I would get my feelings hurt a lot in the early days before I got on Saturday Night Live, if someone. If someone said I wasn't good or whatever, what are the mind tricks you played to get around that? Like they're saying, you're terrible, you're nothing. This isn't gonna make it. That's not good. And you twist it in your mind.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

You know, I didn't have to really twist much because I just saw my vision very clearly in front of me, of me becoming eventually a Mr. Universe for me, eventually coming to America and eventually getting into movies. I saw that and it was so believable that I had such faith in my vision that there was no one that could talk me out of it.

[David Spade]

They just didn't get it in your head.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Well, I understood that when someone has never done something, like Nelson Mandela always said, everything is always impossible until someone does it. And this is exactly. There was no Austrian ever that became Mr. Universe. So when I say I want to be Mr. Universe, of course they laughed because they thought, well, if he says he wants to be a ski champion, that makes sense. But not to be a Mr. Universe or to be a weightlift or something like this. Weightlifting was kind of dominated by the Russians. Bodybuilding was dominated by the Americans or by the British. I mean, what is he talking about?

[David Spade]

You beat the odds once in a big way, and now you're going to do it in an even bigger Way to come all the way to America and know the language. Did you know the language at all when you got here? It took you a while.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

No. I mean, there was a lot of subtle things. Like I said. When Lucy Ball said, yeah, we're going to go and read. Come over to for a read, I did not know what that meant. I did not know when she said, we're gonna shoot this live, that this means there will be a live audience and we will be live the filming and not taping and stuff like that. So all of this stuff I did not know. But I learned the language quickly. I went to college. I remember I went to Santa Monica City College and took English classes and then eventually took business classes and all the stuff that they learned as an apprentice, selling, marketing, publicity and accounting, mathematics and all of this stuff. Micro and macroeconomics, you know, and then eventually got a degree in that, which was also not something that I planned on doing. But I was like, going part time to college for eight years. I mean, think about it. From 1969 to 1977, it was like I just wanted to educate myself.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

And I didn't have a student visa, so I couldn't go full time to college. So I had to always just take two classes. So sometimes even to cheat a little bit, I took two classes at Santa Monica City College. And then at night I would go with the UCLA and take some extension courses. And then sometimes I would take classes at West Los Angeles College and stuff like that. But eventually I got enough, almost 300 units of credits, and they gave me a degree.

[David Spade]

You know, it's so easy to quit along the way in this guy. There's so many hard obstacles that people just go, I can't do that. Forget it.

[Conan O'Brien]

I have a question. Did you. When you were thinking of your vision, Mr. Olympia, this. And when you envision yourself as a movie star, did you envision Conan the Barbarian? Did you ever envision twins and Kindergarten Cop? It involved no Conan the Barbarian physicality, John Wayne.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

What I envisioned was like, just like, you know, Reg park and Steve Reeves. I said, maybe I can somehow use the muscles and get in the movies. I did not know that there are eras.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

You know that there was. The 60s was the muscle era, where they made all these muscle movies and stuff like that. That the 70s would be kind of like the opposite.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

All of a sudden. Woody Allen and Dustin Hoffman, Peter Frampton, the rock stars. No, those guys exactly. Would be the stars.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

And this is. Everyone said to me, arnold, these guys weigh 100 pounds less than you do. We can't put you in a movie with those guys. It doesn't work, you know, so forget about it. So it was all that. That kind of thing. So. But eventually I think that after they did Stay Hungry.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

And I played a bodybuilding champion in Stay Hungry in the movie and people. And I got the. The Golden Globe awards for best acting debut for that movie. So that really helped.

[Conan O'Brien]

Did you improvise those lines, though? Some of.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

No, no. There was the. In Stay Hungry was all written and.

[Conan O'Brien]

Really you were natural and.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Well, thank you. And then Pumping Iron came out and then. Then that was a big hit.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

And so then all of a sudden people started saying it was Pumping Iron. Actually, that made Ed Pressman, who just passed away recently, famous producer. Yeah. Who saw me in Pumping Iron and then got the rights of the Conan.

[David Spade]

Over to like, that's mainstream. And then you're going to get away from only strongman parts. Like, when I moved here, I got a script. The first time I just read it to them. They handed me the script and I just read it back to them and they're like, what are you doing? I'm like, I don't know, you know, because, you know, they go, come read. It was the same thing. I don't know sides, all the lingo. I didn't know. And I. It was hard for me to get work and I'm only this strong, so I know it was a little bit of a detriment.

[Conan O'Brien]

Dave, did you find it tells you something about yourself? Like me in the early 80s, I go to audition, I walk in a room and I see baby face guys with weak chins and little arms, baby men. They all look like me, you know, I mean, you would walk in reading for something, would you see a lot of other big guys waiting to read?

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

No, I never read again.

[Conan O'Brien]

You never read?

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

That was it? No, no, that was. No, never. I knew that this auditioning. This is not my bag.

[Conan O'Brien]

That's not my bag.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

But for some reason or the other, from that point on, it always. They came to me. Like Bob ran came to me and said, I want you to do Stay Hungry, but you have to take acting classes. I get it. You know, with this guy, Eric Morris, who is an acting coach. He says he was working with Chuck Nicholson, blah, blah, blah. He says, I want you to take acting lessons and then you will come in for reading. So I was like working with this guy for four months.

[Conan O'Brien]

So you weren't auditioning before I go.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Bob Ravens did this as a Joke in a way. And he has, did someone tape it? And I came in and I did the scenes for him and. But it was basically already signed for the movie. Right. So it was not really. That was in danger. But so anyway, I did the scenes and he again was very, very complimentary. But this is the sweetness of people in this town that I noticed kind of how supportive they can be. Like, Bob Ravenson immediately says, stop it. I said, what? He says, look at my hair. Look at my hair on my forearm. Okay, I see you here in the forearm. He says, it's standing up. Do you notice here in my forearm when this stands up? It means that I totally bought in a scene. So what you just did, I totally bought in. It was so touching. It was so emotional. It was so well delivered. Our. We don't even have to go any further. This is it. You have the part.

[Conan O'Brien]

Wow.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

This is how it would be like that. And the same was with Jeff Bridges and with Charlie Fields then, though I was a beginner on this whole thing. But oh, man, they were so supportive when we did the scenes. Sally Fields was like extraordinary, and so was Jeff Bridges.

[Conan O'Brien]

So supportive and everything just take extra time.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

I had really a good, good experience. And then I think Landsberg, when he hired me for, you know, the Chain Mansfield story with Lonnie Anderson, where I played Mickey Haggaday, you know, because Lonnie, Shane Mansfield's husband, was a Hungarian guy.

[David Spade]

Right.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

So, and, and, and so he was Mr. Universe. And so I played that character basically. And so with an accent, it was, the accent was perfect. Then eventually I got then the Conan gig.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

And it was a big international kind of a movie. I mean, Universal Studios.

[David Spade]

How much of that did rose, like.

[Conan O'Brien]

200 million or something?

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

No, no, in those days there was no 200 million. But I mean, it grows down, I think 70 or 80 million dollars. It was like really. It was big and it was number one at the box office when it opened up. So everyone was really happy and they signed me up for a second one. And that's when it was my first. The second counter. I made the first million dollars.

[Conan O'Brien]

And how old were you when you first made that first milling on?

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

The second Conan movie must have been like 33 or 34 years old.

[Conan O'Brien]

What did that mean to you, coming from where you came from in Austria to get a million?

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Well, my, My dream was I said, I want to be like clean Eastwood, because clean Eastwood, Charles Bronson and Marlon Brando were the only guys that were going over getting over a million dollars. A movie in the 70s, in the early 70s. So they were like the kings. So I said to myself, wouldn't it be cool if I get a million dollars a movie? And I always shot for the stars, always the big dream. And then eventually it happened. So I felt fantastic. I felt delighted that I made a million dollars and that I'm a millionaire. But I was already a millionaire before then because I was insisting on making my money in real estate. You know, like for instance, this building that we're sitting in right now. I built it in 1980. So in 1984, I bought before Conan. At least you. It was. No, it was not before Conan, but it was before. Before we, we went terminate and all those.

[Conan O'Brien]

And where did you get the money to buy the real estate?

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Well, I was, I was working on construction sites. I was doing exhibitions and all this. And I started saving money. And then there was an apartment building for sale in Santa Monica for $240,000. Now that's like the day. Yeah, you know, $10 million. I don't know what. But in any case, it was $240,000 and I needed $37,000. Down payment. I had in my bank account 27. So I went to Joe Weider, who was the publisher of the bodybuilding magazine. Exactly. And I said, can you go and loan me $10,000 for one year? And he said, absolutely. And so he would loan me the $10,000. I will put the $37,000 down. And I bought this building, this office building. Two years later, someone comes to me and offers me $500,000 for the same building. This is how much real estate went up in the 70s because of the high inflation rate. So I now immediately sold this building, took the profit and traded up to a 12 unit apartment building. Then I sold that two years later and traded up to a 36 unit apartment building.

[Conan O'Brien]

Your book on how to become a millionaire.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

So I was like, really? Yeah, very quickly in the, in the 70s, I was already a millionaire.

[Conan O'Brien]

Without giving away numbers, but I'm always fascinated. How much real estate did you end up buying? And it was all Southern California where you bought property. Did you buy it other places?

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Well, I always, always in other places. In Colorado, for instance, we bought a whole square block in Colorado and then eventually there was a house build on it. Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

How much was the square block, Square blocks going?

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

It was, it was, it was not that. It's because we bought up pieces at the time.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

And then eventually was a square block. And then we were able to sell this to Someone that wanted to build a high rise, right? And then we were able to get cut in 10% of the high rise and blah, blah, blah and all that stuff. So anyway, so I was always felt very comfortable with the real estate business. But at the same time, the rule is don't have all your irons in the same fire. So I was, you know, investing in stocks and in bonds and all kinds of other kind of like startup businesses and so on. And so my investments always were very good. I never lost money on any investment as far as that goes. There was a huge. And listen to this. It was really funny because I bought. The first money I got, I saved. I bought land out in the Antelope Valley. Why? Because I read somewhere when I came over to this country that they're going to build a supersonic airport out there. And so somebody said, oh, I'm going to go without telling anyone, I'm going to sneak out there and I'm going to buy some profits.

[Conan O'Brien]

With a knife in your mouth.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

And so this is what I did. I bought for $5,000. I had only a thousand dollars. I had to pay off the $5,000. I bought this property out there. And then of course, they never built the airport.

[Conan O'Brien]

I thought, the United States Air Force.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Is out there for out there. I mean, the supersonic airport. They passed a law, an international law that said no supersonic aircraft can fly over land, so they're only over the ocean. So that killed the idea. And so they kept the LA airport here. So my investment went down the tube. So everyone was laughing about it. But here's what I think Joe Weider said to me, says, arnold, don't worry about it. This will be a good investment for your grandchildren. Keep it, Forget about it. I did. I totally forgot about it and I kept it. Today it's worth one and a half million dollars just to show you a $5,000 property. So I didn't even lose money on that investment. So this is just to show you that, you know, if you really hold on to it, we talk more about.

[Conan O'Brien]

Rest of the podcast, how to invest. Arnold, what would you do?

[David Spade]

What was after the one you just said, oh, Conan. What was the first sort of mainstream? Conan 2 and what was that was kind of mainstream.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

The funniest thing was my, my dreams and my desires grew. And I'm sure it's the same with you. You were dreaming with standup comic. But then you say, wouldn't it be great if I do a TV show? Wouldn't it be great if I Do a movie so you, it grows, you know, you get more and more hungry. And so the same thing happened to me. So I said to myself, wouldn't it be cool if I could do movies that doesn't rely on muscles?

[Conan O'Brien]

Right.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

So what would happen was Jim Cameron comes along.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

And he says to me, Mike, Meadow boy. And they say to me, he says, do you want to do this movie called Terminator? And I said, yeah. I said, that would be great. Can you send me the script? He said, sure. So he sent me the script and he said, it will be this character Reese, which is the heroic character in the movie. And I said, oh, that would be a really great, great role. And then for some reason or the other, when I met with Jim Cameron and we had lunch, I talked the entire lunch about Terminator. Here's Jim. I said, I know you have not directed much, but I say, here's what is important. When you direct this guy, whoever plays the terminal at that day, he says, well, the character that we hired for it is O.J. simpson. He says, but the studio is kind of like negative about him because they think that he cannot sell the idea of being a killing machine.

[David Spade]

Oh, oh.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

He says, OJ Is not enough of a killer.

[David Spade]

He's kind of nice.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

He looks, he looks too soft for that. So these are different quotes then. This is the truth. I mean, this is like unbelievable. And, and, and, and so they said, so this is not really set in stone. The whole thing is. But after listening to you, Jim Cameron said, after listening to you talking to me about the Terminator, that he has to be trained to be like a machine and he cannot walk like a human being, that he cannot talk like a human being. You're absolutely correct. You take on it is perfect. Why don't you play the Terminator? And I said, no, no, no, no, no. I said, look, I want to play Reese. I want to be the hero, not the villain. I'm set up in my mind. Well, the way I shoot it, Arnold, it would be like a hero and a villain hero because he does all these unbelievable things and wipes everyone out. Villain because he's a machine. But you don't have to be responsible personally because you're a machine. You're directed by some higher power. So it's not like you kill it going around killing things. So I said, okay, let me think about it. And so for a few days I thought about it and then I said to myself, he's actually right. If he shoots this the right way, this could be really Cool. And then they called him back and they said, okay, I'm in. And so there was the first movie where I wear.

[Conan O'Brien]

Shirt didn't come off.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

No, never. It was like, jacket, leather jacket, and the whole thing like that. And from then, I got the offer to do after Terminator, to do Commando, then after that to do Predator, Running Man. And it went on and on.

[Conan O'Brien]

Every one of your movies I was in.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

I was in.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

I was accepted in Hollywood as the action hero.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

And it all came from Conan and from Terminator. So this was kind of what it was, my launching pad.

[Conan O'Brien]

And you. God, you just had such a run at.

[David Spade]

You know, Dana, I saw a copy of Terminator when you said, you know, your catchphrases are very short, which is smart. I saw an early copy when you say, come with me if you want to live.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Yeah.

[David Spade]

And it was, come with me if you want to live. Because I know all the shortcuts in town. We can go down the 7:10, and we can get in a carpool lane. And the monster robot only can drive in the regular because he's one person. And I think it was better you.

[Conan O'Brien]

Tightened it because that's if you want to live. Yeah. You didn't want to give me too wordy.

[David Spade]

I was too wordy. And so the final script, come with me if you want to live.

[Conan O'Brien]

They cut all that out, and it was awesome.

[David Spade]

There's a lot of. You had a lot of good ones. Did you know at the time when you do those that these might be sort of cool little things?

[Conan O'Brien]

No.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

No. You don't know. We never know what would hit and what would. What people really like. I mean, you wish you can say that and say, oh, this was written this way, or I improvised it. It's not. That wouldn't be true. The reality of it is we had no idea that even I'll be back will be a line. That would be the most repeated kind of line.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

You know, anything. We just. I was arguing with Jim Cameron endlessly about I will be back. He says, no, I wrote I'll be back. I'm going to say, I will be back because I don't like the aisle. This L thing sounds a little weird. I said, I will be back, and he says, who the wrote the script?

[David Spade]

Oh, yeah.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Are you the script writer now or am I the scriptwriter? I say, you're the scriptwriter. And he says, okay. So we say, I'll be back, and if you want, we can shoot it 10 different ways if that makes you feel comfortable. He says, but. So let's just do that. I'll be back. Not I will be back. That's bullshit. And so I was arguing with him.

[Conan O'Brien]

About, what's funny is it was right.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Luckily, he was so right and he.

[David Spade]

Made me sort of, I will be back sounds almost more robotic. And you were right.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Yeah, I know, but I mean, so he just loved I'll be back, you know, And. And so we did it 10 times. And when the movie came out, everyone wanted me to repeat that line. And so you don't know. We had no idea this is going to happen. We had no idea that, you know, kind of like all the stuff, you know, asta la vista baby in Terminator 2.

[David Spade]

Right.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

You know, or get to the chopper. Stupid lines. Just because the way I say it. Because we can. I can. Germans cannot pronounce the on end. So everything's. Ah, chopper. It's not a tumor.

[Conan O'Brien]

It's not a tumor.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

So when I say when I say it's not a tumor. When we rehearsed for Kindergarten Cop and I did the rehearsal with the kids and I said, it's not a tumor, all the kids started laughing, even though it was supposed to be an intense scene. Then Ivan Reitman looked and said, this is funny.

[David Spade]

Now we gotta do it.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

They're all laughing. He said, say it the same way. Don't change anything. So anyway, so those lines became kind of famous because the way I say my accent and so if someone else would have said it, wouldn't have meant anything.

[Conan O'Brien]

It's musical. It's a musicality. I will be back has a different rhythm comedically. I'll be back. So intense. Didn't you do some where you would drop guys off, thanks for dropping by. And you drop them off a cliff.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Those kinds of guys. You promised to kill me last. You know, Sally. I said, sally, remember, I promised to kill you last. He says, yeah, yeah, I said, I lied.

[David Spade]

Yeah. Mr.

[Conan O'Brien]

Freeze had a couple and everyone.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

All the kids that running around that the parents were saying, he says, you promised me that you're not gonna get an F in school. I lied.

[David Spade]

You have more comedy hits than most comedians, to be honest.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

But you know, when we're talking about growing your vision, like, the last thing I ever thought about doing was doing comedies. But then when I was doing a bunch of movies, action movies, I said to myself, wouldn't it be cool if I could do a comedy because I felt I had a sense of humor? Yes. I agree that I didn't understand the American sense of humor as well, so that's why I asked my buddy Milton Pearl to teach me about comedy. Yeah, Milton Pearl. Yeah. So he would write.

[Conan O'Brien]

He was friends with Lucille Ball as well.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Yeah, but he was right. Jokes for me all the time. Milton Burrow. Until he always, you know, called me Nazi after. Write these jokes for this Nazi, God damn it. You know? You know, he loved hanging out with me and smoking cigars with me. Because of him, I really got into the cigar smoking, actually. But it was like he was really, really funny. And he would then go and start writing stuff for me when I was doing speeches, you know, and he would say, since you can't go out there in a speech, instead with a serious note, you got to go and say first, make the people like you. So say something funny.

[David Spade]

Right.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

You know, go out there and just say, you know what? You probably wonder what am I doing here at a medical convention in Vegas? But, you know, Dr. Sorensen came up to me and says, I love you because you're a real good American and you believe in free speech, right? And I said, yeah, of course I believe in free speech. Good, because you're going to give one in Vegas on June 14, you know, so then the people laugh and he says, and then they like you. Now whatever you say, they will like you. I said, right? So there was Milton Pearl's kind of a thing. So he would write little jokes and little lines for me for the beginning to get to get going with the speeches.

[David Spade]

Lucille Ball, Milton, Bro, you got some good ones. Hey, Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. You know, one of the perks about having four kids that you know about is actually getting a direct line to the big man up north. And this year he wants you to know the best gift that you can give someone is the gift of Mint Mobile's unlimited wireless for $15 a month. Now you don't even need to wrap it. Give it a [e-mail] Switch upfront payment.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Of $45 for three months. Plan equivalent to $15 per month.

[Conan O'Brien]

Required new customer offer for first three months only. Speed slow after 35 gigabytes if network's busy.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Taxes and fees extra.

[David Spade]

See mint mobile.com Marriott Bonvoy is the official hotel partner of US Soccer. Join Marriott Bonvoy today to get closer to the game with exclusive perks, unforgettable experiences and benefits that go beyond the pitch. Springhill Suites, part of Marriott Bonvoy, offers complimentary hot breakfast and spacious all suite accommodations perfect for the whole team with room for up to six guests. Make your Next getaway a win. Learn [e-mail].

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah, do you remember with the movie we almost made, we wrote a script, it was called Hans and Franz, the Goodly Man Dilemma that we were gonna do with you. It didn't get made, but it was a funny script.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Just. Just. I had that conversation just recently.

[Conan O'Brien]

With Conan.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

No. Well, with Conan, yes. But I mean, we also internally had it because I said, there are several scripts I said that were offered to me that I didn't do for whatever the reasons were, you know, that they were dismissed or they were never made or I couldn't wait. They couldn't wait for me, so they hired someone else. You know, like the Rock. The movie.

[Conan O'Brien]

The Rock.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

With. It was with the. With Sean Connery. Sean Connery, exactly. And what's the actor's name again? Nick Cage. Exactly. Nicholas Cage. And so I was going to do that, but I mean, they couldn't wait for me because I was doing another movie first and all that stuff. So there were certain. But the one movie that I always loved, that I even would do today is the script that we had together where Hans in Franz finally comes to find the uncle.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

And they're now staying in his house.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

And I remember it was so funny.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

And I just remember when you guys, you came to me and you said, I have to go to the bathroom. Where. Where's the bathroom? And I said, you go down the hall and where you see the deltoid, you go left, then you see a calf, you go right.

[Conan O'Brien]

Big giant.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

And then you see. Exactly. There was all these huge sculptures of my body all over the house. And this was the direction that I gave you guys. It was just so stupid and so funny. Oh, yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

And you had a war room. We went into where you had. It was a whole puzzle, a whole. Like a Monopoly game. But studios, Paramount 20. And you had little. You're pushing pieces around. Stallone is going to do a movie over. 20th Century Fox encountered Paramount with a comedy. You know.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Exactly.

[Conan O'Brien]

All of it was having fun with the image of Arnold Schwarzenegger at that time. And.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

And what you guys did on Saturday Night Live.

[David Spade]

Yeah, yeah.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

So it was. The idea was that they took the Saturday Night Live idea where you were searching for me and running into different kind of situations, but here you were actually, you found me in this movie and now it goes on from what. What do we do together? And so it was hilarious, the script. So, I mean, I think it still could be funny.

[Conan O'Brien]

We read it. We read it on Conan's podcast and it had a big reaction. People really liked it. It's from a different era in the sense that it's really big funny and silly, which I don't think they make enough of those.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

You can modernize it.

[Conan O'Brien]

Oh yeah.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

If you get a ride of the day, if you guys sit down instead reworking it what works today and to do it for Netflix, let's say for that audience. I mean imagine how the smash that would be a lot of physical laughing from here to Eternity. A lot of visual come out at Christmas time or before Christmas. I be just would be fantastic.

[Conan O'Brien]

I'm around. I'm around second. But yeah, it was just a funny script and you were. It was an hilarious part for you. But, you know, life is what it is.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Exactly.

[Conan O'Brien]

You know, you just keep moving on to your. The chapter at the end about just giving back, you know, and you're talking about Milton Burrow helping you. Lucille Ball and now you must find chances or do young movie stars look you up or ask you or give advice. So you're a mentor of how to. I don't know. Is there anyone more successful. This will sound like I'm kissing your ass, but is there any been anyone like you in the last 40, 50 years to come to America from another country from extreme poverty and do all these things and then here you are now still going.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

You know, I. I didn't know. I think that one of the people that I always admired a lot that came to America with The age of 15, I think was Henry Kissinger.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah. And he's still around.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

And Henry Kissinger had an unbelievable career.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Academic career and political career. And it was just a genius foreign policy kind of a guy. In order to. Look, there's a lot of people, Elon Musk and people like that that have come to this country.

[Conan O'Brien]

Remember Elon Musk would be a.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

One of the things. No matter who it is, no matter how many there are one thing we know for sure that there's no other country in the world where we could have done that. No other country. I mean, if I think about. I'm pretty much aware of the world because I travel a lot and through bodybuilding and movie promotion and when I was governor to do trade missions all over the world and all of that stuff. But there's just no place. And even today at a time when we have difficulty in America, you know, where the parties don't get along and they can't get much done and all this stuff, even during that time when I travel around, I don't see anyone coming up to me and saying, oh, Arnold, can you help me get a visa to Jordan? Or can you help me to get a visa to Russia? Or can you help me to get to South Africa or something like that? No, I mean, it's all about America, Arnold, please help me. Can you write a letter for the immigration office? You know, I want to get to America, I want to be in America. So this is the number one country still by far. It's the most desirable place for people to come. It's the only place where someone like myself can come and make it, and make it big and make all his dreams become a reality.

[Conan O'Brien]

What are we doing right? Because we're pretty self critical as a nation right now about America, but you have a perspective unique to people who are born here, tend to take it for granted. But what are we doing right so that people can come in and have a life like you've had in America.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

But people can and people do today.

[Conan O'Brien]

Just because the economic freedom, I think.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

It is the economic freedom I think it is just that it has its downfalls and it has its big advantages and the advantages are more than our disadvantages. And that's what makes us so great. Yes, we have problems and all that, but I mean, it's still. Anyone can come still today to America and really become kind of very successful. I see it all the time in a smaller way even. I see people coming from. I see this one guy was coming from Israel to Gold's Gym. He was working out for a while, then all of a sudden he was like a personal trainer. And the next thing I know he's driving around, driving up with Aston Martin and the next day with the Jaguar. And the guy's getting a hundred dollars an hour. He works 15 hours a day. 15 hours a day. He's talking about working your ass off, right? What we talked about earlier, this guy believes in working. So he drives these fancy cars, he has nice girls around, he trains people there in the gym. He's doing exactly what he wants to do. He's from Israel, just came over here a few years ago. And the same is with a French guy that does the same thing. I know this one girl that is from Sweden, she's a personal trainer and she's making a fortune and all this. So this is unlike any other place, you know. And so I think this is really the place to be and where people can be successful. And I think America should be proud of that. And you're right. When you are an American, you take it for granted. When you're American, you sometimes don't appreciate how great this country really is. And the thing that everyone has to do isn't. I talk about this in the last chapter is this country was built by hardworking men and women that have sacrificed that were not just looking forward to the glory, but sacrificed. And I think that today's kids have to study that history because it will make them wake up and say, I cannot be this little girly man.

[Conan O'Brien]

Well put.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Because I see this guy that is staying in bed, I want to sleep in. Oh, I want to feel good. Oh, I want to be treated kind of fairly and nice. Sense of, no, this is a tough world. Get up at 5 o' clock in the morning, 6 o' clock in the morning and kick some serious ass. Go to work. Whatever you do, the day's 24 hours. You can do it. And this is how we make this country, you know, not only great, but keep it. The greatest country in the world is by not babying ourselves and not by kind of like taking it easy and trying to sleep in. And I want to feel better and all this kind of stuff, but to kind of do the same thing as they did in the old days. Work your butt off. It's like Ted Turner always said, you know, early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise. This is where the action is, you know, And I believe in that, you know, but it's important to know that we got to grind it out and we cannot just always look for the pleasures. But there is punishment, there is hardship, there is failure. There is tough times that you go through, but that's all okay. We got to go and have a clear vision, chase that vision, and then there will be struggles and all that stuff. The more struggles we have, the tougher we will get. And the more failures we have, the more we learn and the more successful we can get. I mean, remember what the Michael Jordan said, I missed 5,000 shots and I lost 200 and some 80 games, but I became the greatest basketball player because of it. You know what I've learned? So don't be afraid of failure is one of the chapters that I have in the book. And so I think it's hard work not being afraid of failure, to grind it out, to have a clear vision, not listen to the naysayers, pick big goals. So those are the kind of rules that they talk about in a book, because that's what we need to do in order to be successful as a person. And as a country, and I think.

[Conan O'Brien]

That, you know, it's in your book, but that you just have you in the end of the day and sometimes don't look at social media too much and get tricked out that this person did nothing and is a millionaire. But what I found a few times just being driven around the country to gigs and I had first generation immigrants driving me from Russia. Wherever this one Russian guy goes. I tried to open business in Russia. Someone, stop. I tried to hire more employees. They say, stop. I come to America, I start to do same thing. No one say stop. No one told him to stop. Who are you? Now? Almost every time I. I own the business. I just like your comedy. I drive you, Mr. Kavi. But. So that's the idea is it's nothing. I think the secret sauce of America. If you put the work in consistently and are willing to fail over and over again, there is some great stuff that will happen to you emotionally, mentally, and hopefully you will experience success. It won't stop you.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

You're absolutely right. Because no one has ever said to me, you can't. They will say, I think this is impossible. Or is there naysayers? And they say, no one has ever done it before. But no one said, I would not allow you to do that.

[Conan O'Brien]

Right.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

There's no such thing.

[Conan O'Brien]

You've already done four movies. It's your turn now. You go back to do twins.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Exactly. Yeah. No such thing. So, you know, so I have to always say that none of it that I accomplished would have been possible if I wouldn't have been in America.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

Wow. Well, see this here?

[David Spade]

Yeah. See the hairs of my arms? Actually, mine's here.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

His monstrous forms of yours. Look at this, all pumped up. How do you do it?

[Conan O'Brien]

I do a lot of push ups. I just. Push ups are my main thing if I can't get to the gym. But I try to, you know, I keep going.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

You know, I'm just.

[David Spade]

Got my excuse.

[Conan O'Brien]

I always tell people, you occupy a room, but you live here. So work on this. This is where you're living. You could occupy this. But that's right, you can't get away. No matter where you go. There you are.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Yeah, that's.

[Conan O'Brien]

Well, Arnold, this has been total recall line. Total recall.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Remember until the recall, when I check in on the beginning that they say to me to. To. To. To sell this implant. They say, what is always the same? Wherever you go, you, you, there you are. Here. We told Rico we're gonna help you with that. You can become kind of an Agent, secret agent. You can have this wonderful woman. You can do this, you can conquer the. The blah, blah. So this is the whole thing is the whole line is about that.

[Conan O'Brien]

Do you have a favorite movie?

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

No, because it's like, you know, it's like I, I love twins with Danny DeVito, but at the same time, I love, you know, Terminator and I love, you know, Predator, True Lies. I mean, it's very hard to pick, you know, one. There's some movies that were fun to make, like Kindergarten Cop to work with those 20 kids. That was really a lot of fun.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

But there's other movies that were really hard to make. Like True Lies. We were shooting like for six months in this movie from winter scenes and summer scenes, in the snow, in the cold. Freezing cold. Maybe it's just tortures and then 80 days night shooting and all that stuff. But it was a fun movie to watch.

[Conan O'Brien]

What? Just for the fans that are listening. At the end of Predator, you got rigged a log to kill or something. It's. What did you say? What are you? Or something. I think it takes its helmet off or. You're ugly.

[David Spade]

I can't get the mud all over.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Yeah, yeah, it was a great line. Exactly.

[Conan O'Brien]

You're just almost to be dead. You're just covered in mud. You got this monster. You one ugly.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Come kill me. Kill me. Do it. Do it now. Do it now. Then on the end, I said, get to the chopper.

[Conan O'Brien]

Vista, baby.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

I had no idea that I would be walking around. I would go to the Arnold Classic, to the sports festival. People screaming out, I'll get to the chop. You know the. All my lines, they're screaming. It's just hilarious to watch that.

[Conan O'Brien]

I was at the Arnold Classic with you. We were backstage on the TV monitor were all the contestants out there doing their stuff.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

And so I just looked at the monitor. I asked you, I said, is there anyone exceptional here? And you just lean back when.

[David Spade]

Well, well, me? Yeah.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Well, David, what have you been up to?

[David Spade]

Oh, thank you. Finally.

[Conan O'Brien]

We'Re going to take a quick break.

[David Spade]

Come back with no commercial now. No, I was gonna say a lot.

[Conan O'Brien]

You've got a game show on tomorrow.

[David Spade]

Say hi to everyone. There's Maria, who's always a fun ball buster to me. There's Patrick, who's on the boys spin off. Right. Patrick's doing great. Christopher, your daughters. I see all these people here and there. We did grown ups too. Patrick was in and so. And Christopher works on Tyson's podcast. Yeah, everyone's doing great. Just hi to the family. And thanks for coming down. And it's great to talk to you.

[Conan O'Brien]

About this book, but David is very, very busy.

[David Spade]

What's that?

[Conan O'Brien]

He's very. Is that what you were doing? He's doing a lot of stand up.

[David Spade]

Oh, yeah, I'm doing stand up. I'm doing all the same, you know. No, I'm crushing it. I'll send you a couple links.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah, those are not hand me downs.

[David Spade]

Yeah, I know. These are right off the rack.

[Conan O'Brien]

He's like my little brother.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Let me ask you something. I mean, sure, I know that you doing this podcast to interview me, but I find it interesting how both of you stay so lean.

[Conan O'Brien]

Right?

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Just give me a quick rundown. What makes you stay so lean? Are you disciplined with your eating or you working out?

[David Spade]

You know what I realized down the line? At a certain point? Point it was my problem was more eating than working out more. So when I ate less or more thought it out more, I would lose weight faster than working out too much. So it was cut out sugar, try to cut out some white flour. And then overall, it is like more of a lifestyle than just dieting or whatever. You really slowly have to start cutting stuff out when you get older and you can't eat as badly, do as much this and that. And I sleep probably eight hours. Dana, what about you?

[Conan O'Brien]

I. I ran track and field in high school. You know, distance running and cross country.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Then you still do?

[David Spade]

Yeah. You still run?

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah, I do run and I. And I hike. I do all kinds of things. I love the burn. You know how you say this is better than an orgasm, you know?

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

I love hard cardio. Sorry, that was hard. Organs over or something. It's better pumping up. It's like. I remember that was fun when you.

[David Spade]

Get the burn when you kicked into that.

[Conan O'Brien]

I love to work. Work really, really hard. I go up Griffith park and I go. I redline. Really? And then I started lifting weights, you know, in my 30s. And then I. You and I have something in common. I had a bypass that the operation wasn't done correctly but didn't hurt me when I was 42, so. And now I'm a little older than that. But that also put me on a Mediterranean diet, basically. And so my wife and I just got all the junk out of the house. We keep all the junk out of the house. If it's not right there, I don't have it. And I weigh myself. I'm not neurotic about it, but I just keep track. It's like a report card for Me, And I'm not trying to get too thin. I just try to stay around this weight because I feel lighter on my feet. Yeah, yeah.

[David Spade]

It's hard.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

No, I just think that it is so important that we stay lean, even though I'm not lean.

[Conan O'Brien]

Well, you look great.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

But I mean, I'm just telling you that I want to look like today. I got to this age now where I admire people much more when they're lean than when they're bulked up. Because I think lean is where the action is. Because, you know, the body just. No, but the body just is. Lives longer when you're lean. I look at my dogs, you know, the dogs that usually the bigger dogs they wipe out with the age of 12, 13, 14. Have this little dog, you know, noodle. Little dog like this. It's like 14 and a half years old. Runs around, jumps up on every bench and just still attacks all the other dogs when they're nasty. Just the teeth and all. Has full. Full of energy, but it's little.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah, yeah.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

So he's gonna live for the next. You know, I'm more like. I think it's just amazing.

[David Spade]

No, I'm noodle, but I'm just.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Yes. I'm comparing them because. Because it doesn't matter. Or if you're a human being, being leaner and being lighter is. Means a longevity means that you're around a long time.

[Conan O'Brien]

Okay.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

Can I do 10 push ups now and have you analyze just my four, just to start.

[David Spade]

I will go.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

I will do it.

[David Spade]

Yeah. He's taking the mic with him. Okay, let's see.

[Conan O'Brien]

It's doing 10. I'm not.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

David. Do you want me to hold it?

[Conan O'Brien]

Shake a little bit.

[David Spade]

Do you want me to hold your.

[Conan O'Brien]

No, I'll go down.

[David Spade]

Okay.

[Conan O'Brien]

So it depends where I want.

[David Spade]

Here comes Dana.

[Conan O'Brien]

He's doing basically. So I'm in the push up position.

[David Spade]

Looks a little girly, man. Right now.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

1.

[David Spade]

Shaking.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

2. Yeah. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

[David Spade]

No pauses.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

8.

[David Spade]

Nailing it.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

9. 10. Perfect, perfect.

[David Spade]

Get the oxygen.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

It was fantastic. It was very, very strict. And what was good about it was that your body stayed absolutely flat.

[Conan O'Brien]

Right.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

You didn't buckle in with the. At the waistline like a lot of people do and stuff.

[Conan O'Brien]

You got to keep your glutes on.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

You just said like a board straight. Yeah, Totally flat.

[Conan O'Brien]

That's the greatest.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Disciplined.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

So that's what I do. And I do lat poles. I do stuff for the back.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Yeah, yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

And mobility is all the rage now. I think it's it's great hip mobility.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Yeah.

[David Spade]

All right, well, good job.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Anyway, good, good to see you guys with the book.

[David Spade]

It's great.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Thank you. Thank you for your help, the book and all that stuff. I really appreciate that.

[Conan O'Brien]

The book is great.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

We will stay in touch, of course.

[David Spade]

Always fun to see you.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

We'll work together again.

[Conan O'Brien]

That would be great.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Something.

[Conan O'Brien]

Let's do something.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger]

Absolutely.

[David Spade]

Hey guys, if you're loving this podcast, which you are, be sure to click follow on your favorite podcast app, Give us review 5 star rating and maybe even share an episode that you've loved with a friend.

[Conan O'Brien]

If you're watching this episode on YouTube, please subscribe. We're on video now.

[David Spade]

Fly on the Wall is presented by Odyssey, an executive produced by Danny Carvey and David Spade, Heather Santoro and Greg Holtzman, Maddie Sprung Kaiser and Leah Rees Dennis of Odyssey.

[Conan O'Brien]

Our senior producer is Greg Holtzman and the show is produced and edited by.

[David Spade]

Phil Sweet, tech booking by Cultivated Entertainment.

[Conan O'Brien]

Special thanks to Patrick Fogarty, Evan Cox, Maura Curran, Melissa Wester, Hillary Schuff, Eric Donnelly, Colin Gaynor, Sean Cherry, Kirk Courtney and Lauren Vieira.

[David Spade]

Reach out with us. Any questions be asked and answered on the show? You can email [e-mail] that's a U-Y dot com.