BONUS Arnold Schwarzenegger Just Left
Marc:Okay, I got it going.
Guest:All right, well, tell me everything.
Marc:He was so fucking funny, dude.
Marc:I couldn't.
Marc:Oh, man.
Marc:Right from the get go.
Marc:Like, you know, it's.
Guest:Yeah, literally take me from the start, because the last thing I heard from you was just a text that says, here they are.
Guest:And I have not heard a single word from you until jumping on this microphone.
Guest:So so what happened?
Guest:Oh,
Marc:Well, okay, okay.
Marc:So I'm already panicking because I didn't really take into consideration that there's this construction going on right next door.
Marc:Like the adjacent, like right over the wall, there's a garage for the house facing the other direction around the corner.
Marc:And I didn't even realize they're gutting the whole house and they're pounding away.
Marc:On that garage right there, hammers and everything.
Marc:And I'm freaking out all morning.
Marc:I get up and I'm like, oh, fuck.
Marc:Now what am I going to do?
Marc:Because it's right there.
Marc:You'll probably hear it during this.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:So, you know, we go back and forth, you and I, you know, go see if I, you're literally like, go see if you can pay somebody, which is what film shoots do.
Marc:They just go and.
Marc:Yes.
Guest:And if I were there, I would have walked over and said, how much is it going to cost to stop this?
Marc:Well, I went over there, right?
Marc:I decided to time it out because I didn't know what I'd be up against over there.
Marc:And I didn't realize that the whole house is empty.
Marc:It's boarded up.
Marc:They're doing a full renovation.
Marc:So we're going to have to deal with that later.
Marc:I'm like, can we not, is there some way from 930 to 1030?
Marc:And he didn't understand.
Marc:And then I guess the foreman guy comes over.
Marc:He's like, what's up?
Marc:And I'm like, I need 930 to 1030.
Marc:I have to record an interview.
Marc:And I go, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Marc:And he was like, I don't
Marc:know 9 30 10 30 okay fine no no money exchange and you had just texted me give them a thousand dollars so i just go over there i just ask him and and uh and he's like okay right but i don't think he really registered it so then i'm on the porch i'm still worried about this on top of you know getting all loaded up for to deal with with arnold and
Marc:And they're not here at 930.
Marc:And then, like, they show up when I text you and we're walking around back.
Marc:And I say through the fence, which you can't really see through that well because there's a lattice and then there's some trees there.
Marc:I yell at the guys who are right over the wall.
Marc:I'm like, okay, start now, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Marc:And then one of them goes, he's here?
Marc:And I'm like, yeah.
Marc:And he had just walked into the studio.
Marc:I'm like, he's just in there.
Marc:He's like, Arnold Schwarzenegger's here.
Marc:And I'm like, yeah.
Marc:And these guys are like, one of them's like, no, is he really?
Marc:I'm like, Arnold, could you come out here and just tell these guys that it's you and the publicist here?
Marc:He's like, well, he's sitting down.
Marc:I'm like, well, could you just tell him?
Marc:And he just sticks his head out there and goes, I'm back.
Marc:You know, like, gosh.
Yeah.
Marc:And he does a couple of lines from one of his movies.
Marc:And these guys are like, oh, my God.
Marc:You know, they're losing their minds over there.
Marc:Because, you know, he's like, I am near, you know, like, whatever.
Marc:I can't do the accent as good as you.
Marc:But that kind of solved it.
Marc:They were just, like, bug-eyed.
Marc:Like, I've seen you in movies, you know.
Marc:So.
Marc:So they like literally, I think they had taped their mouths shut around over there.
Marc:They like for the hour, there was nothing.
Marc:You heard nothing.
Guest:I would love if it was like a little rascals.
Guest:They just like had their heads to the fence trying to listen in.
Guest:There's one guy on top of the shoulders of the other guy.
Marc:I don't think ultimately they knew what exactly I was doing, but they saw him and it was kind of an amazing, they were like beside themselves and
Marc:And then afterwards, you know, two of them were out front, you know, and they're like, oh, my God, I like your movies.
Marc:You know, like the one guy who I who I asked for initially, he didn't quite understand, but he was there.
Marc:He's this little guy.
Marc:And he's like, you've made my whole life, my whole day.
Marc:I see him in so many movies.
Marc:And what do you do?
Marc:And I tried to explain the podcast to him.
Marc:But whatever the case, they were they were they were like it was it was ridiculous.
Marc:you know, they were shaking.
Guest:They were, they were just, that was way better than a thousand dollars.
Guest:Cause if you remember, I also said to you, just tell them you'll get an autograph from Arnold.
Guest:And I figured that that would be enough, but, but this was way better.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I mean, they didn't ask her.
Marc:And I could tell Arnold was like, Oh, okay.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:You know, he had had enough, you know, but,
Marc:But, yeah, so that all worked out.
Marc:Oh, great.
Marc:Yeah, and then when he got in here, they'd just come from Stern, so I'm like, oh, fuck, he's tapped.
Marc:I asked the publicist because Arnold was in the car doing a FaceTime with the owner of an Austrian hotel that he was making sure he could get this jacket sent to his house for a FaceTime.
Marc:a benefit brunch or something he's have at his, at his house.
Marc:And this year the theme is Oktoberfest.
Marc:I'm like, are you going to wear leader hoses?
Marc:He's like, yeah.
Marc:Of course he's going to wear leader hoses.
Marc:He says it's a different theme every year, but all right.
Marc:So, you know, we get in here.
Marc:And, you know, he focuses and, you know, like I, you know, I don't know why I didn't assume it, you know, or what I was thinking.
Marc:But, you know, he's, you know, he's a professional man.
Marc:He can get in the zone immediately.
Marc:Two or three zones.
Marc:You know, that's the thing.
Marc:Because, you know, there was a lot of, you know, stuff.
Marc:that I kind of heard in the documentary and there's stuff from the book.
Marc:But there was a couple of things that even looking through some of the research we did that I did not hear.
Marc:But, you know, in the tone of him talking about bodybuilding and his experience in America and even his childhood to some degree,
Marc:And he's being funny.
Marc:We started talking about Milton Berle.
Marc:He started sort of assessing my journey.
Marc:Like, you made choices about success.
Marc:And I'm like, I don't think it really went that way.
Marc:But he kept trying to twist the frame that I'm self-actualized.
Marc:I made decisions about the market.
Marc:I have the biggest podcast.
Marc:A lot of it was not correct.
Marc:But so I tried to say, like, are you saying that I knew these things that are in your book even without knowing them at all?
Marc:You know, and he's like, no, but you, you know, you've adjusted.
Marc:He's got a way of turning things.
Marc:But somehow or another, we got to talking about Milton Berle's dick.
Marc:Like he was, he's a member when I, even when I worked with Milton Berle, I don't even know why it came up.
Marc:He says that he spoke at Milton Berle's funeral and that he made the joke about how they couldn't get the casket closed because of his, you know.
Marc:But all through this, you know, he's doing, you're going to love it because he's fucking Arnold.
Marc:And anytime he tries to be funny, it's that very specific thing he does, you know, which is just Arnoldisms.
Marc:And it was funny.
Marc:But ultimately, you know, I think he did try to, you know...
Marc:take over the conversation, and I'm not sure that he didn't in a lot of parts, but I don't know that there was any way to move around that, you know, until he... Or also, like, he's the kind of guy where that's okay, because when he does, it's entertaining.
Marc:Right, but, you know, you didn't want him to just repeat the script, right?
Marc:That's right, that's right.
Marc:But, you know, like, the one question that, like, was sort of driving at me, you know, that I didn't really get to, you know, coming back, and we didn't really get to talk about his brother's death, because, you know, in...
Marc:Being reflective is all relative to him sort of not acknowledging the traumatic things in his life as something negative.
Marc:So he's always going to turn it around to, like, well, you know, I love my father, all this stuff, because of the things that he did get from his father.
Marc:But he does have it in perspective.
Marc:Because one question I really wanted to ask him was, like, when he characterizes post-war Austria of his childhood and all these miserable men who—
Marc:who were full of anger and drinking and whatever.
Marc:You know, it's this idea, the idea that he wants to put forth is that, you know, they all felt bad about what they had done.
Marc:But I said to him, I said, but wasn't there plenty of people that just felt bad that they lost the war?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And he's like, oh, of course.
Marc:You know, but it didn't go much further than that, and it didn't go to where his father really stood on that.
Marc:But he's very...
Marc:There was a whole thing about that guy that, you know, sort of championed him early on in Germany was a Jew.
Marc:So he has this whole sort of story about, you know, that guy putting a premium on educating yourself alongside of bodybuilding and making him read Plato and stuff.
Marc:But he has this, you know, a very evolved respect of the Jews, obviously, that was built around the fact that, you know, once it became clear that his father was a Nazi, that he had to do that.
Marc:But it seemed genuine.
Marc:I don't know if he had told that story before.
Yeah.
Guest:I've never heard that one.
Guest:I just know that he's like, what's the foundation?
Guest:Simon Wiesenthal.
Marc:Sure, he gave money.
Marc:But also Weider was a Jew and his brother.
Marc:But it was interesting to me that there was this point where he had this mentor early on that was Jewish and also Catholic because he married a Catholic that was constantly telling him to educate himself as much as he's putting into his bodybuilding.
Marc:And he had that framework.
Marc:I kind of jumped in with it that the Jews have always put a premium on education because of what they've been through.
Marc:But he knew that narrative.
Guest:Right.
Guest:What's interesting, he really is the version of... That version of him in Twins with DeVito really is the idealized version of him.
Guest:That he was out there in this foreign land, this giant physical specimen, but also...
Guest:scholarly and inquisitive.
Guest:It's like, it's exactly what they, like the, the treatment of that film and that script must've been like, let's do who Arnold really is here and what it would be like if Danny DeVito was his brother.
Marc:Well, you know, the thing, what was interesting is that, you know, he, you know, along those lines, you know, he started sort of talking about equality and diversity and a lot of the things that he believes, you know, and then when I tried to, you know, and we had a lot of laughs and stuff and he, I told him I worked out.
Marc:He's like, I know I can see your, your tries through your shirt.
Marc:And then he starts going off about my body.
Marc:I just showed my muscle.
Marc:He's like, he's posing now, you know, like you're going to.
Yeah.
Guest:Oh, my God.
Guest:That's so funny because I said that to people.
Guest:People ask me, oh, you're going to go out there when Arnold goes to Marx?
Guest:I was like, no, why?
Guest:So some senior citizen can derisively look at me as a girly man?
Guest:And I was saying it as a joke, but I know that that's true, that he must size everybody up.
Marc:Oh, he was totally sizing me up.
Marc:He's like, I can see them through your shirt.
Marc:You're doing the work, you know?
Marc:And he's like, totally.
Marc:There's a whole...
Marc:It's the whole part of that.
Marc:He's very funny.
Marc:Like, he's genuinely funny.
Marc:And we talked about Stallone, and we talked about, you know, that thing he did to Stallone.
Marc:And he said, you know, and I brought up the fact that, you know, Stallone is not as funny as him, and he's very earnest in his approach.
Marc:And he knew that was part of the reason.
Marc:He's like, I can't direct.
Marc:I can't really act.
Marc:I can't write scripts, you know.
Marc:But he says that him and Sly travel sometimes together sometimes.
Marc:Certainly when they were doing Planet Hollywood, he said he's really one of the funniest guys that he knows.
Marc:And I go, but not on screen.
Marc:He's like, right.
Marc:And he's like, but, you know, he's very, you know, you know, when he talks about it, it's like, you know, when I asked him about setting Sly up to take that movie, he's like, you can't tell the agents everything because they're idiots.
Marc:And they like he doesn't give a fuck.
Guest:No, but he played it with such an exquisite mind game to be like, just get this out there that I want it.
Guest:Get it out there.
Guest:Put it in the bloodstream.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I didn't speak specifically about mind games because I had to sort of choose my places.
Marc:But there was a point where I got very sort of matter of fact about politics, about free market politics, about his alignment with Milton Friedman.
Marc:And does he have...
Marc:Any sort of reflections on the fact that untethered capitalism is probably responsible for climate change to some degree and deregulation and whatnot.
Marc:But he's he's dug in with that shit because, you know, like, what do you think he would immediately shift the conversation to if you if you were him and I confronted you with the downside of of untethered, unregulated capitalism?
Guest:Well, I would guess probably something having to do with the capitalism is going to spur innovation.
Guest:Right.
Marc:And you're going to be able to make the fixes.
Marc:Green.
Marc:Right.
Marc:So like he just went on, you know, but but you'll see in that conversation, you know, that the entire his entire sort of way of presenting changes.
Marc:And then you're all of a sudden dealing with politician politics.
Marc:You know, Arnold.
Guest:Obama.
Guest:Remember Obama doing that, too?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Where it was like as soon as like there was some element of policy, it was like a different guy.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And he just kind of went off about, you know, you know, that the market, you know, that it was permitting that that stifled, you know.
Marc:Creating homes for homeless people, creating the rail system, creating like that.
Marc:You know, he's still blaming government, you know, without really necessarily taking into consideration mental illness, lack of opportunity, you know.
Marc:Greed.
Marc:Greed.
Marc:I brought that up.
Marc:But he he kind of they all seem to blow by that.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So there was, you know, I think I at least held the position a bit, but not usually when it gets to that point where, you know, you realize that there's no argument to be had here.
Marc:All you can do is go like, yeah, but I think you're wrong.
Guest:I think the other thing.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Right.
Guest:You know, did you did you get a sense from him that it was ever a realistic possibility to be president?
Marc:Yes.
Marc:I asked him and you could hear in his tone that, you know, whatever the nuances of it, that he seems to feel that, you know, just changing the Constitution would not have garnered the state support necessary.
Marc:And that, you know, he...
Marc:You know, I do sense that he is disappointed about it.
Marc:But then he does this whole thing.
Marc:It's like, you know, but who cares?
Marc:You know, it's like I've done all these things.
Marc:I love America.
Marc:And there weren't people like, oh, poor Arnold can't be president.
Yeah.
Marc:It feels so bad for Arnold, you know, like, with that accent.
Marc:It's so funny.
Marc:And then towards, you know, he talked about, you know, sort of, you know, what he did was putting... And he... There was one moment where, you know, he realizes...
Marc:You know, how ridiculous, you know, bodybuilding is.
Marc:There is a moment there where, you know, where, because like someone said to me, it's like someone had lumped together.
Marc:I was talking to somebody.
Marc:It's like these dumb bodybuilders are all bullies.
Marc:And I'm like, have you watched Pumping Iron and seen these guys running down the beach?
Marc:They are not a threat.
Marc:You know, they can barely walk properly.
Marc:And there's something so fundamentally feminine about it in a weird way.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But he's like, he does a little thing.
Marc:There's a moment there where you realize he was completely aware of how ridiculous, look at my body, you know, like this whole thing, you know, but he, he definitely, you know, champions it.
Marc:And he, he definitely, you get some, there's a, it's a sore spot when you don't call it a sport.
Marc:He kept saying, it's like, I remember, you know, Bobby Fisher and Boris Spatsky and every, and during the, you know, the eighties and Joe or seventies and Joe Namath and,
Marc:And O.J., you know, they were always in the papers and everyone was like, is chess a sport?
Marc:And I was like, well, what about what weird?
Marc:What about me?
Marc:What about Arnold?
Marc:You know, so he had to, you know, he goes off on this whole thing about, you know, how he had to get it out there.
Marc:And because I brought up the whole it's like coming.
Marc:He says, you know, when you're pumping, you know, you're like coming all the time.
Marc:He's like, that was just so people would, you know, want me to talk about it.
Marc:And I'm like, you weren't really coming?
Marc:He's like, well, no, I mean, just like when I said it like that, everybody wanted to talk to me.
Marc:And I said, well, what about all those disappointed guys that don't get to come in the gym?
Marc:He's like, well, at least they're going to the gym, basically, is what he said.
Marc:But once we got through the politics, which was – it was policy discussion, really.
Marc:And we talked about – That's great.
Marc:And we talked about fascism and about what's going on now and the threat of it.
Marc:And he said, look, it's happening all over the world.
Marc:I believe in democracy.
Marc:He obviously wasn't going to get into specifics.
Marc:I think he was aware that if he took pop shots at Trump that it would –
Marc:probably escalate.
Marc:But I don't know.
Marc:I didn't ask him directly about that.
Marc:But I did ask him about January 6th.
Marc:He says, I don't think it will happen here, but I think people should acknowledge the threat coming from where I'm coming from and seeing what's going on in the world and whatnot.
Marc:And then, you know, you know, I asked him about, you know, his his relatively recent humiliations around his behavior.
Marc:Had they changed his perspective on anything?
Marc:He's like, no, you know, that it's he sees it a very, very separate.
Marc:He knew from early on that he was a guy that would make mistakes and he made them when he was younger, when he was in the middle, when he was older, you know.
Marc:And he basically talks about like he's, you know, his family, it seems like is OK.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Well, it's an interesting part of that doc is how he seemingly has no problem.
Guest:There's no guilt or reticence to just say like, oh, I was wrong.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:No, he says it was all my fault.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:He basically, I don't know that he, I'm not trying to say that he uses it as a way to absolve himself or make excuses, but he has gotten his head around the fact that it's like, oh, yeah, I did those things.
Guest:Like I was bad.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:And I don't know.
Marc:This is right after.
Marc:What happens with these kind of things, especially with a guy who's going to take over the conversation in any opportunity—
Marc:Is that, like, it becomes hard to sort of load in.
Marc:You know, like, I couldn't necessarily ask him about his relationship with the other son and all that stuff.
Marc:But I imagine he would have said, it's great, it's great, it's great.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But there was sort of, there are moments in there.
Marc:where, you know, he has different, you know, ways of interacting, you know, around being, you know, charming and his journey, and then there's the political thing.
Marc:But there is a moment of a sort of emotional decision-making that goes on in the moment where I ask him about disappointment around, you know, the presidency, where I could see that, you know,
Marc:I think it was a disappointment.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:That was my read on it in reading the part of the book that I read and just seeing his reflection is that he talks in that book, in the intro to his new book about the, you know...
Guest:The transgressions he had around cheating on his wife and the kid out of wedlock and all that as his bottoming out.
Guest:Little did I know I was going to hit the bottom after I left office.
Guest:And I was reading the subtext of that to being like...
Guest:No, his bottom was actually losing a political career before that, like watching his approval rating sink, watching the idea of becoming president go away.
Guest:Like, I think that was probably the first time in his life he dealt with a failure that he couldn't control by just saying, you're right, I fucked up.
Guest:Shouldn't have fucked that lady or whatever.
Marc:But I do think that, you know, from talking to him for an hour, that he's always going to look at, you know, the other column.
Marc:That may be true on some level in a personal way, but I think he feels like his time as governor, despite whatever happened, and we couldn't get into, you know, the financial crisis or wildfires or all that other stuff, that he sees that the movement he made forward around green energy and around the things he was fighting for, education...
Marc:as being a success.
Marc:And, you know, that's the way he's going to look at it.
Marc:You know, I didn't get into specifically saying, you know, trying to get whether it was relative to his bottoming out, but it did seem that the way he frames...
Marc:the end of his political career in terms of ascending to a possible presidential nominee was really that, you know, it was not an easy obstacle, the changing the Constitution.
Guest:Right.
Guest:That weird thing.
Guest:Right.
Marc:That it just was, it just was not...
Marc:That the effort it would have taken – and I think the way he says that is like – is really like how many people are really going to be like, oh, poor Arnold can't be president.
Marc:Like he sees that – like I've done everything.
Marc:I think he – when I asked him about –
Marc:How he sees himself in terms of civic service now is to sort of continue like you thought, you know, what he was doing as governor and, you know, championing education and after school programs and environmental issues, you know, from whatever position he has.
Marc:He likes to do the motivational speaking because it's somehow, you know, what people have sort of, you know, kind of honed in on in terms of what he's good at.
Marc:And I think, you know, his heart's in the right place about it.
Marc:He runs a lot of stuff.
Marc:You know, a lot of it was, you know, very kind of, you know, on brand, you know, around, you know, stuff.
Marc:But I think there's, you know, quite a bit in there that was funny.
Marc:And, you know, despite, you know, what anyone thinks of, myself included, about deregulation, and he blames a lot of people
Marc:And stagnation in terms of what he could get done on permitting, like, you know, he's still, you know, a very small government oriented guy.
Marc:And there's nothing's going to change that because I don't think he sees any other way of looking at it.
Guest:i think that it probably has a lot to do with his atheism he's not an atheist i asked him he he just recently said there's no such thing as like any like it was like a recent interview not on this interview dude what did he say i said well he brought up religion he said catholic i didn't really like it and i said well do you believe in god he's like yes
Marc:I believe in, in something, you know, there's something ordered in this or that.
Marc:And he says, I say, you believe in heaven?
Marc:He's like, no, but I don't know.
Marc:You know, maybe there's a heaven, but I'm not going to know it.
Marc:There's probably, it wasn't even.
Marc:That's much more hedged.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It's, it's, it was diplomatic and, and just sort of like, I don't know why he would, you know, necessarily, you know, he, he basically said that there's some order to things, that there's a higher power, but it was definitely not a hard line.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:I wonder then.
Guest:I wonder if that interview I saw where he was literally like, there is no heaven.
Guest:I don't believe in any of that stuff.
Guest:When you go in the ground, you're in the ground.
Guest:That's the end.
Guest:Like, I wonder if that was like something he thought was looser and less.
Guest:It was an interview he did recently with DeVito, actually.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And it was in print.
Guest:So I wonder if he didn't think it was going to land the same way, because that sounds so much more hedged for him to say that to you.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I mean, you know, he had an opportunity to say no.
Marc:And, you know, it didn't look like I mean, no one's holding.
Marc:He obviously says whatever the fuck he wants.
Marc:But maybe, you know, that, you know, he was just playing a different part of his character.
Marc:I don't know.
Guest:Or it's just like it's like when he does want to have a pub when he knows he's being public facing, which is video, audio, anything like that.
Guest:He's more measured.
Guest:The governor's impulses kick in.
Marc:Right.
Marc:You know, yeah, he was very sort of like there's some kind of higher power and maybe there's a heaven, but we're not going to know it.
Marc:It'd be nice if I don't think we're all going to see each other up there.
Marc:He said, that'd be nice, but I don't know if that's going to happen.
Marc:Maybe it will.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:Oh, did you talk about his animals?
Marc:Yeah, he said they're all good.
Marc:He named them all, which is all you really want.
Marc:It's for him to list the names of his dogs and donkey and pig and horse.
Marc:He's like, Whiskey and Lulu and Snitzy.
Guest:It's so great.
Marc:Is he still eating vegan?
Marc:He said he was never vegan.
Marc:He said he was half vegan.
Marc:I said, well, that's not vegan.
Marc:But he said he's down, he's, you know, 70% vegan and that, you know, and he acknowledged that Cameron got him onto it and he acknowledges, you know, why environmentally it's better and why physically it's better.
Marc:But, you know, he, you know, he still, he says he eats maybe a meat once a week or something.
Marc:Did he did he seem healthy to you?
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Oh, well, I asked him.
Marc:That was what got us off on a weird start.
Marc:I'm like, how are you feeling?
Marc:He's like, why do you say it like that?
Marc:Do I look bad?
Marc:But it was interesting.
Marc:The guy who was with him, I let him sit over here in the kitchen.
Marc:He wasn't the whole thing.
Marc:And he afterwards is like, wow, you guys really had it going.
Marc:Maybe you should do Stern before you do other interviews all the time because you were like rolling and all that policy talk.
Marc:The guy was lit up.
Marc:So I don't know what Stern did.
Guest:Was that a book guy with him or his own guy?
Marc:I think it was a book guy.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Maybe it was his own guy.
Marc:I don't know.
Guest:No, I think it was somebody from the book.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:He had a security detail too?
Marc:No.
Marc:Not really, just the driver.
Guest:Oh, I guess it was just the driver that was doubled as his body, because that was what they said.
Guest:They said there'd be security slash driver, and I didn't know if that meant both.
Marc:Well, he pulled up, and he's on a Zoom call, and he says, hi.
Marc:And I'm like, well, thanks for coming.
Marc:He goes, I had no choice.
Marc:And I'm like, wait, I just read your book.
Marc:You always have choices.
Marc:He's like, no, I have no choice.
Marc:But very, you know, it's like it was like that thing where not not many people have it even of a certain there's there's there's people that are locked in.
Marc:to a type of charm initiative that I think happens naturally where you're immediately disarmed.
Marc:And, like, you know, I know he's Arnold.
Marc:But, you know, there's only been one other guy that I've really realized that, you know, that I noticed it immediately where I'm, like, disarmed and, like, oh, shit.
Marc:And it was Josh Brolin.
Marc:There's a certain type of charisma that, you know, they can just put –
Marc:in a moment, you know, so much focus on you that you're like, oh, okay, this is that guy.
Marc:This guy's the greatest.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:This guy's fucking, you know, he's got it together.
Marc:We're friends, right?
Marc:Right.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But I was nervous about it.
Marc:But, you know, I think you'll enjoy it, you know.
Marc:And, you know, just in terms of the political conversation, I don't know if I stood up, you know, as fervently or as effectively as I could for, you know, against the idea that if you just build apartments, the homeless problem would go away.
Marc:But I did what I couldn't.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Well, I also think you're right in the sense that there's nothing you're going to say to him that's going to make him go, well, Mark, you may be right.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:I'll change my thinking on that.
Guest:I may be wrong about all of this.
Marc:No, but I do think he believes, and that was sort of where that comes from.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:I tried to sort of track it.
Marc:Uh, but, but I, I think, you know, I, he said that, you know, this, you know, green innovation is, is going to be dominant.
Marc:And I said, is it going to happen in time?
Marc:He's like, yes, there's plenty of time.
Marc:Everyone talks about time running.
Marc:It's like, yes.
Marc:So what are you going to do with that?
Marc:I'm like, no, dude, it's fucking, it's over.
Guest:But he, he won't, he won't fall into that ever that it's over.
Guest:It's too late.
Guest:It's we're, we're, we're done.
Guest:He won't do it.
Guest:Nope.
Nope.
Guest:It's quite wild, though, that when we started this podcast, he was still the governor.
Guest:That's how long ago it's been.
Guest:He was governor for two years while we were doing this podcast.
Guest:And then he was not, and he had his down, and he had his back in some movies or this and that.
Guest:And now it just does feel like he's back as this...
Guest:kind of specter of pop culture and it's like this this uh this entity right it's it's beyond that he was he's a governor or a movie star he's just fucking arnold well yeah you could see it from the dudes were working next door is that they had they had no context other than you know that guy is in the movies that we liked you know he is that guy and
Marc:And, you know, I've never experienced that with anyone else other than Danny Trejo, specifically in a Mexican neighborhood.
Marc:But but there is an elevation to what they were, you know, to the feeling of excitement because of what he represents.
Marc:You know, like when I was doing a Marin that day with Trejo and we were in Highland Park, I mean, you know, people were coming out in windows.
Marc:Machete!
Guest:Machete!
Marc:And it was sort of the same thing.
Marc:Like, these guys next door could not fucking believe it.
Marc:I could see because, like, you really got a strain to look through the lattice.
Marc:And when he stuck his head out, the guy's eyes just, like, bugged out of his head.
Marc:Like, he couldn't believe it.
Marc:He couldn't even process it.
Guest:And all this guy's got to fucking do is say, I'm back.
Guest:And the people lose their minds.
Guest:It's amazing.
Marc:Oh, they love it.
Marc:But you know, I do too, because anytime he was doing that thing that he turns on, it's like waiting for Will Ferrell to do something funny.
Marc:As soon as Arnold does any of those lines or tries to be funny in any way, it's so specifically his, it just killed me.
Marc:He did...
Marc:Like he knew he broke into pop culture because of the, you know, I'll pump you up.
Marc:Hans and Franz.
Marc:Hans and Franz.
Marc:And he like did.
Marc:You'll hear it.
Marc:You're going to die.
Marc:He does like a little Hans and Franz bit on the mic.
Guest:Well, that's what I was saying to you about how he does these DVD commentaries on older movies he's made, and his version of a DVD commentary just describe what he's seeing.
Guest:Like he offers no insight.
Guest:It's just like, oh, this is the part where I turn into an old lady, a big fat old lady.
Guest:Look at the right, and now it's going to explode.
Guest:An explosion, that's fantastic.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Well, I'm glad you got to sit across from that then for an hour and 20 minutes.
Marc:Yeah, it was good.
Marc:But he does have that weird thing that Trump has, is that persistent sort of narrow-focused...
Marc:way of confidently saying things.
Marc:Do you know what I mean?
Marc:Oh, it's going to be great.
Marc:We're winning.
Marc:It's going to be the best thing ever.
Marc:This is the best thing.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, but it's funny you say that.
Guest:They are two guys who they use.
Guest:There's like two or three descriptors.
Guest:you know adjectives that they use over and over again and apply it to equally to this to very different things like for arnold everything is fantastic extraordinary and trump it's always tremendous tremendous it's tremendous it's a beautiful big and beautiful i mean it's it all probably stems from these things they've had pumped into their heads of like you know uh dale carnegie stuff you know yeah it
Guest:Habits of successful people and things like that.
Marc:What was that minister that Trump—was it Norman Vincent Peale?
Marc:Who was it?
Marc:Yes, yes.
Guest:That's exactly it.
Guest:Right.
Marc:Yeah, but he is sort of aware of other people in his life.
Marc:And he's obviously not like Trump in any way other than—I think they are—
Marc:I think that Arnold has self-awareness.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:And when he's been a bully, it's been not so mean-spirited and a little funnier.
Marc:But I do think they have that reflexive, like, I'm going to stick you before you stick me.
Guest:all of them do i mean even obama did yeah obama's mo is to with not just with you i mean with anybody he walks into a room and he immediately like gets a little dig in at the person yeah yeah yeah what was it what i i said uh he was like look oh i got a lot of pictures of yourself around here oh yeah like about the about the garage or even before he went in i said this is gonna be good he's like we'll see i hope so
Marc:Yeah, right, right.
Marc:And then there was the whole sort of, what was that great one, though?
Marc:Are you nervous?
Marc:If I was nervous about this, we'd all be in trouble.
Guest:We'd be in a problem.
Guest:He would have a problem if the president was nervous about coming over to your garage.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:yeah he did he did have that that's true he did have yeah you know this way of kind of like you know uh kind of like kind of tapping you down a little bit you know that's a true alpha thing like it's it's it's where you can actually assess within yourself am i an alpha do you have that ability do you have that ability to immediately make whoever you're with buckle to you then no you're not an alpha if you don't have that ability yeah yeah yeah oh good well i have that
Marc:I only use it when I'm incredibly defensive.
Marc:That's right.
Marc:It's not like just my first thought process anymore.
Marc:Only with certain people.
Marc:I mean, Godfried.
Marc:Godfried.
Marc:The guy who directed the Bowie movie.
Marc:There are just certain people that I can just see like, no, you want this.
Marc:You want to be smacked around.
Guest:It's a lot of training with your dad.
Guest:That's what that is.
Marc:Yeah, but that guy, like, I've beaten him.
Marc:Like, he wouldn't even, like, say what he's really thinking around me anymore.
Marc:Like, apparently, like, after my show in Vegas, it was also because he couldn't hear that well.
Marc:I think fine arts went up to him, the guy who's filming me, and goes, what did you think?
Marc:He's like, well, you know, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
Marc:That's amazing.
Marc:He wouldn't say it to my face, though.
Marc:He's just all happy to my face.
Marc:He's like, oh, that's so good.
Marc:And he's like, ah, you know, sometimes.
Marc:You win some, you lose some.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:And it was a good set.
Marc:I just think he couldn't hear it that well.
Guest:Well, I wonder, do you think he'll know who Arnold Schwarzenegger is?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like if you tell him that he's on the show, he'll be impressed?
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:He'll know for the five minutes.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I don't know if he'll know enough or have enough of his brain left to be excited about the conversation.
Marc:But in the moment, he'll know.
Marc:That's where he's at.
Marc:Fleeting moments.
Guest:Well, put that picture up.
Guest:Let people know that you did it since it was a success.
Guest:And then what's going up next week.
Marc:What should I head it with?
Guest:Oh, I just think, you know, like, you know, you've done that every once in a while with like Shatner and that where you're like, this just happened.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Should I just put next week?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:On Twitter?
Guest:Wherever, you know, yeah, whatever that thing is now.
Guest:Well, that's good, man.
Guest:I'm glad it worked out.
Guest:You got a it's a it's another thing to put in your belt of like talking to the weirdest people on planet Earth.
Guest:Like this guy is a one of one.
Guest:There's nobody else like this guy.
Marc:And he was so he's he's funny.
Marc:But but it was really interesting to see him lock into politics mode because they all have that natural like I'm going to be saying this.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Well, that's the crazy thing is you got him in a situation where I bet not a lot of people do where he's he's doing all of it.
Guest:Right.
Guest:He's doing the funny thing.
Guest:He's doing the like self-help thing, the reflective thing.
Guest:And then also political Arnold.
Guest:Like you got the whole package.
Marc:For sure.
Marc:It'll be fun.
Marc:People will like it.
Guest:All right.
Guest:Fantastic.