Arnold and Patrick Schwarzenegger — Actors on Actors (Full Conversation)

The rise of one of this season’s greatest scene-stealers makes for a challenging conundrum — how far does the apple fall from the tree? Patrick Schwarzenegger, of “The Staircase” and “Scream Queens,” takes a very different approach to his craft than his father. Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is on TV screens this year in “FUBAR” and as a voice role in “Secret Level” — but, of course, he’s best known for blockbusters like “True Lies,” “Twins,” and “Terminator.” 

Patrick, on the other hand, has leaned into the character actor within the hunk; this season, he portrayed Saxon Ratliff, a raunchy-then-heartbroken golden boy in Mike White’s “The White Lotus.” It’s not exactly an Arnold part. But Patrick’s work ethic and his eagerness to talk about what fuels his drive to succeed is all Schwarzenegger. 

Arnold Schwarzenegger: A year ago, Variety would’ve never asked us to sit here and have this discussion. But now you came out with “The White Lotus,” [and] you went through the roof. Your acting surprised the hell out of me. I didn’t recognize you. I was blown away. How do you feel about this great success? 

Patrick Schwarzenegger: Well, thank you. This is a surreal moment for me, because as much as we get to talk, we would never have a 45-minute conversation about acting. One of the best parts about being on the show is the amount of people that get to recognize [my] work; I’ve done so many shows that not so many people have seen.

Arnold: Now everyone is coming up to me in the gym and saying, “Your son is fantastic.” Someone else comes up to me and says, “I hated your son in the series.” 

Patrick: That was the weird part.

Arnold: Hated him? What kind of a compliment is that? They said, “He was fantastic, but the character he played was so believable.”

Patrick: The biggest learning experience is how much people associate you with your character. I don’t know how much that happened to you over the course of your career — maybe with “The Terminator.” The first weeks, people came up to me and told me how much they hated me. By the end of it, they came up to me saying how much they felt bad for me. It was a roller coaster. 

Arnold: I read an Austrian magazine — they had a big cover story on you and how great you are. One of the quotes was how difficult it is to get through this because you have the name Schwarzenegger. Explain that to me, because to me, the name Schwarzenegger always meant a big plus. And then all of a sudden you were talking about [how] it can be an obstacle. 

Patrick: Yeah.

Arnold: Explain that. 

Patrick: I feel it in multiple different ways. Mike White said that it comes with baggage, the idea that when you have successful parents like I do with you and Mom, there’s an added level of what other people think. Mike was worried about, if he cast me, what other people would think. Which they did — they did care about that; people said I got the role because of you and Mom. 

There were times earlier in my career where I was wondering, does it make sense to go under an alias? It took a while for me to get to a point where I was less worried about living in your shadow versus wanting to do it the way I thought I should do it. 

Arnold: I’m glad you kept the name, because now I can take credit. You joined a very short list of people: You know, Jamie Lee Curtis — I think she’s one of the greatest actors in history. If you show you have the substance, you can get rid of the whole idea of nepotism. 

Patrick: I understand how hard you and Mom have worked throughout your life to give me the opportunities that I’ve had. The biggest advice you gave us kids is to work hard. I’ve tried to honor that. 

I want to take a step back and ask, When is the last time you auditioned? Have you ever auditioned? 

Arnold: Yes, one time — for Lucille Ball. She called me at Gold’s Gym. I, of course, had no idea what reading for a movie was all about. 

Patrick: At what point was “Terminator”? 

Arnold: “Terminator” was a huge breakthrough because I was doing the “Conan” movies, and this is exactly what my dream was when I was a kid. You wanted to get into acting because of acting; I wanted to get into it because I saw Hercules on a big screen. I started training and said to myself, “I will become Mr. Universe, and I will be getting into movies because of my fame.” 

“Terminator” was the first time that I was doing a film that had nothing to do with the muscles. It was with leather jackets on and being a machine. Only the opening scene was naked. But I’m talking about naked.

Patrick: I’ve done it.

Arnold: I couldn’t believe [it]. I said to myself, “I’m watching your show, and I’m watching your butt sticking out there.” And all of a sudden, I see the weenie. What is going on here? This is crazy. Then I said to myself, “Well, Arnold, hello. You did the same thing in ‘Conan’ and ‘Terminator,’ so don’t complain about it.” But it was a shock to me that you were following my footsteps so closely. 

Patrick: Oh, yeah. I guess the similarity from “Terminator” to “White Lotus” was that you were working on a project with James Cameron, who is one of the greatest directors of all time. For me, it was a blessing to work with the writer, the director, the creator of “White Lotus” — because Mike does everything. Same with James Cameron, right? 

Arnold: I have always been a fanatic about working with great directors. Michael White — he’s a fantastic director, and a writer, just like Jim Cameron. They have a very clear vision. 

Patrick: So opinionated. Because Mike is also an actor, it makes it a unique work relationship where he writes it all, and he’s very opinionated, but he also lets you bring your ideas to the character. You would always memorize the whole script, day one. 

Arnold: I studied the script for a month, and I have someone that reads the parts with me, and we rehearse and we do reps. It’s from bodybuilding — reps, reps, reps. The more reps you do, the better you get. It also comes from the old school. Billy Wilder, the Austrian director, always said, “I didn’t hire you to be interpreters. I hired you to be actors.” The old directors were fanatics about “Study your dialogue and hit the mark.” 

Patrick: Wow.

Arnold: Jim Cameron is like that. I would say, “I don’t like the line ‘I’ll be back.’” He says, “What do you mean you don’t like the line?” I said, “It’s just weird for a German to say, ‘I’ll be back.’ Why not just say, ‘I will be back’?” 

Patrick: Wow.

Arnold: He says, “Oh, you’re trying to tell me how to be a better writer, because I’m not telling you to be a better actor. Just say, ‘I’ll be back.’ If you want me to do 10 takes because you feel insecure about it, we can do that. But don’t change my writing.”

Patrick: It’s so different. Mike writes it a very specific way, but there’s times we would be mid-scene and he’d just yell out from behind the camera to change it up, or come up with new dialogue. We’ll do a take, and he’ll scratch his head and then he redoes the whole scene. 

Arnold: Your approach to acting is obviously different than mine was. You started studying it, which was a real surprise to me. When you were 12 years old, I was always saying to your mother, “This kid is going to be a business genius.” And then he went to business school, and he loved business.

Patrick: Still do. 

Arnold: I was always hoping, “Maybe he also likes — like I did — to do both. And he’ll be a businessman and also an actor.” 

Patrick: You always said that you’ve made way more money from business than from acting. The past 10 years, I’ve slowly worked my career. I’ve done smaller roles, and it’s gotten bigger. You always say, “Go for No. 1.” And I’ve gone the opposite way.

Arnold: But deep down inside, you wouldn’t mind becoming the greatest star of all time. You’re not going to put the brakes on that. 

Patrick: No, I know. 

Arnold: So there you are. Even though we have to take one step at a time. I learned from bodybuilding that if I go for Mr. Austria, I’m not going to end up accidentally as Mr. Olympia. 

Patrick: You’ve got to shoot for the top. 

Arnold: When I came to America, Clint Eastwood and Charles Bronson were the highest-paid actors, with a million dollars a movie. I said, “I’ve got to be part of that.” Eventually I made $30 million a movie, and I caught up with those guys. 

Even though everyone says, “Arnold, it’s never going to happen. Your name — Schnitzel or whatever it is — no one will remember, and you’re too big now.” In the ’70s, it’s Dustin Hoffman and Al Pacino, Woody Allen — those are the big stars of the day. “They weigh 140 pounds, and look at you, 250, like a monster.” I was discouraged; everything was impossible. But I had a clear vision of myself being up on top. That’s all I cared about. And so I climbed that ladder slowly. 

Patrick: One of the movies you were paid the least for was “Twins.” 

Arnold: I got paid nothing.

Patrick: Carrie Coon came up to me a few weeks ago and was like, “Honey, you’ve got to do a different role next, because you’re doing a really good job at playing a douchebag, and people believe it.” You got typecast [in films like “Terminator”] and then nobody would cast you for a comedy, right? 

Arnold: Why would they? They said, “Are you crazy? The more people that this guy kills on-screen, the more money we make. Why would we change that?” That was the dialogue until Ivan Reitman and Danny DeVito came along. 

Patrick: But nobody would make it.

Arnold: So I said, “Why don’t we all three take no money.” If we don’t take any salaries, we can shoot the movie for $16.5 million. We worked out a deal where we got 40% of the backend of the movie. It happened to be the best deal we’ve ever made. 

Patrick: Then you went on and did multiple other comedies.

Arnold: At that point, I was able to do just about anything — except Shakespeare.

Patrick: Shakespeare would be great. 

Arnold: There were several parts I was supposed to play that never ended up being done because (a) I couldn’t do more than two movies a year; and (b) in 2003, as you remember, I ran for governor and became governor, which you guys …

Patrick: … hated.

Arnold: It was the funniest thing. You coming to me and saying, “Dad, we had so much fun going to the set and watching you blow things up. And now …”

Patrick: … we go to the Capitol.

Arnold: All of you were rebelling. 

Patrick: Aimee Lou [Wood] asked me, “Where did you first get interested in acting?” And I was like, “It was heaven for a kid, going to a movie set with your dad.” You would pick me up and take me out of school early in your Hummer.

Arnold: I said, “Don’t tell your mother.” Your mother was in charge of education.

Patrick: You’d come pick me up early and you’d walk in as Dad, go into the trailer, come out as Mr. Freeze or the Terminator. We would be in the trailer, and during your breaks, we could walk into craft services, get some Red Vines, and we would take the golf cart and go to the E.T. ride. 

We talked about this idea of nepotism, but when you grow up and your parents do a specific job, it makes sense that you go and work in that world. 

Arnold: You have never asked me to call a studio or to call an agent. You never asked me for advice when it comes to acting itself. You’re a rare breed, and I’m very, very proud of you.

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Production: BAUIE+RAD; Production Design: Francisco Vargas