Arnold Schwarzenegger is an icon of action cinema, and with his stature and his existence as a bodybuilder, he shaped the era. However, during his shoot for Conan 2, he met a legendary wrestler, where Schwarzenegger no longer looked like the big giant Conan.
Arnold Schwarzenegger shaped action cinema as a professional bodybuilder and created the character of a muscle-bound hero who fights alone against massive dangers, which he even sees as reality. Yet despite his stature, there were also people who were larger than him and next to whom he no longer looked like the big action hero.
In “The Rich Eisen Show,” Arnold Schwarzenegger shares how he met the legendary French wrestler “André The Giant” and basketball player Wilt Chamberlain.
I look like Danny DeVito among these guys
In a clip from The Rich Eisen Show, Arnold Schwarzenegger recounts how he met the iconic wrestler André The Giant and the basketball player Wilt Chamberlain during the shoot for Conan the Barbarian 2.
In the show, a picture is shown of young Arnold standing between the two giants. At his 1.88 m, he appears next to Chamberlain at 2.16 m and André The Giant at 2.24 m like the great barbarian Conan. Schwarzenegger himself comments that he looks like Danny DeVito between the two.
I weighed 235 pounds (approx. 107 kg) at that point, but I look like a dwarf, I look like Danny DeVito among these guys.
Arnold Schwarzenegger on The Rich Eisen Show (YouTube)
In this context, he also shares a story about him and André. Both were in a Mexican restaurant, and after the meal, Schwarzenegger wanted to pay, but André said: No, I’ll pay
. However, Schwarzenegger insisted on paying for the meal. To which André just replied again: No, I’ll pay
.
When Schwarzenegger would not back down, André simply lifted him up and set him on a shelf:
I said, No, I insist, then he grabs me like this and lifts me up like a little child and puts me on a shelf, […] and I sit up there and he goes and pays the bill.
Arnold Schwarzenegger on The Rich Eisen Show (YouTube)
At the beginning of the video, he also talks about the football player Jim Brown, with whom he worked for Running Man. He shares how fantastic
Brown was on set and that he didn’t need a stuntman for the scenes.
During the conversation, one can see how much respect Arnold Schwarzenegger has for his fellow athletes, regardless of the sport. However, he initially had a bad relationship with one colleague:
