Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted to talk about his affair and failures, documentary creators say

Lesley Chilcott directed a one-hour documentary about the greatest bodybuilder in history. She directed another about one of Hollywood’s most successful action stars ever. And then there’s a third about one of the most surprising political careers in recent decades. The fact that all three are about Arnold Schwarzenegger is a reminder of just how remarkable his life story is.

The three-part docuseries titled “Arnold” premieres on Netflix on Wednesday and comes on the heels of his first TV show, “FUBAR,” also for the streamer. The documentary shows everything from his unbearably pumped up body in the 1970s to the endless body count of films like “Conan the Barbarian,” “Terminator” and “Commando” (and his forays into comedy, like “Twins” and “Junior”) to his achievements on environmental policy as California governor between 2003 and 2011. It also features interviews with director James Cameron, who worked with him on the “Terminator” franchise and the action film “True Lies,” and former co-stars Danny DeVito, Linda Hamilton, Jamie Lee Curtis and Sylvester Stallone.

The famously forward-looking Schwarzenegger, 75, looks back at his life and multiple careers in the series. And unlike in “Pumping Iron,” the 1977 documentary about professional bodybuilding that helped propel him to fame, it centers completely on him. For “Arnold,” Schwarzenegger sat for hours of interviews to discuss, between puffs of cigars, many of his accomplishments and his failings too — most infamously, the dissolution of his marriage to Maria Shriver after she learned he’d had an affair, and a child, with their housekeeper, Mildred Baena. The revelations came after a Los Angeles Times investigation in 2011.

Joseph Baena in “Arnold.” He is seen in the documentary, as is his half-sister Christina Schwarzenegger.

(Netflix)

The documentary also touches on the groping accusations by several women who came forward in a 2003 investigation by The Times when Schwarzenegger was running for governor of California during the recall election, which he eventually won. He denied the allegations at first, but later gave a speech where he said, “I have behaved badly sometimes.” In the documentary, he speaks more plainly: “Forget all the excuses. This was wrong.”

Carla Hall, one of The Times reporters who worked on the story, was interviewed as well. In the documentary, she says that when the story ran, “people were really angry at us. People immediately accused us of holding the story until five days before the election.” But she says that’s how long it took to report the story and that more tips flooded in afterward. “Personally, I was surprised that it didn’t have more of an effect on the election,” she says.

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Both Chilcott and Allen Hughes, the executive producer of the series, have worked on several documentaries over the years. Chilcott was a producer on the Oscar-winning film “An Inconvenient Truth” and “Waiting for ‘Superman,’” and she most recently directed a series about the Manson family, “Helter Skelter: An American Myth,” and the film “Watson” about Paul Watson, the founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. “Arnold” is the second docuseries that Hughes has worked on this year — he also executive produced “Dear Mama,” a five-part series about Tupac Shakur for FX. They spoke recently in separate video interviews about making the docuseries. The interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

What drew you to this project?

Hughes: It’s an incredible journey and the ultimate immigrant story. Also, I was struck by how Arnold has dealt with challenges after the first 30 years of his career were just win, win, win.

And “Conan the Barbarian” blew me and my brother away when we were 9 or 10, so I was a fan of his films, but when I found out he was a Republican I had mixed feelings about him. There’s so much complexity there. He’s a great character so I knew it would be a rich story.

That third episode about his political career was the reason why I did the film. One talent I wasn’t aware of is his willingness to hear the other person’s side of things. I’ve seen him do it in real time with me. He may not agree, but he opens his heart and mind and he may change his mind.

Chilcott, left, with Schwarzenegger during the production of the documentary.

(Courtesy of Netflix)

Schwarzenegger’s voice dominates the proceedings. Did he seek to control the topics or the editing?

Chilcott: There are a lot of documentaries now where the star commissions the project, but Arnold did not have editorial control. What was important to me was that no topic was off the table and we hit all of his popularly known failures or controversies.

This seemed to be the right time in his life, where he knew he needed to talk about things and was willing to do it. He seemed to understand that, “I’m going to be remembered for my successes but people remember the failures too.”

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Hughes: I said to him, “For this to resonate with people, you don’t have to love it, you just have to respect it. If you love it, it’s probably not good.” He understood from the get-go. He took 100% accountability; he made no excuses.

He is somewhat reflective about his affair and the end of his marriage but less so about other topics, ranging from his heart surgery [he’s had three total] to movies like “Batman & Robin,” which he counted among his successes. [“Batman & Robin” was considered a box office disappointment when it was released in 1997 and was poorly received by film critics.]

Hughes: The challenge with Arnold is that he doesn’t look at struggle as struggle. It wasn’t because he was trying to avoid it, it’s just not how he’s wired. He’s not a guy who gets down or depressed. And it’s just not his nature to wallow. His tolerance for pain was so high. He talks about forced reps and you don’t start counting reps until it’s hard and painful. He talks about that in life, too.

Chilcott: He’s revealing who he is by being that way. I was very happy that he was as candid as he was, like when he talked about his body breaking down. The rest of us are always complaining about not being in shape but imagine being “The Body” and then getting older. That’s a big thing for him to address.

Obviously he made some huge errors in judgment, but when you have a wonderful kid from an affair, you can’t say the words “I made a mistake.” I wanted to show why he’s reluctant to talk about these things — it’s because he doesn’t want to keep hurting his family.

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Did you try getting Maria Shriver to participate?

Chilcott: I was on the fence about it. There were plenty of clips from her out there. I did try to get her and we had some conversations but she declined.

Letting him talk and talk with minimal pushback can create false impressions of history. His views of Ronald Reagan’s presidency and the ’80s and the violence in his movies lack any nuance. Were you concerned?

Chilcott: It was Arnold’s world; he’s narrating the story of his life. We tried to make it clear it’s his point of view. You mentioned “Batman & Robin” — he rewires everything to see everything as a success. That’s who he is.

He really thought Reagan was it — he had a Reagan poster on his wall. He believes the whole American Dream thing in his core.

Schwarzenegger with his miniature donkey and horse.

(Netflix)

You devote plenty of time to his years as governor, which is ultimately the most important part of his legacy. You focus a lot on his environmental policies but I was surprised to learn about his appointments of women and minorities and non-prosecutors as judges and about his establishment of open primaries and redistricting. But I wanted more depth there. Did you think about devoting more time to his policies and politics as he moved away from the right toward left of center?

Chilcott: It’s a good point. I agree. I asked for another episode but at that point it was way too late. He won reelection largely because he did work on infrastructure, which is not sexy to talk about in a documentary, and he reached across the aisle and did political reform like redistricting. That was a very big challenge. But there was so much and it couldn’t just become a laundry list so we talked more about his governing style.

Schwarzenegger has remained outspoken on political issues — you show him promoting the COVID vaccine, sending an anti-Putin message to Russian citizens and soldiers over YouTube, and condemning the Jan. 6 insurrectionists. But among Republicans, he also has been a major critic of Donald Trump, which you never mention. Why not?

Chilcott: We talked about it but it was just a factor of screen time — there are so many things to talk about.

Hughes: He is talking about preserving democracy. He talks about growing up in Austria and those men coming home from the war on the losing side and he talks about broken men and the terrible ideology and being on the wrong side of history. And he talks about his father and he talks about abuse and violence.

It was our job to connect what he was born into and why he’s uniquely positioned to speak about preserving democracy. I felt, “Let’s not name Trump. He’s just a symptom of something bigger. He’s not the thing.” When Arnold talks about preserving democracy, he understands it because he’s from the other side of it. And it’s an eternal struggle.