In his days as a bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger was so strong and defined that, to shoot a movie, they asked him to put on a little weight…
Arnold Schwarzenegger was so ripped that before filming a $79 million movie, the producers asked him to gain weight: “I let my body fat get to around 12 percent.”
Hollywood can require actors to do crazy body transformations, from cosmetic surgery to losing or gaining weight, learning a new language, or even martial arts. And action star Arnold Schwarzenegger was required to Conan the barbarian.
The film was released on May 14, 1982, and was about the story of a warrior who was sold as a slave as a child. And he embarks on a journey to find who is responsible for the death of his family. Conan was played by Arnold Schwarzenegger and he tells this about it: “I have great memories, but here’s the reality. Working with the director and co-writer John Milius was fantastic because he was so tough. But in fact he thought I looked too much of a bodybuilder: I had just finished win Mr. Olympia and I was too lean to be a barbarian. So he told me to eat more and not diet at all. I let my body fat get to around 12%,”
Arnold Schwarzenegger in ‘Conan the Destroyer’
Arnold Schwarzenegger was known for his big muscles, as he was a legendary bodybuilder before he was an actor. The director of the film did not agree with this, and he wanted Schwarzenegger to look less like a bodybuilder and more like a warrior.
Speaking with Men’s Journal, the protagonist of Terminator spoke about the changes he had to include in his training and diets to achieve the changes the director was asking for: “I changed the way I was training and my diet to be more complete. I wanted to look like a man who had gotten his muscles from working hard in the world and not from very specific and organized training in the gym. I made the adjustments that needed to be made. Milius was very happy and I looked exactly the way he wanted. Then when I made the Conan sequel, director Richard Fleischer he came to me saying he still wanted me to gain weight, but to get more defined. So that’s what I did, and I got much more defined than I was in the first Conan even.”
The film earned $74 million at the box office, followed by a sequel titled Conan the Destroyer, just as successful.
Source: Fotogramas
Jason Root is a writer at Gossipify, known for his in-depth coverage of famous people in entertainment, sports, and politics. He has a passion for uncovering the stories behind the headlines and bringing readers an inside look at the lives of the famous. He has been writing for Gossipify for several years and has a degree in Journalism from UC Berkeley.
