Arnold Schwarzenegger, in his native Austria.LEONHARD FOEGER / Reuters
At 73, Arnold Schwarzenegger has found another starring role.
For this you should not stand in front of the cameras.
He didn't even leave his Los Angeles mansion.
The bodybuilding and movie star has become a wise voice in California politics and a moderate figure in a country divided between two major political parties.
The former governor has started a
newsletter
monthly where he recommends readings, movies and gives advice on life. He has defined it as "a version of Arnold without filters" and in it he uses his story from immigrant to celebrity to inspire readers. He also gives training tips. The April text was dedicated to telling the diet that follows to lose weight on the way to the summer operation. “Break your back. It's the most important thing ”, is his vision as he told Jimmy Kimmel on his television show.
Schwarzenegger is on everyone's lips again in California. The local newspapers have printed his name countless times in recent weeks because the story has boomerang back. His emergence into politics in 2003 responded to a series of fortunate coincidences. The actor challenged then-governor, the unpopular Democrat Gray Davis, in a special election. Many Davis predecessors had already faced similar attempts, but Schwarzenegger became the first successful contender in a recall referendum thanks to a speech against traditional politicians. The actor won that election and then another that extended his mandate. At the end of the second term, in 2011, his popularity was as low as Davis'. His appraisal has improved over the years.In 2021 he is the highest-rated Republican in the country according to a YouGov poll.
Today Caitlyn Jenner, the former Olympic medalist and transgender activist, seeks to repeat the milestone achieved by the Austrian immigrant who arrived in the United States in 1968. Jenner wants to become the first Republican to rule since Schwarzenegger left power ten years ago.
Who is currently playing the position is Gavin Newsom.
The former governor assures that he has recently received several politicians from both parties, Democrat and Republican, in his Los Angeles mansion, seeking advice on the November election.
Arnold foresees that this will become a circus, as was the one organized 18 years ago, which had more than 130 candidates.
Schwarzenegger, who considers both Jenner and Governor Newsom among his friends, has avoided saying the names of those who have knocked on his doors.
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Known worldwide as the Terminator, Schwarzenegger likes to give interviews with the 38th Governor of California's jacket on.
He goes out almost every day for a 12-mile bike ride through the streets of Santa Monica, a low-impact exercise he took as a form of recovery after four heart surgeries, the most recent last October. .
At home he lifts weights in a large gym that he has adapted into a room.
There he lives with his partner for seven years, the physiotherapist Heather Milligan, who keeps a very low profile in the tabloids and on social networks.
Better known are the couple's miniature pets, a horse named
Whiskey
and the donkey
Lulu.
The animals became stars in the viral videos that the former governor uploaded to Instagram during the pandemic.
His acting career has waned, but he continues to produce and lend his complex surname to various projects.
One of these has seen the light recently, it is an animated series that he devised in a conversation with Stan Lee, the visionary businessman who turned Marvel superheroes into a global brand.
In a talk, the comic book writer asked Schwarzenegger which movie he would have liked to do a second part.
The answer was
Kindergarten Cop
(
Kindergarten Cop
, 1990) by Ivan Reitman. In this way, Lee, who died in 2018, devised a project where a similar character, a retired detective, is in charge of caring for babies with superpowers. The premiere of the series, at the end of April, had more than two million viewers. In it, Schwarzenegger voices his character, a vocal performance he prepared with John Landis, director of
Animal House
and
The Blues Brothers
.
This past year, Schwarzenegger has also become a grandfather. His first granddaughter is named Lyla Maria and she is the daughter of his first-born, Katherine, married to actor Chris Pratt. "It's fantastic, but it makes me feel old," the athlete who won the Mr. Olympia title seven times confessed about the experience. Among the four children the former governor had with NBC journalist Maria Shriver, John F's niece, Kennedy, the only one who followed in his acting footsteps was 25-year-old Patrick, who recently starred in
Moxie
, a teen comedy directed by Amy Poehler. Christina and Christopher keep a lower profile. The first, 29, has produced a documentary for Netflix and works as an editor for Goop, Gwyneth Paltrow's beauty and wellness brand.
The fifth child is Joe Baena, who has a special relationship with the rest.
Baena, 23, is the product of an extramarital affair that Schwarzenegger had with Mildred Baena, a maid at the actor's Pacific Palisades mansion, west of Los Angeles, from the early 1990s to 2003. The boy grew up in the house with the rest of the children due to their mother's work.
Over the years he became more and more like his dad.
When Schwarzenegger admitted it, in early 2011, the event turned into a bombshell that ended their 25-year marriage.
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Baena has a great relationship with him today.
If Patrick chose the acting path, Joe did the bodybuilding path.
In his social networks he publishes several images of his progress and training sessions with his dad.
The revelation a decade ago was a scandal that plunged his popularity in the decline of his government.
The approval numbers Arnold has today indicate that California has turned the page.
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