Arnold Schwarzenegger: Arnold’s House (Part 1)
56:44 Share

Art in your home can instantly transform your space and bring you joy. Saatchi Art makes it easy for you to discover and buy one-of-a-kind art that you'll love. Whether you're looking to complement your home decor, fill a blank space on your walls, or start an art collection, you can find the perfect piece for your specific style and budget at Saatchi Art. Go to SaatchiArt.com today to bring the beauty of art into your home. Plus, listeners get 15% off their first order of original art with code ROB.

That's 15% off at SaatchiArt.com. S-A-A-T-C-H-I-Art.com. Ever wish your favorite TV show had twice as many episodes? Everyone knows that feeling. And so does Discover. Everyone wants more of their favorites. That's why Discover doubles another favorite thing, cash back. That's right.

Discover automatically doubles the cash back earned on your credit card at the end of your first year with Cash Back Match. Now that's a real crowd pleaser. Everyone knows how it ends. Double the cash back. See terms at discover.com slash credit card. Now it's like years later and now finally we're doing a podcast. It's like, it's crazy. It's like a butt.

All jokes aside, I have to say that I missed you. Hey, everybody. Welcome to Literally It Is Me. The cliche of someone needing no introduction. It's Arnold Schwarzenegger. Okay. I mean, it's Arnold. Arnold is here at long last. And it is a doozy. And the goat

might be with a goat. He's got a whole menagerie of animals here because we're at his house. When you have the king, you go to the king. The king doesn't come to you. You go to the king. So there's going to be stogies. There's going to be mini horses. They're going to be pet pigs. They're going to be a lot of Arnold memorabilia. It's going to be sick. Let's do it. Welcome to the stogie corner with the king stogie himself.

What is your favorite cigar these days? Let's get to the important questions right off the bat. What is the cigar? If you're thinking about taking up cigars. I have a mixture of cigars in there because I very rarely buy one. You know, so when people know you're smoking, then they give you for your birthday boxes of cigars or for Christmas boxes of cigars.

But when you come out with a movie or with a TV series or a documentary or this or that, they give you boxes of cigars because it's easy. The only problem with it is that half of them are burned in a fireplace right over there. Yeah. Why? Because they're fake. So people will go to some cigar place and they will say, do you know which Schwarzenegger smokes?

And he says, "What's the matter with you?" He buys his cigars right here. I know exactly what he smokes. He smokes the Cubans here, the Monte Cristo No. 2. And they will give them a box of Monte Cristo No. 2 that are fake. How do you know they're fake? Well, you know it also. Because you smell it when they smell the tobacco.

You know, like this cigar I'm smoking right now is a Dominican Republic cigar. But I'm not surprised that the tobacco doesn't smell Cuban because it's not a Cuban cigar. Right, right. So, but I mean, no one is beating around the bush here and saying it's a Cuban cigar. It's just a Dominican cigar. They like to have sometimes a little cigar. But I mean, so half of the cigars, I just go and throw them right, I smell it like this cigar.

And then just close it up the box and just put it in the fire right over there and burn it with great pleasure. I just say to myself, okay, that guy spent, you know, $600, $800 or maybe $1,000 for a box of cigars and he got screwed. But I'm not going to take the time now to call all my buddies back and just say, you gave me a fake cigar.

you know that you don't do that right so what i do is i just i just smell them they go through the smelling test and sometimes if if i'm still not sure with the smelling i light it up and i smoke it and then i would detect it right away so you know if you smoke for that many years you know if something is real or not it's like if i taste somewhere yeah as something that they call austrian pastry

And I can taste in two seconds if this is really Austrian pastry or it's bullshit. It's made here in America and someone is faking it and making a Linzer Tort or a Sacher Tort. I know right away in two seconds. And the same is with cigars. You know, if you eat a Wiener Schnitzel,

I know if it's an Austrian made Wiener Schnitzel, or Swiss made Wiener Schnitzel, or French made Wiener Schnitzel, those are the people that know how to make Wiener Schnitzel. Austrians, Germans, you know, where there is Wiener Schnitzel. But if a Mexican makes a Wiener Schnitzel, it's like an Austrian making Mexican food. It's bullshit. It doesn't work.

You know, so you said you got to stay authentic with the whole thing, no matter how good of a chef you are. So you detect the things right away. But I mean, you have always enjoyed cigars. I love it. The only problem with you is that you're not allowed to smoke around your wife. I mean, let's be honest, you're not even allowed to bring your cigars into the house.

Because she would immediately say, who is smoking here? Well, who is smoking? It's only you smoking there, right? You're the only one there with your kids and your wife. She says, who is smoking? Who is smoking? And she busts you big time. I've made progress. I used to have that too here. I mean, don't worry about it. I've made progress. I can now smoke inside my office. It's only taken me three.

32 years of being married, finally. But she kind of goes back and forth on it. I love the smell of cigars. But I tell you something right now, they're right. Because we, when we smoke cigars, we sometimes don't know that it smells up the house. Because we are not sensitive to that anymore, right? But it goes into your clothes.

And it goes into the bed stuff, you know, the bed sheets and everything. It goes in there if you smoke a lot in the house. So I would recommend, for instance, I have no one now that will say you can't smoke or don't smoke. But I don't smoke in the house. Never. Because they're right.

They're absolutely right. I smoke out here. I created this sitting area out here with the fireplace there and the benches and the table and the couches. You smoke in the jacuzzi, famously. Yeah, I sit right over there in the jacuzzi at night. That's where I create my daydreams or my visions.

And I come up with ideas sitting over there in the jacuzzi. Oh, I was in Sun Valley. I sit in the jacuzzi when it snows outside in the winter. I just love it. Yeah. I sit out there with my cowboy hat on or an Austrian hat and just sit out there in the jacuzzi and just enjoy a cigar. Absolutely. I haven't gotten into the smoking in the jacuzzi because it's... I can still...

get a little lightheaded sometimes and if I get too hot. But I may have to try it because you're a big believer in it. There is a reason for that. And the bottom line is don't turn the jacuzzi up to 104. Keep it at 99 or 100. Really? Then you're comfortably warm

It's a little bit more than your body temperature. Your body temperature is 97. So you need something a little bit more than that so that it feels warm. Because I have it too hot then, clearly. Mine's really hot. But it's not good. Like, look, especially when you have a hot condition like I have. Right, right, right. And my heart rate sometimes is irregular. I don't want to go in the jacuzzi and get an irregular heartbeat just because of a hot jacuzzi. No, I have it at 100.

And I can sit in there for an hour. I never get too hot. And I can smoke my stogie in there. And everything is sustained and fancy. You just have to make a little adjustment with the temperature. Is that where you do your best thinking? The jacuzzi? Not all of them, but a lot of times because...

I'd like to sit. Just use the ashtray right here. Guys, why haven't you given Rob an ashtray? What's the matter with you catching? Come on, guys. Bring an ashtray over here. Look at this. There we go. That's our size. Most expensive ashtray right there. There you go. Silver. I love it. Made in Mexico. This is one of my materials that I got during the making of Total Recall.

In Mexico City, there was a restaurant in Mexico City that was a five-star restaurant where they lit your cigar for you. It was unbelievable. I mean, you would never expect that, you know, that you go to Mexico City and you find the most sophisticated restaurant. And the guy comes, roars a roaring humidor in front of you. And then he opens it up, this glass door.

opens it up and says, pick a cigar. This is my dream restaurant. Mexican food with cigars. I'm telling you. Dream restaurant. Rob, I'm telling you, it was like so spectacular. I've never ever seen this anywhere in the world again. And I went there periodically. And they would open up the top glass and I would pick a cigar. The guy would cut the cigar and then he goes and he takes out the tequila bottle

And he puts it on this little piece of wood and he strokes the cigar with the tequila as if he's painting it with tequila. But just a little bit, not like soaking it, but just a little bit to get the flavor of the tequila. And the next thing he rolls it in some cloth and then he cuts it.

And then he turns it slowly and he burns it with the, not with the match, but again with one of those... Sticks? It's like the wood things? That's right. The wood things, yeah. Because they believe that the match has the... Sulfur or whatever it is. Sulfur, yeah. And they don't want to have the cigar smell from that. Right. I never smelled it from that, but they are very sophisticated, like I said. And they burn the cigar, the perfect ash, and then the guy just...

puts it in your mouth. So you don't even touch it. And then you draw it and you draw it. And it's the perfect draw

The perfect smoke, everything perfect. And those were the days where you could sit actually at your dinner table after dinner and smoke and no one would complain. Yeah. Because we're talking about now 1989. Right? When we did Total Recall there. So it was one of those great experiences down in Mexico. But in any case, the bottom line is that, yes, I get my thinking in a jacuzzi and all that stuff.

But my question is, what made you come up with the idea of doing a podcast? It was... Can you tell the Dutch that it's okay? He doesn't have to make the noises back there. By the way, there are so many animals here. Yeah. First of all, let's discuss the pig for a minute. I hear pigs are the greatest. We didn't ask you a question. Yes, you did. I'm going to answer your question. But your animals are making noise while I'm trying to answer.

Well, but it's okay. That's right. It's part of the... People will understand what you're saying. Yeah, they will. That's for sure. Yeah. That's for sure. I like to... I'm curious. I like to talk to people. I have people in my life, like you, who I've known a long time and who the public knows a long time, but I feel like I bring out a side of them that...

maybe others aren't going to bring out when I talk to them. And I've, you know, I've been really fortunate to talk to you name it. And I've, I've talked to them all, you know, everybody who's been through our lives of consequence, right? Maria was one of my first guests. I've talked to Oprah. I've talked to Gwyneth, Matthew McConaughey. I've talked to

You know, you name it, I've talked to them and I feel like I get to see a different side of them because of my history with them. And also the other thing is just the long form discussion is...

That's what podcasts are for. And I grew up, remember the Playboy interview? You must have done the Playboy interview. Remember like that was everybody sat down and read it. And that was where you really got to know somebody you admired. And those things are gone. People may be what we do, Howard Stern now. But that was snappy.

Yes. I called it snappy. Yeah. Because it was so brilliant. Yeah, it was very quick to film. To have a intellectual conversation in the middle of Playboy magazine. And that's what threw everyone off. I mean, think about that. They were the most in-depth interviews ever.

the most genius kind of things. Then they had these pictures of people with different gestures, you know, as if they're in the middle of talking. Yes, you remember the pictures? Yeah, they had like eight pictures always there or six pictures or whatever it was. And they found these pictures, you know, with someone just going, no, no, no, or kind of like with big surprise, kind of like, oh, yes, oh, yeah, exactly. And they had all these different facial expressions that they did and they put them there. And then there was this famous writer, right?

you know, whoever that was at that time, and he would interview you. And it would be a long, long interview. - Long. - Just like you said. But people would buy, and there were people that would be kind of like ashamed

to say that they bought Playboy magazine. For the interviews. What they said for the interview, but no one bought in, right? I mean, because people say, yeah, that's right. Yeah. Oh yeah. I'm sure that you studied the interview very carefully. You love that Ralph Nader interview in the August issue. Exactly. And I'm sure you avoided the cover. Yeah. And the centerfold. I'm sure you combed through that very quickly and avoided it. That's right.

All set for your flight? Yep. I've got everything I need. Eye mask, neck pillow, T-Mobile, headphones. Wait, T-Mobile? You bet. Free in-flight Wi-Fi. 15% off all Hilton brands. I never go anywhere without T-Mobile. Same goes for my water bottle, chewing gum, nail clippers. Okay, I'm going to leave you to it. Find out how you can experience travel better at T-Mobile.com slash travel. ♪

Qualifying plan required. Wi-Fi were available on select U.S. airlines. Deposit and Hilton Honors membership required for 15% discount terms and conditions apply. But anyway, I had lunch yesterday with my ex-wife Maria and with my daughter, with Christina.

And they both were saying that they say hi to Rob. And she told me that you did your podcast. She was great. I would have a great time talking. It's a perfect example. People don't know how funny Maria can be and how much she likes to laugh. That's the first thing. Because Maria is very, you know, she's, you know, there's nobody more. She's a searcher. She's always trying to solve problems. She takes the world very seriously. Yeah.

But like, she likes to laugh, but you don't get to see her laugh so much. So I got her laugh. She laughs. I mean, she gets the chances to laugh and all that. But you're right. I mean, if you don't have the right people around, then it is fun to laugh. But I remember with me, she laughed a lot. And we laughed a lot yesterday sitting in the restaurant. We went to R&D down there on Montana Avenue and had a great lunch. That's awesome. Yeah, yeah.

Okay, so I want to know about the animals because I haven't really met them. The animals... Lulu and Whiskey are famous now. There's a movie being made, developed about Lulu and Whiskey. That's right. So Lulu and Whiskey... Whiskey is Catherine's miniature horse, miniature pony. Originally it was Catherine's. That's right. Well, you still...

I did not take ownership of it. You didn't adopt her officially. I mean, I have it. Right. But there's no paperwork. Because she dropped the ball. Yeah, exactly. My daughter dropped the ball. Yes. She abandoned. When she had this animal and it was everything to her. Then all of a sudden she started dating and then all of a sudden guys were in and horses were out.

She stopped horseback riding, she started jumping, competing and all of that stuff. So then this poor horse was down there on Vanderbilt Canyon at some stable. And I didn't pay much attention to the whole thing and know who's taking care of it. But then eventually...

I said to Alexander, I said, so what's going on with the horse down there? With whiskey? He said, let me check it out. So he checked it out and he says, well, the guy said that no one is ever coming by. He's taking her for a walk. I said, well, have him bring her up here.

To your home. Yeah, so I brought her out. So he brought her up here. And then I just had her roam around in the grass here for two, three hours a day. And then took her back. And I played with her and all of those things. So then I said, a half year later, I said, that's stupid. Why don't we just build a stable here? We have enough room. So we built a stable, a stall. Yeah. And we built a stall and the whiskey was in heaven.

But I could tell that every time she came into the house, I had to come into the house and I had to eat with me. And then I fed her and I gave her cookies and food. And she got along with the dogs really well and all that stuff. But I could tell that she was not kind of as joyful as she could be.

And I was made aware of that they need companionship. You know, they need another horse or donkey or something like that. So my girlfriend, Heather, she gave me for Christmas four years ago, the donkey. And so all of a sudden... Was it under the tree? Was it under the Christmas tree, the ribbon? I was driving up to, you know, Mandeville Canyon and there was this truck with a trailer and with a donkey in it.

With a little tiny donkey

And I said, I was cursing all the way up Mandeville Canyon. You know, the usual thing we do when we're in a car, right? They'd be cursing at everybody because we're by ourselves. Yeah. You know, it's not a bitch. You know, my driving is so slow. You know, I must be a stupid driver. Why is there a donkey in Brentwood? You know, it's just an idiot. You know, they should just drop the donkey off somewhere and just go home and all this stuff. So it's just the raving and just going crazy. And then all of a sudden the...

the truck drives right at the fountain down there. So I said, well, it's going kind of my direction. It's going somewhere in my village. Dr. Dre needs a donkey. And the next thing I know is it turns up my driveway.

So I said, well, that's really funny. I wonder if someone has just, you know, kind of missed the gates or something like that. So anyway, I just followed that truck all the way up my driveway. I get out and now Heather comes out and says, oh, hi, you know, and says hi to the girl. And it's a great for you to come and all this stuff. So I realized that there was something going on.

So the donkey gets off. The next thing, so she must have kind of called her. I'm five minutes away because now whiskey was out.

right in front there, where you drive up the driveway, whiskey. So now the donkey gets off the trailer and then whiskey and Lulu are just kissing each other, hanging out together, running off together, and now whiskey's showing her the property. They're all running off now together and they were glued together ever since. Just like that? Just like that. They were like buddies. So what the expert said...

And what Hedda also said, who grew up with horses, that she needs a companion. And true enough, that companion did it. So now they're just hanging out. Lulu is completely protective of Whiskey. Whiskey is now 17 or some years old and Lulu is four. And so this is kind of like, so I think that during the COVID period, you know, in order to entertain people because people were stuck at home, so I said to myself, I go and

have some videos go out of the fun we have here and the kind of things you can do when you're stuck at home. You know, like here's what I do is I have my animals come into the house, they come up to the gym. You know, there's a, as you know, there's an exercise for your calves called donkey raises. Yeah. You know, where someone sits on top of your back

And so I, of course, took pictures of me doing donkey races with someone sitting on my back with a donkey standing there and watching us doing donkey races and stupid things like that. And so, you know, I would just, you know, put those videos out. And so I realized that how much people really enjoy those kind of videos and enjoy them, the animals coming into the house and all this. And I always loved that idea.

of having animals in the house and not just the typical animals like cats or dogs, but anything like my pig that you hear in the background. Um,

You want to check out where the pig is making noises? You want to take him out? Yeah, bring him out. Just let him run around. Well, just let him run around a little bit. Otherwise, he will make noises. He's not happy. They're social animals. And so anyway, so I have the pig coming into the house. He runs upstairs and downstairs. I have everyone coming into the house. And I don't know if you ever saw that. There was a famous picture of...

out there one time on the internet of a bison, a big monster bison, a bison that weighs thousands of pounds in the kitchen. And so what happened was I found out when I read up on it was that this farmer had this bison that was kind of abandoned by his mother.

And so he brought up the bison and fed it milk, gave it the bottle in the beginning and then slowly it grew up.

And it always came into the house. It always came into the kitchen. And then now eventually it became this monster bison that still said they had to open up the doorway, make it wider. They had to make it taller, the doorway, so this bison couldn't fit in. But it still trots into the kitchen, who looks around and looks for food and stuff like that. And that doesn't destroy anything. But are you ever worried about those horrible stories about the chimps?

that they raise, and then one day the chimp takes your face off and eats your digits? Because that's what they do. They eat your digits. They eat anything hanging off your body, if you know what I'm saying. Whoa, okay.

Only a sick person like you would switch from a beautiful animal like a bison and a donkey and a miniature pony to a chimp that is ripping your balls off. I mean, it's like only you would do that. That's where my head goes. It's unbelievable. That's where my head goes. It's unbelievable.

I haven't changed at all. I have a dark underbelly to me. I'm going to call now your wife after this and say, look, the next time he does an interview, you have to come with him because otherwise he goes always to the sex organs with the conversation. It's like he won't stop. Animals and sex organs. That's my sweet spot in interviews. Really. Where's that? Oh, there he is. Hey, come over here. Come here. Schnelli.

- Rishnelli. - His name is Rishnelli. - Does he like... - Oh yeah, yeah, that's the ground thing. He's very talkative. - Really? - They love to communicate. As they walk around, they talk. You know, there's like one of those, like some, you know, some of these older people, they just walk and talk to themselves. The pigs are like this. It's just all the time. Very funny.

Have you ever had a very, because you do so many initiatives and you're still so politically involved. Have you ever had important meetings and all of a sudden the pig comes in and says hello and leaves? People love it. People love it. Sometimes the pig sits in my lap and, you know, I'm having a meeting or something like that. People love this stuff. You know, they don't mind it because it's like most people just cannot even dream of having animals like that.

You know, my dream always was in the old days when I came over to this country, it was still fashionable to have a cheetah. Wait, wait, wait. Hang on. There's a lot to unpack in that sentence. Still fashionable to have a cheetah. It is. Where? In Iraq? No, no, no. When I came over here, there was people... What are you, Uday Hussein with your cheetahs? No, no, no, no. There was rich people that had cheetahs.

Wait, wait, wait. Lou Wasserman had a cheetah? Like who? I didn't say Lou Wasserman had a cheetah. Nor would I know if he was interested in a cheetah. But it was usually actually rich women. And if you go online, just look at, you will see the women walking around with them in New York.

or going shopping with a cheetah. You mean to tell me there was a time in New York City where it was common to walk down the street and rich women had cheetahs? In America, not just in New York City. In Vegas, in America. I think what they were teaching you in Austria about American history might be slightly skewed. Maybe.

But that would make me want to come here. The good thing is that we have Ketchel here, my chief of staff. And he can look up everything and anything because he's very good with the thing. There's famous pictures of it that are out there online. I have to say, to Rob's credit, the first article that came up is Meet the Kuwaitis. Bingo! Well, listen, it's easy to confuse Kuwait with the United States. We will do that.

Well, let's just find that. He can search and see if he can find the pictures. Why don't you have a cheetah? That begs the question. Why no cheetah? Because a cheetah was known of that you're able to kind of domesticate it. So it's not like a tiger or a lion. It's almost impossible to domesticate. And they're just so powerful.

And so big cheetahs, they're usually like 150 pounds. It's like my dog is 150 pounds. So this is the size that they get. And it's more manageable. And it's also easy to have it in a house or in a large apartment if you have 5,000 square foot apartment or something like that. But did you find anything? Yeah. Apparently people...

Rich people didn't want to own cheetahs so much that it actually started to cause their extinction. Got it. I thought it was global warming. No, it is rich people. Rich people. Well, usually, if you're looking for a problem, the answer is usually rich people. That is... But anyway, so the Bahamas, so that was my thing. But then I realized that in California, the people kind of like started passing laws that didn't allow you to have to kind of...

those kind of animals, exotic animals. And...

Then I said to myself, oh, it probably is not even good. So the more you grow up, the more you realize maybe this is too confined and the cheetah needs more a place where they can run around in the free and all this. So I got off that idea and said to myself, I'm just going to enjoy pictures of wild cats. And then eventually when I go again, back again to South Africa, I'm going to see them anyway. I used to go to South Africa to visit my idle reg park.

who had a gymnasium chain down there and he would take me out and where I would see lions and tigers and all kinds of elephants and other giraffes. I think I have it on my phone. Do you know about the practical joke we played on Maria in South Africa where Christopher, your son Christopher and Maria went with us on a safari and they were a little scared of the animals, a little bit. And the camp was surrounded by lions.

It was legitimately surrounded by lions. And you had to have, you had an air horn. If the lion came anywhere near your tent, you hit the air horn and the warriors would come. And so everybody went to bed and we decided that we would scratch the tent and make lion noises to freak Maria and Christopher out. And it is one of the, it's one of the great stories.

like videos ever. We got her so, and Christopher, they were so scared. It was amazing. - Thanks for inviting me on the trip. But anyway, that's besides the point. - We'll do it next time, for sure. - Let the story be told that since I got divorced from Maria, you haven't been around much.

I think she got custody. Because you wanted to prove to her that you're loyal to her and not to me. So because even though we didn't have any of those things, we always had friends that were loyal to me and to her and they didn't get involved in all of this stuff. But I mean, you did.

It was like unbelievable how all of a sudden I said to Maria, I said, why is Rob not showing up? He's so many times, every time I run into him, he says to me, he says, let's smoke a stogie together. Yeah, I'm coming down to LA. I have an apartment now in LA because I'm doing my TV shows in LA. And, you know, because Rob, of course, is working day and night. If he does not have a TV show or if a TV show gets canceled...

then he has three seconds later, another TV show. So I mean, so it doesn't stop with the TV shows or with the movies or with all this stuff. So he's in front of the camera all the time, right? So that's why he let me know. That's why he has now an apartment.

not only lives in Santa Barbara, in this 20,000 square foot house, but I mean, he also has this 5,000 square foot apartment and where his sons come and stay there and all this kind of stuff. And I go down there all the time. So I will come over if you don't mind, I will come over and grab a stogie. You have the stogie still, right? I said, sure. I said, come over. When are you going to come? He said, this coming weekend, I guarantee you. Of course,

Now it's like years later. And now finally we're doing a podcast here. It's like, it's crazy. It's like, but all jokes aside, I have to say that I missed you.

Why? Because, I mean, you and I, we had just so many things in common. So many crazy stuff. I mean, when we think about the skiing that we did together in Sand Valley. Oh my God, it's so true. I mean, you were the craziest skier around and tearing up the slopes. We were going down the slopes with high speed and the moguls and the this and the that. And we were skiing with Clint Eastwood and with all of those guys and had a wonderful time. So we had a lot of fun and you came over to the house all the time, Rosy.

I kind of missed all that stuff. But then I'm maybe eventually going to wake up and say, you know, I can hang out with Arnold again and Maria is not going to decapitate me. I can't disagree with anything that's been said here. I can't disagree. Because Maria is scarier than you to me. I'm way more scared of Maria.

that I'm scared of you. Well, apparently. I mean, and it's true. I'm a casualty of the divorce, but I'm now exerting my own will and I'm back. I'm back. This is the beginning. This is the beginning of the bike rides, of the feeding cookies to Lulu and Whiskey. I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to it.

All set for your flight? Yep. I've got everything I need. Eye mask, neck pillow, T-Mobile, headphones. Wait, T-Mobile? You bet. Free in-flight Wi-Fi. 15% off all Hilton brands. I never go anywhere without T-Mobile. Same goes for my water bottle, chewing gum, nail clippers. Okay, I'm going to leave you to it. Find out how you can experience travel better at T-Mobile.com slash travel. ♪

But I'm happy that you're doing so well with your career. I'm happy you're doing so well with your podcast.

that everyone wants to talk to you. And I'm happy that you haven't aged. You know, you look fantastic. You look really great. Unbelievable. Thank you. It's great that you have this successful TV series with your son. I just thought about we're not supposed to talk about our

Oh, right. Shows about our movies because of the strike. So... By the way, I know. Why can't you end the strike? I could. You could. Why don't you? They've asked me to negotiate. But I mean, I definitely could because I... You could end it in two hours. Well, I will be...

a good negotiator because I can, I feel sympathetic to both sides. Yes, and you know the players. And also, one of the things that you learn very quickly is there's no perfect deal. So when I was governor, there was no such thing as a perfect deal. So, you know, when the, when the,

you try to do healthcare reform or if you wanted to do anything, you could never please and create a tent for the Nurses Association and for the Hospital Association and for the doctors and for the insurance companies and for everybody. You have everyone sitting on a table and you say, "Guys, if you're happy with the seven, I think we can work on this. And I think we can reach the sweet spot."

I said, "But if you're all looking for the 10, it's not going to happen." And so this is what is important to recognize that when you go into a situation like that and negotiate, that you understand and you just say, "Okay, let's go and really be fair here."

and push everyone so that we can go back to work, you know? So there's a way of doing this. There's a sweet spot in everything. And it's just the question is just how willing are people to go and settle that? - Really want you to get involved in this. It's gone on way too long. I mean, maybe we get you and Gavin and whoever to get involved. People need to go to work. - Yes, you're right.

Gavin would be the right guy. Are you jealous because he has better hair than you? I think I'm jealous that he's younger than me. Okay, so... Man, would I like to be that age? Oh, your age. I mean... Any age, younger than whatever I am today. What happens... I knew to ask you, what do you make of RFK's presidential run, junior? I think it's great. I think that...

You know, even though there's some people that think that he's too way out there, but you know, I have known Bobby for a long time and he has always been a reasonable man and he has his opinions. He may not agree with it, but they're great and good opinions. And he lets you know what those opinions are. And there's nothing fake about it. It's just out there. And I think he has it in his blood.

to create a better country and to become president. And if it will happen or not, that you never know. I mean, I ran for governor in a recall. No one thought that I would become governor of California. So, I mean, in politics, you never know because all the events change so quickly. It depends what the lawsuits are with Trump. It depends what the lawsuits are with Biden. It depends of how much more gets exposed.

of the corruption charges, of the misuse of power on Trump's side, corruption with the Biden side and all that stuff. It's just everything moves all the time and there's new revelations. And so I think that any one of the candidates can in fact win. It all depends on which way the wind blows.

We got the hammering going. Yeah, because there's a lot of construction going on. So you. Yes. Being, I don't even know if you're still a Republican or if you're a Democrat now. Well, I'm what you were, like a moderate. A moderate. Republican. Am I though? Okay, let me ask you this. And I ask people this all the time. What are the, our good friend, hang on, I'm going to think of his name. Congressman David Dreyer. Yeah. Yeah.

David Dreyer, a good friend of ours. Of ours, yeah. Yes. And a good man. Served for many, many, many years. He used to have the greatest what makes me a Republican. And he had, I think, four or five things. I think it was in no particular strong military, low taxes, less government, more personal freedoms. Yeah.

There might have been one, a couple, but it makes sense to know. Strong law enforcement. Strong law enforcement. And then I'd like to know what the, I always ask Democrats what it means to be a Democrat in that way. And I think whatever anybody would say. Ruin your cities. What would they say? Ruin your cities. What's that? Ruin your cities. Ruin your cities. That's what the Democrats would say. We are about ruining the cities. We want to fuck up every city in America.

That's what seems to be the theme right now. Why is that? I have no idea. But I mean, when you talk about the Republican philosophy and all this, what you just said is exactly what made me buy in when I listened to Nixon speak.

campaign for president in 1968, I was here just one month. You're one month, you're brand new here, you barely speak English, you don't know anything about Republicans or Democrats. I knew nothing about it and I just... So what did he say that spoke to you? I had this friend who was a real, real liberal by the name of Ari Zeller.

and he was a bodybuilding photographer. We call it physique photographer. But he worked down at the post office on Fifth Street in Santa Monica. Hardworking guy, worked with the photographs, developing photographs himself and all that stuff. And he was Jewish and spoke some German. And so he was able to translate for me enough that I understood what Nixon was talking about and what Humphrey was talking about.

So when Humphrey talked, I felt when he translated this for me, I felt like I was back in Austria. Who's calling? Anybody good? It doesn't really matter because the bottom line is I will never answer a thing when I'm talking to you. I like that. So I'm going to turn it off right now. This sound you will never hear again while we're sitting here. Because the sons of bitches should know that.

There is only one priority right now, and that's you. I love it. So anyway, when Humphrey talked, I felt kind of like, okay, that sounds a little bit what politicians would say in Austria. Socialism. So even then, in 68, you felt...

Because now it's very popular to say that sounds like socialism. Even then, you recognized what you felt to be the similarities. Well, it sounded to me like it, you know, that government is the solution to the problems and all this kind of stuff. So what the fuck are they talking about? I mean, it's like if you look at, I mean, even today, now 55 years later, I mean, nothing has changed. The private sector is like booming, right?

In California, I mean, look at this. In America, look at it. You know, we are the strongest economy, California, in the United States. And the United States is this extremely strong economy all over the world. The private sector is booming. We are producing the best agriculture, the best entertainment, the best music, the best high technology. You know, no matter where you look, we are number one. But that's the private sector.

The public sector, they're fucking idiots. I mean, they're ruining the country. They cannot get anything done. I mean, have you seen what's going on in Washington? I mean, it's like, for how much longer can you talk about immigration reform? We know that we need it. And the two parties cannot get together for 30 years now. They've been talking about it. Don't you think... How about the spending? Don't you think... Every year, we have another trillion to two trillion dollars debt.

So there's a deficit. And when you have a deficit, it becomes debt at the end of the year, right? So then it gets added to our debt. So now we started out, Clinton wiped out all of the deficit and all of the debt. So we started with zero.

Under the Bush administration. And since then, for the last 23 years, we gained 30, what is it, 36 trillion dollars or something like that in debt. How are we going to pay that off? There is no plan to pay it off. So just besides the immigration reform that I talked about, that they haven't tackled, they have not been at all making even a step towards

fixing this problem and we're always complaining about people living beyond their means and they're bringing up the credit cards and they cannot make the payments. The students are having student loans and they cannot pay off the student loans and all of this stuff we're talking about. But the government is the worst example. They just keep spending money they don't have. It's crazy. It's both parties. Of course, it's both parties.

But that's why I say Washington, I'm not blaming any party for that because Trump kept spending, Bush kept spending, Obama kept spending, Biden now keeps spending. And the funny thing about it is that they go out there as if they're giving us something. They say, "I just went and I'm going to do student loan forgiveness." Right. Well, you are giving forgiveness. It's our money. What are you talking about?

What are you talking about? And where do you get the money from? We have already another $2 trillion this year in debt and deficits. So where are you going to get that money from? Oh, and now, by the way, I want to have a $1.3 trillion infrastructure package. And then it will be this green package. Who is going to pay for that? I mean, it's like, do we ever stop? Do we ever think about, let's kind of figure out a way together, Democrats and Republicans together,

to solve those problems. And you cannot solve those problems alone. No Democrat can solve this problem and no Republican can. They have to go and start looking at each other as partners. You have to be partners. It's like a sports team. The only way that the sports team is going to win is if they all work together and if they all play together.

You cannot have half of the team say, but we are the blacks, you know, we're not going to work with the whites or something like that. Oh, this is the Democrats and we are the Republicans. Imagine a sports team would do that. I don't want to play with the Republican. He would never win. Nothing. He would never do anything. And that's just what's happening in Washington. They just love fighting amongst each other. And the only thing they're interested in is serving their party. But you have to serve the people.

You know, so it's really insane when you look at what is going on. And this is why I think it's very important that we look closely at the elections and make sure that people get excited about voting and get excited about reading up on the various different candidates.

educating themselves and not just doing what the oil company tells them to do and who to vote for and what the unions tell them who to vote for. Read up on it and just become your own person. It doesn't matter if it's a Democrat or Republican. We got to have good leadership. Well, this is why I supported... Well, you're my friend. I would have done it anyway. But this is why I was one of the first people to help campaign for you for governor. I mean, just listening to you right now reminds me of...

What a great leader I think that you are. And I'd love to see you have a place on that stage. Again, I know you're probably getting more done in the private sector now than you were as governor. Because, I mean, we have a one-party system in California anyway. There aren't Republicans here. Well, you know, I mean, I always appreciated your support when I ran for governor and when I was governor. You were always there for me.

And, but you also knew where my heart was, you know, yes, we were Republicans, but we didn't look at it like this is my state. This is the Republican state. We always looked at it, this is our state. You know, the Democrats and Republicans share the state together. And I never kind of villainized Republicans.

That's what I hate. I hate the villain of either party. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. There's no reason. I mean, the people vote for the Democrats up there. And so I wanted to sit down with them and I wanted to say, here's what can we do together?

And so we decided that, oh, isn't it great that we can do infrastructure together? We can rebuild California. We can put, you know, 40, $50 billion of infrastructure money into California and pay it off over the next few years and have the bonds, you know, pay it off and then let the people vote for that.

We passed the bills and we put it out there to the people and we had them vote for it in 2006. And they voted for it, the infrastructure to rebuild our levees, to build affordable housing, to build the transportation infrastructure, to build schools and university buildings and all of this kind of stuff, and to really get going on the whole thing. So it was great that we Democrats and Republicans were traveling up and down the state and selling to the people the idea of to vote for those initiatives.

comes election day in November. And we did the same thing with other areas, if he's picking judges, or if it is the environmental issue, where we worked together and we created the kind of the most

kind of environmental laws to really reduce greenhouse gases and pollution by 25%. No other state was able to manage that or to come even close. You were doing the earned income tax credits early on. Absolutely, yeah. I mean, your administration created that model. It was revolutionary at the time. Well, we did a lot of great, great things, but there was things that we could do. There were certain things we couldn't do together.

You know, like when it comes to the fiscal, to bring the fiscal house in order, that was very difficult to do because there's the other party that loves to just spend the money. And I wanted to stay and keep us within our means and what the revenues show and all that stuff. So that was very hard to do, but that's okay.

I was in heaven that we were able to do the amount of things we were able to do. And that's what you do. You kind of figure out what is it that things that you can do. You don't go right away in there and start fighting. You go and try and work with people together. And so I think if you really want to serve the people,

of a state or of a country, you do the people's work and not the party's work. That's the difference. You know, I was never a party hack. As a matter of fact, you and I, we talked about that, that I sometimes feel like I had both parties on my neck.

Because the Democrats didn't like me because I was fiscally conservative and the Republicans didn't like me because I was socially more moderate than they were and that I was into fighting for the environment and they didn't really want to do that. I was fighting for universal healthcare. They didn't want to really do that. And then I picked a Democrat as a chief of staff. Yes, I remember very well. She happened to be a lesbian. I said, oh my God.

She was a bra burning lesbian. How could you do that, governor? You are a good Republican. I said, there's nothing to do with Republican Party. I said, when someone burns their bra over someone who's a lesbian, I said, what does it have to do with party line at all? I said, this is a brilliant woman. She is brilliant. She was a great, great servant. And by the way, you didn't pick her either because she was a woman.

She was the best person for the job. She gave me the best memos. She was the most aggressive.

In understanding what I was trying to do. People freaked. I remember people were freaked out when you did that. They were losing their minds. To me, I just said to myself, I'd rather fight with both parties, but I'm going to always want to get the feeling that I'm doing the people's work because people don't care about all this stuff. But see, what you're describing, and you're describing me, that's why we've always been so simpatico, is not a Republican today. It's not.

And they had a name for that, a rhino, Republican name only. So you can say you're Republican. You can say, well, you're Republican. But the truth of it is we're not. That party has left us and we're some, but I think the country is where, I think the country lives in this space. I really do. I think that most of the country is sort of right, you know, socially live and let live.

and physically more conservative and patriotic, believes in a strong military. I think that's where we are. But both of the parties have moved to the fringes to get to the primaries. By the way, you didn't have to go through a primary. I didn't have to go through a primary. I don't think you could have made it through a primary, a Republican primary. Well, I know you couldn't have. Could you have? It was questionable. And the reason why I thought it was very attractive...

to run in a recall campaign was because there was no primary and because there was only a two months period where people can make up their mind and then there was election. - And you could just nuke it out there. You could just nuke it. - Exactly. And so I just went all out. - All out. - And I tell you one thing that with all of the things that I've accomplished in life, this is the thing that I have enjoyed the most.

It was unlike anything else. It's very hard to describe to people what great feeling it was to serve 40 million people and to go all out and to really have the trust of those people and to get reelected.

with 57% of the votes in 2006. It was like unbelievable. 57%? And, you know, and so it was really, I think that someone that got involved in public service or in meaning in charitable work, you know, when I started working with Special Olympics in the 70s and then in the 80s,

Becoming chairman of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports and travels through all 50 states and promote health and fitness amongst our youngsters in school. And to do more exercise and stuff like that. And then in the 90s to start the after-school program movement and to create after-school programs and then to pass, you know, the initiative here in California to give an extra...

for the state to invest an extra $500 billion in after-school programs. So all of this kind of stuff kind of like made me feel really good that I was able to give something back to this country that gave me everything. And then I was in to become actually governor and to become a full-time public servant. It was like absolute heaven.

Wow. How fun is that? It's so fun that we actually have more. That's right. There is more, a very special two-part interview is what we're talking right now. And part two of this amazing conversation with my buddy, Arnold, will be coming your way Monday. It's a special occasion. More of me and Arnold. See you then.

You've been listening to Literally with Rob Lowe, produced by me, Nick Liao. With help from associate producer Sarah Begar. Research by Alyssa Grawl. Editing by Jerron Ferguson. Engineering and mixing by Rich Garcia. Our executive producers are Rob Lowe for Low Profile, Adam Sachs, Jeff Ross, and myself for Team Coco, and Colin Anderson for Stitcher. Booking by Deirdre Dodd. Music by Devin Bryant. Special thanks to Hidden City Studios.

Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time on Literally with Rob Lowe. All set for your flight? Yep, I've got everything I need. Eye mask, neck pillow, T-Mobile, headphones. Wait, T-Mobile? You bet. Free in-flight Wi-Fi. 15% off all Hilton brands. I never go anywhere without T-Mobile. Same goes for my water bottle, chewing gum, nail clippers. Okay, I'm gonna leave you to it. Find out how you can experience travel better at T-Mobile.com slash travel. ♪

Qualifying plan required. Wi-Fi were available on select U.S. airlines. Deposit and Hilton Honors membership required for 15% discount terms and conditions apply.