J: Jumping around a bit, do you ever get hecklers at your level?
Arnold: A little bit, but not too bad. A lot of people are
protective of me on the road. … So if someone started heckling … I
actually don’t mind the heckling, I kind of like it, if I can hear them.
But people are pretty protective. I think that what happens when you’re
someone like me that people know or know something about, you get five
minutes of grace – you do anything and they’re going to laugh. But then
they expect a certain something, something funny. They paid to get in.
With me, with the five minutes of grace, they want to see if I’m a jerk.
When they find out I’m not, I can feel them breathe that sigh of relief.
Then we get into it. … After the show, they get to take pictures with
me, and we talk. That’s the best part of the whole thing, getting to
spend time with people. They’re so glad I’m not a prick. Or at least I’m
hiding it well. I have my moments, believe me.
People are very smart. They remember a lot of things and are also
grateful that I don’t criticize my ex-wives. I’m not critical of people,
because I think they have the same feeling that I have, which is if
you’re in love with somebody, you don’t just start hating them. You fall
in love with somebody, you marry them, and you’re spending your lives
together. How do you go suddenly to you hate them, they’re a terrible
person? That doesn’t add up. Something’s not right with that picture.
Things happen but you don’t just go … It would be weird.
There are some good moments in our relationships and there’s some funny
stuff that I have to admit, and that I’m grateful for, from everything.
I’m grateful that I’m married to Ashley, my wife now. It took me awhile
to find the right person. Some people are lucky, they meet and marry
their high school sweetheart or whatever. I never saw a real marriage
working, because I grew up with just my dad. It took me awhile to figure
out what’s needed in a happy marriage. You need to be all-in. You need
to put all your chips on the table. You can’t save some for yourself or
whatever.
And you have to like each other. It’s just all these things, it took me
awhile to figure them out and – nothing against the women that I did
marry, they’re wonderful, delightful people, and by the way they’re very
happy now without me, which is great. I am super grateful that Ashley
came into my life.
J: Do you get that serious about things in the show?
Arnold: I do, but then you’ve got to go to the funny stuff. It’s
ridiculous. Otherwise it would be horribly boring and … there’s moments
where I digress but … I’ve had a lot of funny things happen to me. I’ve
been stabbed by my wife. I’ve intentionally done stupid things like
putting giant tattoos on me and … I’ve done a lot of dumb things, and I
talk about that. I can see younger people in the audience taking it in,
thinking, ‘I don’t think I’m going to do that. He seems like he
took one for us there.’
J: Would a tabloid reader or E! watcher be very well satisfied
with this show, then?
Arnold: There’s a few extra things that haven’t been there, that
haven’t been in the tabloids. But they’ll be satisfied, yeah.
J: What’s ahead for you?
Arnold: I’m going to a tour a little bit more because of this
special. I’m going to do some more shows. Then I’m going to do another
television show that I’m writing now. Arnold Schwarzenegger and I are
going to do another movie together. I can’t wait to do that. He has so
many things he’s going to do now that he’s done in office. He wants to
write, he still wants to do a lot of public service, but he will sneak
in a movie or two. Just more of that. I have three or four movies that
haven’t come out yet.
In
my career, I go where it takes me. I don’t plan things because when I
plan, it may turn out horrible. So I’ve been very lucky, and I’ll just
go wherever life takes me, and be grateful for it. In a perfect world,
I’d have one job that I went to, and I could come home and have dinner
with my family, and everything would be wonderful, but it hasn’t worked
out like that. I’ve had to travel and do this and that. I’m grateful for
it all, but maybe this year I can figure out something with less travel
that could keep me home more often with my wife and maybe we could start
that family we’ve been talking about.
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