Arnold Schwarzenegger Says Directors and Producers Told Him He Would Never Be a Star Because of His Big Muscles

Arnold Schwarzenegger has accomplished a lot of things in his life, and one of them is that he became one of the greatest and most iconic action movie stars to have ever lived. It’s pretty incredible! This was not an easy road for him and along the way he faced some challenges, challenges that he obviously overcame.

During an interview with Rob Lowe on his podcast Literally!, Schwarzenegger talked about one of the hurdles that he faced. When he set out on the path of working in movies, he was told by Hollywood directors, producers, and agents, that he would never make it in the business because of his big-ass muscles. They believed at the time that audiences didn’t want to see big muscles on the big screen. Hollywood executives have always been closed-minded about changes in Hollywood so this doesn’t surprise me. The actor shared:

In the '70s, when I said I wanted to get into movies, all the producers and directors and studio executives and agents were saying to me, 'It's never gonna happen.' And one of the three reasons was that my body was too big. They said to me, 'Look at the stars today… Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino, De Niro, Woody Allen. Those are the sex symbols. People don't want to see big muscles. You're 100 pounds too heavy. Forget it.'

“The bottom line is that when they said, 'It's not gonna work, you getting in the movies, and especially not being a leading man.' They said it was 'because of your accent.' They said that the German accent is scary for most Americans — it reminds them of the Nazis. 'So yes, you could play a Nazi officer or something like that. That would be fine. But other than that, you wouldn’t get away with it.’ … And then they said that, 'No one would be able to pronounce Schwarz... What's your name? Schnitzel, or something like that?' So they were laughing at my name. And those are the three things why it wouldn't work.”

I can’t help but laugh at the statement of Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino, De Niro, and Woody Allen being sex symbols! In the end, when Schwarzenegger landed the lead role in Conan the Barbarian, that movie defined him and his impressive physique is what set him up for success in the industry. No one had ever seen any actor like him before and all those directors, producers, studio executives, and agents ended up kicking themselves in the ass because of lack of vision.

Schwarzenegger continued to work on himself and fine-tune his skills and proved everyone wrong. His voice and his name have become the most recognizable in movie history. So, everything worked out for him in the end, and those people that turned him away? You’ll never know their names or what they did.