It’s not just action stars going to unscrupulous lengths to achieve cinematic prowess in their movies, Action megastar Arnold Schwarzenegger also proved his commitment to his roles by doing what could be unthinkable for many. The actor has endured a lot for his character in his 1982 movie Conan the Barbarian.
In his book, Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life, the actor revealed the extent of the path he took to meet the demand of the director to acutely portray his character. Schwarzenegger’s confession might be a goosebump for many fans, but it shows how the actor went on to do terrible things for the sake of perfecting a character.
Arnold Schwarzenegger Endured Terrible Things For Conan The Barbarian
Arnold Schwarzenegger is an action legend with several blockbusters to his credit in his career spanning several decades. Schwarzenegger, however, was not always blessed with the privilege of a hero of a romantic movie with all the luxury at his disposal. Revealing the extent of what he had to undergo while filming John Milius-directed Conan the Barbarian, the actor explained that the director made him do terrible things for the role. In his self-help book, the actor shared his hard lessons, including what happened behind the scenes of the movie.
“I learned to ride horses and camels and elephants. I learned how to jump from large rocks, how to climb and swing from long ropes, how to fall from a height. I basically went to another vocational school, this one for aspiring action heroes,” Schwarzenegger wrote in his book (via Business Insider).
The director of the movie, Milius, as Schwarzenegger explained, required intense physical performance out of the actor while pushing the mental boundaries to complement his physical strength. The bodybuilding legend never backed down and did all those things as per the demand of the director.
Arnold Schwarzenegger Explained The Horror of Conan The Barbarian Set
Riding camels and elephants is just the tip of the iceberg, The Terminator star further revealed that he had to run from wild dogs and actually bit a real dead vulture several times in a scene where he was tied to a tree. “Then on top of that, Milius had me doing all kinds of terrible sh*t,” he wrote in his book.
“I crawled through rocks, take after take, until my forearms bled. I ran from wild dogs that managed to catch me and pull me into a thorn bush… I bit a real, dead vulture that required I wash my mouth out with alcohol after each take. On one of the first days of filming, I tore a gash on my back that required forty stitches.”
Schwarzenegger will never forget the horror he had to endure on the set of the 1982 movie. The movie went on to gross around $68.9–79.1 million at the box office. The actor also appeared in the sequel Conan the Destroyer that came out almost two years later, however, with a different director, Richard Fleischer, but the movie couldn’t live up to the box office prowess of its prequel. Also, with Milius out of the project, Schwarzenegger may not have faced the same terrible fate in the sequel as he stated no record of it.
Conan the Barbarian is available to stream on Prime Video.
