Although most of his roles have been widely commended and critically acclaimed, Arnold Schwarzenegger has had his fair share of some infamous roles as well. And while some of these infamous roles may have landed him with paychecks worth millions, they did leave somewhat of a dent in his star-studded career as well.
One of these roles was none other than that of the antagonist ‘Mr. Freeze’ in Joel Schumacher’s critically panned Batman & Robin from 1997. While Schwarzenegger had no intention to take on the role despite wanting to play a Batman villain, Schumacher’s way of guilt-tripping him into the role (even if it meant spending millions on him) is worth complimenting!
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Why Arnold Schwarzenegger Agreed To Play Mr. Freeze
Though he did a pretty good job at bringing Mr. Freeze to life (except for the exceptions that are always there with comic book characters), Arnold Schwarzenegger never truly intended to jump into the role. In fact, had it not been for filmmaker Joel Schumacher, he probably would’ve never agreed to do it!
As per what the Terminator alum revealed in The Making of ‘BATMAN & ROBIN’ | Behind The Scenes:
“Joel Schumacher was the motivating force for me to do Batman. Although I have seen all the other Batmans and I have enjoyed them thoroughly, and was always interested in, of course, playing the ultimate villain in one of those movies, I didn’t really think much about it until Joel Schumacher came to me and said that he would like me to play Mr. Freeze.”
While the storyboard artist Tim Burgard found Mr. Freeze’s dialogues to be “hysterical; in my head, I was reading Freeze’s dialogue as Schwarzenegger’s” when the dialogues were actually written for “somebody who would deliver it in a Shakespearean fashion”, Joel Schumacher had a different approach to bringing the former Governor of California on board.
As Schwarzenegger recalled Schumacher telling him:
“I would not direct the movie because I only can do this movie if you play Mr. Freeze. So what are you gonna do? I mean, screw up a whole movie?”
Surprisingly enough, the guilt trip the filmmaker was trying to play on the Commando actor actually worked, considering how he ended up taking on the role.
“He made me feel like I would make this whole thing fall apart if I’m not part of this all,” Schwarzenegger laughed. “So, he made me feel like, you know, King Kong. So I called him the next day, and said, ‘You know something, Joel? I’m going to do Mr. Freeze.’”
Just like that, Arnold Schwarzenegger took on one of his most infamous roles to date–at the cost of a whopping $25 million paycheck!
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Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Images In His Costume Were Worth Thousands!
Although Arnold Schwarzenegger’s role wasn’t all too appreciated, the pictures of him in Mr. Freeze’s costume most certainly were. As producer Peter MacGregor-Scott shared with The Hollywood Reporter in an interview conducted two decades after the release of the film:
“I had the security people all over the stage. Clearing people out who had cameras on them. They were getting $10,000 for a picture of Arnold. And we had a fabric tent around him when he would walk from his trailer to the stage.”
In fact, the Total Recall star’s costume was so convincing that even his own son couldn’t recognize him! As production supervisor Jacqueline George revealed:
“The nanny brought him in, and Arnold, dressed as Mr. Freeze walked over to his son, and his son started crying. He was smoking a cigar after we cut. He’s like, ‘It’s daddy!’ And [his son is] like, ‘No it’s not!’ And it was so cute because he was just a little boy.”
Even though fans may have failed him after looking at his Mr. Freeze performance, at least Arnold Schwarzenegger’s son didn’t!
