Arnold Schwarzenegger and his son, Patrick Schwarzenegger, recently reflected on their surprisingly similar acting choices regarding nudity.
During a conversation for Variety’s Actors on Actors series, the father-son duo reflected on their decisions to bare it all on screen. The elder Schwarzenegger highlighted his breakthrough performance in the 1984 sci-fi classic The Terminator, noting it was the first film where he stepped away from showcasing his bodybuilding physique.
“I was doing the Conan movies, and this is exactly what my dream was when I was a kid. You wanted to get into acting because of acting; I wanted to get into it because I saw Hercules on a big screen,” said Arnold. “I started training and said to myself, ‘I will become Mr. Universe, and I will be getting into movies because of my fame.’ ”
He continued, “Terminator was the first time that I was doing a film that had nothing to do with the muscles. It was with leather jackets on and being a machine. Only the opening scene was naked. But I’m talking about naked.”
Patrick revealed that he too made the choice to go nude for a role — as Saxon Ratliff in the third season of HBO’s The White Lotus. “I’ve done it,” he told his father.
Arnold then recalled watching the show and admitting he was stunned by his son’s scene: “I couldn’t believe [it]. I said to myself, ‘I’m watching your show, and I’m watching your butt sticking out there.’ And all of a sudden, I see the weenie. What is going on here? This is crazy. Then I said to myself, ‘Well, Arnold, hello. You did the same thing in Conan and Terminator, so don’t complain about it.’ But it was a shock to me that you were following my footsteps so closely.”
Patrick, who previously spoke to Men’s Health about the moment, said the decision was his own. “When we were shooting the bedroom scene, they had some boxer-briefs that I was supposed to wear, and I was like, 'I’m just going to do this naked.'”