Despite Fearing “PETA”, Severely Injured Arnold Schwarzenegger Continued Shooting $63 Million Film: “Pain Is Temporary, This Film Will Be Permanent”

Seven-time Mr. Olympia Arnold Schwarzenegger’s decision to enter the realm of Hollywood after achieving all the success possible in bodybuilding proved to be a turning point in his career. Thanks to his successful acting career, Schwarzenegger became a household name and established himself as one of the greatest actors the world has seen in the action movie genre. However, reaching such heights required much hard work, perseverance, and dedication from Arnold’s side too. 

Fortunately, growing up in a small village in Austria, he was no stranger to working hard. His movie, Conan the Barbarian, proved to be a game-changer for his acting career. Regardless, to make it a success, Schwarzenegger and director John Milius had to go through a lot during the shooting of the movie, which earned $63.5 million globally.

Arnold Schwarzenegger explains the challenges while shooting Conan the Barbarian

Conan the Barbarian was released in 1982. The movie depicted Arnold as a warrior and thus required him to look like a ripped, muscular fighter who feared no one. Schwarzenegger had to train daily for the role and had no shirt on in the entire movie. While this was not such a difficult thing for Schwarzenegger, given his past bodybuilding endeavors, the main challenge was the pain he had to endure in some other things he did as part of preparing for the role.

“Then on top of that, Milius had me doing all kinds of terrible sh*t. I crawled through rocks, take after take until my forearms bled,” Schwarzenegger mentioned in his latest book, ‘Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life.’ He continued by disclosing, “I bit a real, dead vulture that required I wash my mouth out with alcohol after each take. (PETA would have had a field day with that one.) On one of the first days of filming, I tore a gash on my back that required forty stitches.”

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Schwarzenegger recalled that John’s response to all this was, “Pain is temporary, this film will be permanent.” 

Schwarzenegger agrees with Milius’s words

‘The Austrian Oak’ continued by agreeing with what Milius said. He educated the readers about the importance of embracing pain and went on to explain that pain is always temporary, but the outcome of that can stay with you for a lifetime.

Continuing further, Arnold wrote, “That’s the beauty of pain. Not only is it temporary, which means you don’t have to deal with it forever, it tells you whether you’ve begun to give enough of yourself in pursuit of your dreams.”

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Who can be a better person to talk about the importance of pain than Arnold Schwarzenegger? The man has suffered countless injuries in his bodybuilding and his Hollywood career. He even got operated on for heart-related troubles multiple times. With his book, he hopes to bring about a change in how youth perceive things. What are your views on this? Let us know in the comments.