Lied to His Ex-Wife About Using Stunt Double for an Explicit Scene, Arnold Schwarzenegger Finally Reveals the Only Stunt He Didn’t Do in Conan the Barbarian

At 75 years old, Arnold Schwarzenegger requires a stunt double for intense scenes. However, in 1984, the seven-time Mr. Olympia did nearly all his stunts. In fact, while filming Conan the Barbarian, he lied about using a stunt double to get out of a sticky situation with his ex-wife Maria Shriver. Now 75, the Hollywood actor recently revealed the only scene in the 1984 film where they had to use a stunt double for Schwarzenegger.

Recently, Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared on Chris Wallace’s CNN show for an interview. During the interview, the host asked if Arnie did all his stunts on the sets of Conan the Barbarian. Wallace said he heard that no stunt double could match Schwarzenegger’s Olympia-winning physique. The FUBAR star revealed there was more to it.

Sacrificing for something that is “permanent”

The 75-year-old actor said despite being demanding, he did all the stunts himself. “I think the only thing that didn’t do was, from far away there was a scene where I grabbed the girl, Valeria,” said the bodybuilding legend. While he was familiar with horseback riding, he couldn’t pull one rider from one horse to his house.

The bodybuilder’s physique wasn’t visible since it was filmed from a distance. A trained stuntman shot the scene. “But everything that was close, I had to do everything myself,” the bodybuilding legend recalled. The former Mr. Olympia also had to film an explicit scene for the film.

While appearing on Jay Leno’s show to promote True Lies (1994), Schwarzenegger said Maria Shriver got upset about his explicit scene in Conan the Barbarian. Hence to calm her down, Arnie said they used a stunt double to film the scene. However, performing the stunts for the 1984 film wasn’t a joke. Schwarzenegger told Chris Wallace, “It was unbelievable,” how many injuries he had when filming ended.

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However, Director John Millius told Arnie that pain was temporary, while the film was permanent. Arnie performing his stunts gave a sense of authenticity to the comic book character he portrayed. Millius’s words also stuck with Arnie, and he never complained about pain. However, one stunt nearly became life-threatening for the actor.

When wild dogs got a hold of the Mr. Olympia

While filming the scene where a pack of wild dogs chases Conan, things went wrong. Millius brought the dogs and their trainer on set and planned to give Arnold a head start before letting the trained dogs loose. To make sure the dogs chased the bodybuilder, the crew stitched pieces of meat to Arnie’s clothes.

However, when the cameras rolled, and Schwarzenegger started springing, the trained released the dogs earlier than planned. They caught up to Schwarzenegger before he reached high ground. “They bit at my pants and dragged me down,” Arnie wrote in Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story. Arnie fell 10 feet onto his back but luckily got away with 12 stitches and no damage to his spine or skull.

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