“Let Me Hit Him Right in the Neck”: Despite a Tiny Margin of Error, Rare EGOT Winning Actor Let Arnold Schwarzenegger Perform the Stunt That Could’ve Ended His Life

Arnold Schwarzenegger was already a revered figure in the bodybuilding world when he decided to leave it all and pursue a film career. After a few setbacks, the movie that marked his authoritative stamp in the industry was John Milius’s Conan the Barbarian. Schwarzenegger fulfilled his dream of becoming the leading man in a commercial movie, but it came at a price. The shoot was difficult, and he had to do his stunts. It was also very difficult for his fellow co-stars, especially one actor of Darth Vader fame, who allowed Schwarzenegger to hit him in the neck with a sword. Luckily, he survived without any injury.

James Earl Jones, the man whose voice earned him all the fame for Darth Vader in Star Wars, also starred as Thulsa Doom in Conan the Barbarian. Since almost all stunts were to be done by the actors themselves, Schwarzenegger had to hit Earl Jones’ neck, protected by a leather bag, with a sword for a scene. Thankfully, Schwarzenegger’s hit was accurate and Earl Jones came out unscathed.

Arnold Schwarzenegger once nailed his hit precisely

Redditt, a platform famous for sharing TIL (Today I Learned) facts, shared one about Arnold Schwarzenegger and his film Conan the Barbarian. A Redditt user by the name of hashzlingingslasher wrote, “TIL during filming of ‘Conan The Barbarian’, Arnold Schwarzenegger had to cut down his workout routine because his arm and chest muscles were so big that he couldn’t wield a sword properly”.

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Schwarzenegger has since talked about this fact many times in interviews and also in his latest docuseries. Below the post, Schwarzenegger shared the detailed incident that reaffirmed the story. At one point he wrote, “I knew I had gotten good with the sword when James Earl Jones let me hit him right in the neck on the bloodbag even though if I’d missed by a couple inches I could have hit his head or his ear. His neck had a protective leather cover under the bloodbag and I didn’t miss”.

TIL during filming of “Conan The Barbarian”, Arnold Schwarzenegger had to cut down his workout routine because his arm and chest muscles were so big that he couldn’t wield a sword properly.
by u/hashzlingingslasher in todayilearned

Arnold Schwarzenegger trained with a samurai master named Sensei Yamazaki for 3 years to develop his swordsmanship skills before he started shooting the film. The training happened daily and for hours on end.

The shooting was hell for Schwarzenegger

A few years ago, when Arnold Schwarzenegger was breaking down his films for GQ, he said how intense the shoot was, and how hard he trained to develop the skills required for the stunt work in the film. That included being an expert in horse riding as well. He, later on, repeated the same story in his recent Netflix docuseries ‘Arnold’ and also revealed how demanding John Milius was to get every scene pitch perfect.

Besides hitting James Earl Jones with a sword for real, he was also chased by a dog once who bit so badly that he needed stitches. He also had to eat a dead vulture, since no prop was good enough to look like it. Although it was dowsed in alcohol to get rid of the bacteria, it still had lice. Shooting for Conan the Barbarian was truly a time in hell for Schwarzenegger, but it was also the most rewarding to him when it was released.

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