Post The Terminator’s Success, Arnold Schwarzenegger Changed a Long-Lasting ‘Naming’ Tradition in Hollywood: “That Was the New Idea”

Arnold Schwarzenegger embarked on his Hollywood career while he was competing in bodybuilding. The seven-time Mr. Olympia starred in Hercules in New York (1970). However, in 1970, the Austrian Oak had an even heavier accent, and producers didn’t want to cast him. Besides finding the bodybuilder too muscular, he also had issues with his name.

Many producers told the bodybuilding legend his name was too hard to pronounce. Hence, it acted as one of the hurdles in Arnie’s path to Hollywood glory. However, after Schwarzenegger won six Mr. Olympia titles, won a Golden Globe for portraying a bodybuilder in Stay Hungry (1976), and starred in his breakthrough hit Conan the Barbarian (1982), things started to change. While appearing on Rob Lowe’s podcast, Schwarzenegger revealed how he changed the long-lasting tradition that had hindered him in 1984.

Arnold Schwarzenegger became popular enough to influence change

During the Literally! with Rob Lowe podcast, the duo discussed Schwarzenegger’s early success and how it impacted Hollywood. The 59-year-old described watching The Terminator with his friends. Lowe told Arnie he went to watch the James Cameron film starring the bodybuilding legend with his friends. Lowe found the film so impressive that he went back the following day.

The actor noticed how Schwarzegger’s way of saying the iconic one-liner, “I’ll be back,” felt unique. “It’s the accent that makes it. Jim’s right. It isn’t the line; the line’s perfectly fine… but it’s you saying it” that made it special, said Lowe. Schwarzenegger responded that shortly after his performance in The Terminator, actors stopped changing their names.

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“All of a sudden, articles started coming out,” saying how actors stopped changing their names after people had no trouble remembering or pronouncing the Austian’s name. “They figured out that a name that is hard to pronounce and hard to remember is also hard to forget, so that was the new idea,” the bodybuilding icon told Rob Lowe. It pleased Arnie, as he had his name changed without his consent in 1970.

The bodybuilding icon had to bend to unwritten rules

Schwarzenegger dreamed of becoming the greatest bodybuilder in the world. However, his idols, Reg Park and Steve Reeves, also inspired Mr. Universe to get into acting. So, two years after arriving in America, the bodybuilder looked to star in his first film. While succeeding to star in a film, Arnie had to make many compromises

Arnold Schwarzenegger once narrated his autobiographical docu-series Arnold on Netflix. While speaking about his acting career, the bodybuilding icon said the producers of his first film, Hercules in New York (1969), changed his name. Since they thought Schwarzenegger was hard to pronounce, they changed Arnie’s name to Arnold Strong.

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Arnold Schwarzenegger had a vision of having only his surname in the poster of his films. However, when starting out, the bodybuilding icon had to compromise. So when he found himself in a position to influence change in 1984, Arnie enjoyed it.