After his professional football career came to an end, Carl Weathers became an actor, garnering fame for his many roles such as that of Apollo Creed in the Rocky films. He lived a healthy and clean lifestyle, bereft of any sort of addictions – a good habit he picked from his college footballing days. However, in 1987, he starred alongside one of the biggest action stars in the world, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger, who is a cigar lover, was somehow responsible for Weathers getting hooked on it. At least that’s what he says.

During their shoot in Mexico, the former bodybuilder would often smoke his beloved cigars, and their great aroma was enough to entice Weathers to try it out. This was the first of many stogies that he would smoke.

Spending time with Schwarzenegger on the sets of Predator, broke the healthy lifestyle of Weathers

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Carl Weathers were part of an elite paramilitary rescue team in the science fiction horror film, Predator. So many lores are attached to this film, mainly due to the arduous task of shooting in a tropical climate. “The Unseen Arnold Schwarzenegger”, a short behind-the-scenes documentary from the making of the film, brought many of those to light. One such story was about Weathers getting addicted to cigars.

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In the documentary, Weathers said, “Arnold of course had these giant stogies that he smoked. I, Being the athlete that I am, and the clean living person that I am, never in a million years would let tobacco touch my lips. Absolutely not. But I sat there in that chair getting a whiff of this great, great aroma of this stogie. And Arnold eventually said ‘Carli, you want one?’ ‘Sure, why not?’ I was hooked. It was all over… within a few days, Arnold had a box of stogies delivered to me”.

Poking the blame at Schwarzenegger, albeit in a funny way, Weathers finally said, “Shame on you Arnold!” The movie was a huge success, so much so, that it spawned a whole movie franchise, creating more opportunities for the actors. However, Schwarzenegger had other plans.

Schwarzenegger distanced himself from future Predator movies, but not from his cigars

Arnold Schwarzenegger moved away from the Predator movie franchise despite its allure at the box office. The action star once stated that he was unhappy with the way the studios were making the sequels. He mentioned that while studios sometimes do a brilliant job at making sequels, other times when the intent isn’t right, they mess up. The Predator franchise, he believes, is one of the latter.

Despite the actor’s exit, there have been four more ‘Predator’ movies to date, released in 1990, 2010, 2018, and 2022. The last addition ‘Prey’, met with widespread acclaim.

A legendary bodybuilder, Schwarzenegger has otherwise always indulged in his cigars, sometimes two a day. Weathers and Schwarzenegger remained friendly even after that incident. As it turned out, the two of them (& other actors) starred in what turned out to be one of the biggest films in their careers.

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