Joseph Baena Rarely Asks Dad Arnold Schwarzenegger for Acting Advice: 'Want to Figure It Out on My Own'

Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images; Jim Bennett/WireImage Joseph Baena and Arnold Schwarzenegger

Joseph Baena is all about putting in the work himself.

Baena, 25, tells PEOPLE that while he does at times turn to his dad Arnold Schwarzenegger for advice on his acting career, he remains more interested in making things happen for himself in Hollywood.

"The main thing is just the work, putting in the work, putting in the reps," Baena says of advice Schwarzenegger, 75, has provided him about his acting career. "That's the No. 1 thing that we always discuss. And for me, it's just been me figuring it out myself."

While Baena says he does seek Schwarzenegger's advice "every once in a while," he clarified that "90 percent of the time, I want to figure it out on my own."

"I want to work hard and put in the reps and work on my craft my own. There's no shortcuts in this. There's no shortcuts in acting, and in really anything," Baena says. "And so, that's what I want to get out of it is I want it to be my hard work and my ambition that gets me to that success."

"So it's very minimal that I go to him and ask for advice because I want to figure it out on my own," he adds.

Baena currently stars in the new movie Bully High, which follows Pakistani high school exchange student Maryam (Aneesha Madhok) as she is targeted by bullies and bigots at her new high school for proudly wearing a hijab while she and star baseball player Zack (Cedric Begley) fall for each other.

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Courtesy of Bully High

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Baena tells PEOPLE that each onscreen role he's taken so far "has been a totally different experience," adding that Bully High helped him learn about "the creativity that goes into each scene" in a movie.

"I think some of the things that I learned with this one specifically are the creativity that goes into each scene, and sometimes implementing improv. Having your own little interpretation in the script [can be] good sometimes," he says.

Baena described a scene in Bully High for which he improvised dialogue for the first time in his career during a conversation between his character and best friend Zack.

Courtesy of Bully High

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"That was a big learning thing for me that sometimes it really works," he says. "Obviously, the preparation is everything, but sometimes the improvisation helps out. It completely changed the scene, and it made it a little lighter at the end. There's all kinds of things that you learn from every set."

Baena, who plays class president Eddie in the new movie, says his character "struggles in the sense of wanting to be there" for the movie's main characters while "trying to stay neutral in the whole thing because he's the class president."

"He has to be liked by everyone, right? He's the friendly guy, he's the neutral tone in the whole thing, and he's the support system for the main character," Baena adds.

Bully High is now streaming on Tubi.