Arnold Says He Was Called Too Jacked Be an Actor

These days in the entertainment business, having a jacked body is part and parcel of the movie star gig—but not too long ago, studios hated the idea of a swole star.

During a recent conversation with Rob Lowe on his Literally! podcast, Arnold Schwarzenegger looked back on his early days in the movie industry, and how when he was starting out, most leading men were "lean" and in "good shape" but not particularly "muscular."

"You started it," said Lowe. "Now you can't be in a Marvel movie unless you're ginormous."

Schwarzenegger explained that actors have always constantly worked out, but weren't doing so publicly. In fact, he recalled one time Clint Eastwood even told him that they were more likely back then to say they were just "born like that" and feign effortlessness about their V-shaped physiques.

But while Schwarzenegger's transition from the gym to the silver screen may have helped to shape a new kind of action star, there were plenty of "naysayers" who didn't believe audiences wanted to see muscular heroes in movies.

"The funny thing about it is that in the '70s when I said I wanted to get into movies, all the producers and directors and studio executives and agents were saying to me 'it's never going to happen,'" he said, explaining that his body was too different from the "sex symbols" of the time—contemporary actors like Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman—and he was told: "People don't want to see big muscles, you're 100 pounds too heavy, forget it."

He was also told that his accent would be too much of a barrier for moviegoers, and that nobody would be able to pronounce his name.

Of course, that all changed with Pumping Iron, the 1977 documentary which explored the world of competitive bodybuilding and became a commercial hit, launching Schwarzenegger onto the global stage.

"All of a sudden, bodybuilding became fashionable," he said. "It became very fashionable that you had to look visually like a hero. So muscles were required. That's when there was an explosion in the '80s of people like Stallone, myself, Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren, all of those guys became big stars and were leading men in the movies."

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