Arnold Schwarzenegger says his mom cried when she saw posters of men on his walls growing up until she eventually called a doctor about it
Arnold Schwarzenegger says his mother was upset by the male posters he used to hang on his wall.
The actor said during “An Evening With Schwarzenegger” that she called the house doctor as a result.
Schwarzenegger said his parents’ biggest fear was that he was gay.
When Arnold Schwarzenegger was aspiring to be a world-famous bodybuilder, posters of boxers, wrestlers, and bodybuilding champions adorned his bedroom walls.
He says the sight originally upset his mother.
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“My mother was always looking at that wall, and she said, ‘All of your friends have pictures of girls. Where did I go wrong?'” Schwarzenegger told the crowded room in the Academy Museum of Motion Picture’s 966-seat David Geffen theater in Los Angeles on Wednesday night during “An Evening With Schwarzenegger.”
“And she would cry. She was in front of the wall crying every day until she called the doctor, our house doctor,” Schwarzenegger said of his mother’s concern about his posters.
Schwarzenegger said the doctor told her there was nothing to worry about.
“He finally said, no, this is quite normal in the kids at this age. They idolize men that are strong. Don’t worry about it. He’s not gay,” Schwarzenegger said, adding, “That was their biggest fear.”
Schwarzenegger said the “Hercules” star Steve Reeves and the English bodybuilder Reg Park became his idols when he took an interest in bodybuilding. He said he began reading everything he could about the sport and following everything they did.
“When I read that Reg Park was working out five hours a day, lifting heavy weights, and doing 50, 60 sets of exercise and lifting 50 tons of weights a day, I would do the same thing,” Schwarzenegger said.
“My parents thought that I was a little bit sick in my head, and they thought I was overdoing it and I was obsessed and it was bad for my health,” he added.
Schwarzenegger became the youngest Mr. Universe when he won at 20 in 1967.
At the sold-out event, which also included a 3D screening of Schwarzenegger’s highest-grossing movie, “Terminator 2,” the actor spoke with the Taschen editor Dian Hanson about his experiences and the decadelong journey assembling a two-volume book about his life, “Arnold.”
