“People have forgot about my failures,” says Terminator: Genisys star Arnold Schwarzenegger

HIS name is a virtual byword for success, but Arnold Schwarzenegger says people tend to forget about his failures ... and reveals the one role he most wants but can never have.

MAKING movies, according to Arnold Schwarzenegger, is a lot like holding public office.

The Hollywood legend and former Governor of California believes his twin careers in acting and politics share a strong common thread.

“In both cases, in the end, you are trying to please the people,’’ says the seven-time Mr Olympia winner.

Schwarzenegger’s practised, fan-focused pragmatism goes a long way to explaining why, having served two terms in state politics, he has chosen to revisit two of his most popular franchises — Terminator and Conan the Barbarian — on his return to acting.

Also in the works is a Twins spin-off, Triplets, with Danny DeVito and Eddie Murphy.

But the Austrian expat rankles at any suggestion that he might be covering old ground.

“When you sit down tonight and have dinner, do you feel like you are going backwards, because you had dinner last year too? I don’t think so,’’ he says, in the even rhetoric of someone who is accustomed to having the final word.

“There are certain things that are fun to do. I think to make movies is fun to do. I think to entertain people is fun to do.”

While nobody would suggest that Schwarzenegger has an extensive range as an actor, it’s easy to underestimate the specific set of skills he brings to his best-known role as an assassin-programmed robot that eventually switches sides.

Terminator: Genisys, which playfully references Arnie’s 12-year hiatus with jokes such as “I’m old, not obsolete”, reintroduces audiences to a delivery so deadpan that the humour seems almost accidental.

Jai Courtney, who plays John Connor’s father Kyle Reese in the fifth film in the sci-fi franchise (neither he nor Arnie appeared in Terminator Salvation), says he only fully appreciated Schwarzenegger’s robotic transformation at their first table read.

“I had a lot more respect for the character he plays seeing him work live,’’ says the Australian actor.

“I think it’s easy to assume that that role is somewhat one dimensional and not really thought out and it is certainly not the case.

“There is an incredible challenge in playing something that is not human. And I think there is some real craftsmanship there that perhaps I hadn’t considered.

“It was cool to watch that happening in the flesh.”

Recent projects such as the independent zombie drama Maggie, with Abigail Breslin, and the just-announced revenge thriller 478, would suggest Schwarzenegger is keen to stretch himself in more dramatic roles.

But as any good politician knows, you have to take your supporters/fans with you.

Comparing his time as Governor of California to captaining a big ship, such as the Titanic, the actor explains:

“But then you can’t turn it quickly so if from one year to the next, let’s say if the economy comes back, they (your constituents) are off that whole budget thing.

“You still are spending too much money as a state, so you are still working on that, but they (the constituents) are off that now. They are into: let’s create more jobs.

“And you say wait a minute, I am still working on this. So it gets complicated.”

Carefully positioned in silhouette for the interview — surely the position of his chair with the Opera House in the background is no accident — Schwarzenegger chomps on a big fat stogie.

The last actor to flourish a cigar at Sydney’s Park Hyatt was a tracky dax-clad Jack Nicholson, who actually went so far as to light up.

Schwarzenegger is more bon vivant businessman to Nicholson’s mischief-making raconteur, but both appear to embrace, even relish, their larger-than-life public personas.

When the Terminator star says emphatically that he wouldn’t trade places with anybody, it’s not hard to believe him.

Schwarzenegger might be 67, but it’s clear he hasn’t even considered the prospect of retirement — or even slowing down.

And he goes so far to suggest that successful movie-making might be even tougher to crack than politics.

“Automatically in politics you know 50 per cent of the people are with the other party, they will be against what you do and 50 per cent will be for.

“The trick is to get it to 51 per cent, 52 per cent, so you have the majority on your side.

“With movies, you have to win over the whole world.”

Which brings us back to his return in proven brands such as Terminator and Conan.

First and foremost, Schwarzenegger is a businessman.

“A lot of times, people only look at all the successes you have had. And I have had more success financially probably than anyone in Hollywood because I know how to keep money and I know how to make money because I am a businessman.

“But still I had my failures. And even in bodybuilding, even though I won 13 world bodybuilding championships, I also had my failures,’’ he says.

“The key thing is to learn from your failures more than you learn from your victories.”

Having finished his stint as Governor, Schwarzenegger now splits his time between acting, his body building empire and the Schwarzenegger Institute at the University of Southern California, where he tackles public policy.

He identifies the reduction of CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions worldwideas a “crusade”.

Other pet projects include stem cell research and political reform.

“I try to create a synergy that one benefits from the next and where I use my star power in order to drive those kinds of big issues forward.”

It’s his achievements in this area that Schwarzenegger is most proud of.

“As an immigrant, I started getting into this whole thing that I wanted to do something for America and my neighbourhood. So I am proud that I got, by some miracle reason, on that track.

“And that to me it was always important to give something back and to serve the country and the community and to do something bigger than myself.”

Had he had the opportunity, Schwarzenegger would have liked to influence events on an even bigger scale.

“Everybody knows that if I would be American born, I would probably run for president because why not? I can do a better job than those guys can. Trust me,’’ says the actor/businessman/politician who is featured in a photograph on his USC web page looking very matey with Barack Obama.

“But that’s not available. Everything I have accomplished in my life is because of America so I am not going to complain about the one job I can’t have.”

SEE Terminator: Genisys is showing now.

Originally published as “People have forgot about my failures,” says Terminator: Genisys star Arnold Schwarzenegger