Schwarzenegger’s Script for Career Transformation

Arnold Schwarzenegger stood on the ski slopes, searching for a new path. His challenge was not how best to steer down Colorado’s Snowmass Mountain, but how to navigate the rest of his movie career.

It was the winter of 1987, and the former bodybuilder had assembled a string of action blockbusters, from “The Terminator” to “Predator.” He ruled the young male audience but little else; older people and women tended to stay away from his violent, R-rated pictures.

What Schwarzenegger needed was a change of pace -- something light and amusing, preferably rated PG. And at the bottom of that mountain stood a man who could help him get it.

Schwarzenegger didn’t waste any time with preliminaries when he bumped into filmmaker Ivan Reitman on the slopes outside Aspen that day. “He said, ‘You’re the “Ghostbusters” guy, right?’ ” Reitman recalls. “He said, ‘You know, I could be a Ghostbuster too.’ ”

Reitman was understandably dubious. After all, the leap from action idol to comic foil is one of Hollywood’s toughest challenges, as Sylvester Stallone’s bomb “Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot” proves. But Schwarzenegger was single-minded in his focus.

Within a year, Reitman had directed Schwarzenegger in “Twins,” and Schwarzenegger, along with reaping an unexpectedly huge paycheck, had reinvented himself yet again.

When people in the entertainment industry talk about Arnold Schwarzenegger -- regardless of whether they admire him personally or support his run for governor -- they often marvel at his ambition and unshakable focus.

That perception was largely forged during a seven-year period in which Schwarzenegger and his talent agent enjoyed one of the most spectacular runs in Hollywood history, between the first “Terminator” in 1984 and “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” in 1991. Since then, his seemingly infallible touch has faltered, with films such as the 1993 misadventure, “Last Action Hero.”

But in those seven years, he was able to progress from a sword-and-sandals joke to the world’s biggest draw. In the first “Terminator,” he starred as one of Hollywood’s most original, and terrifying, villains. By the sequel, he was playing the hero. Schwarzenegger’s upfront compensation soared from $750,000 to nothing less than a Gulfstream G-III jet (sticker price: $14 million).

Looking back at Schwarzenegger’s management of his career in this span, some signature traits emerge: an appetite for risk-taking and hard work; an ability to look ahead and imagine career leaps others thought preposterous; an aptitude for parlaying perceived shortcomings (inscrutably accented English, unintentionally robotic acting) into an asset; and a knack for discovering and collaborating with talented unknowns who could help him advance his vast ambitions.

Schwarzenegger is of course now attempting another transformation, from aging action star to governor of the country’s most populous state. The outcome of that bid is still uncertain. But there is no doubt that his seven-year Hollywood transformation -- the brick-by-brick construction of a superstar, concurrent with the demolition of his B-movie past -- offers, more than a decade later, plentiful insights into Schwarzenegger as governor of his own career.

Talent agencies are supposed to be collegial establishments where agents, assistants and even the mailroom upstarts root for all clients (and, by extension, their representatives) to prosper. But when Lou Pitt, who had worked to launch the careers of Nick Nolte and Jessica Lange, announced in an International Creative Management staff meeting one Friday in the early 1980s that he had signed the star of “Conan the Barbarian” and “Hercules in New York,” he was greeted with total, what-were-you-thinking silence.

It didn’t take long for Pitt and his new client to prove the ICM naysayers wrong, as the two formed one of the most successful actor-agent relationships ever. Yet they nearly stumbled out of the gate, as Schwarzenegger almost missed out on his breakthrough role.

When James Cameron was first tossing around casting ideas for 1984’s “The Terminator,” Schwarzenegger was not at the top of his list.

Mike Medavoy, who was running production for “Terminator” financier Orion Pictures, was intrigued but skeptical about casting the actor formerly billed as Arnold Strong in the film’s showiest role. “After ‘Stay Hungry,’ [writer-director Bob Rafelson] told me he thought Arnold was going to be a star,” Medavoy says of that 1976 film. “I didn’t believe it at that point. I came to believe it later, though.”

When first contacted about the film, Schwarzenegger was reluctant to play the film’s bad guy, thinking instead he was up for the heroic part of Kyle Reese. But he trusted Cameron’s instincts to put him in the title role, even though the future “Titanic” Oscar-winner had recently been fired from “Piranha Part Two: The Spawning.”

Made for a modest $6.4 million, “The Terminator” turned out to be a critical and commercial eye-opener, grossing $38.4 million, the biggest returns in Schwarzenegger’s nascent career. Within months, people were flocking to Schwarzenegger, writing scripts and developing ideas with him in mind.

From the outset, Schwarzenegger and Pitt conceived a strategy that on its face seems simple but in execution was quite complicated. The idea was this: In every film, try to expand the audience by 10%. What sounds statistically minuscule came to be, over the course of several films, significant, building Schwarzenegger’s fan base much the way compounded interest swells a savings account.

The “Conan” movies were camp and didn’t appeal to serious moviegoers. “Terminator” appealed to some serious moviegoers but didn’t enjoy significant marketing support.

What Schwarzenegger needed was a mainstream hit with a big studio marketing machine behind it, an action film that also could showcase his comic instincts. “Commando,” a story of a retired Army colonel rescuing his kidnapped daughter, was it.

“I realized in working with him in rehearsals how good he was at comedy,” says Mark Lester, who directed “Commando.” “So we incorporated a lot of his personality into the film.”

“When we agreed to do ‘Commando,’ I met Arnold and it was like meeting a guy who’d made 50 movies already,” says Larry Gordon, then Fox’s studio chief. “From the first minute I met him, I knew I was dealing with a champion, like Michael Jordan or Wayne Gretzky.... He was never a rookie.”

In an era when talent agents frequently steered their clients to ready-made “packages” featuring several clients from their own agency, Pitt and Schwarzenegger opted instead to seek out the best filmmakers, regardless of their representation. Only a few of Schwarzenegger’s directors, in fact, were ICM clients.

“He surrounds himself with great people,” says producer David Foster.

Schwarzenegger’s pick for 1987’s “Predator” was the then-unknown John McTiernan, who would go on to become a top action director (“Die Hard,” “The Hunt for Red October”).

“He knew what kind of roles he should be playing. He had a keen sense of what his audience wanted,” says John Davis, the film’s producer. “He knew how to put himself in superhero situations -- to be both accessible and larger than life.” Some of the film’s best lines, Davis says, were improvised by Schwarzenegger and incorporated into the script. Schwarzenegger didn’t stop there.

“As soon as we announced the movie, he was on the phone, wanting to know when we were releasing it, what was the competition, how we were going to market it -- everything,” said Tom Sherak, then a top Fox executive and now a partner in Revolution Studios. “We had a sales meeting with all our guys from around the country and Arnold came in and said, ‘I want you guys to know, if you need help collecting the money, I will personally go out and get the money from the exhibitors.’ ”

In other hands, “Predator” might have been a quickly forgotten trifle. But the pairing of Schwarzenegger and McTiernan yielded the actor’s biggest hit yet, grossing just under $60 million.

To understand best how Schwarzenegger and Pitt navigated this era, it’s important to remember the deals the actor and his agent didn’t make. The downfall for many performers is to fall in love with an easy paycheck, often promised for repeating a familiar role that has limited appeal and can actually generate audience enmity. Among the many movies Schwarzenegger turned down: “Christopher Columbus,” “Superman V,” “Universal Soldier” and sequels to “Predator” and “Commando.”

“Once his career was on a real path, he wanted to make sure he found the right movies to make,” Pitt says. “He didn’t need to work. It was more about wanting to do the right project, rather than having to do something just to take a job.”

The reasons weren’t always artistic: Schwarzenegger wanted to make a “Predator” follow-up but was never able to agree on financial terms. But he and Pitt turned down “Universal Soldier” because it was essentially a retread of his “Terminator” work; the film held little promise of expanding his audience (Jean-Claude Van Damme took the part instead).

“What drove Arnold to projects were the directors,” Pitt says. “He did a lot of due diligence before he committed to a movie. But once he committed to a movie, he was fully in the hands of the director, no matter what happened. At the end of the day, the director had final say.”

But then came “The Running Man.”

After just eight days of filming on the 1987 sci-fi thriller, the $25-million production was days behind schedule and $400,000 over budget. Equally worrisome, the scenes director Andy Davis had filmed weren’t cutting together.

Schwarzenegger had lobbied personally for Davis. But now Schwarzenegger had to decide whether Davis had to be replaced in the middle of production. It was a complicated choice, among the most difficult decisions Schwarzenegger had yet faced in his budding acting career: Would he honor his loyalty to this promising director or vote to cast Davis aside to safeguard his own Hollywood future?

“It was a very awkward situation,” says Davis, who blames the production delays on problems like the costume department’s not having any clothes for Schwarzenegger.

But producer Rob Cohen believed Davis had to go and told Schwarzenegger as much. “I said to him, ‘Here are the facts. This is your career as well as mine, so let’s make the decision together.’ ” The actor grew furious, convinced Cohen and his production company were trying to hijack the movie from Davis. Then Schwarzenegger considered his options.

“It was interesting to watch the movie star and the businessman start duking it out inside,” Cohen says. “He knew it wasn’t going the way it should. And then he finally said, ‘I’ll be there at 8 o’clock tonight. I don’t care who’s directing.’ ”

Cohen hurriedly hired TV actor and fledgling filmmaker Paul Michael Glaser to replace Davis. By the time “The Running Man” opened in theaters, almost everyone had forgotten about the directing dust-up. It was another hit, and Schwarzenegger’s career was still on track.

There were only a few box office misfires in this span -- 1985’s “Red Sonja” and 1986’s “Raw Deal.” But with later success, Schwarzenegger risked typecasting. In 1988’s “Red Heat,” he played a Russian policeman paired with a Chicago cop (Jim Belushi), for which he was paid $7.5 million for starring. But the big money masked a bigger problem. Women didn’t really like his films. And that’s where Schwarzenegger’s lucky encounter on the ski slopes came in.

After meeting Reitman, Schwarzenegger had dinner with him that evening.

The director, who today is supporting Schwarzenegger for governor, found him a natural wit, seeing a humorous side that had never been on full cinematic display. Within a few weeks, Reitman had assembled the foundations of 1988’s “Twins”: He would direct Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito as siblings. But there was a snag. Schwarzenegger was known as an action star, and he had never even done extended dialogue, let alone a character comedy.

Universal Pictures was so nervous about the concept it insisted that Schwarzenegger, Reitman and DeVito all work for scale wages in exchange for a huge chunk of the film’s receipts. If the movie was a huge bomb, Universal would lose only $20 million or so, rather than the $60 million or so if everyone was paid their going upfront rate. If the movie was a hit, the three would make money -- a lot of money.

“There was a high level of risk involved,” says Tom Pollock, who was running Universal at the time (and is now Reitman’s producing partner). “Could an action star from ‘Conan the Barbarian’ do comedy?” Everybody thought it impossible and told Pollock he was crazy to make even the discounted deal. Pollock had the last laugh.

“Twins” grossed $111.9 million and launched Schwarzenegger’s new career. Thanks to his hefty cut of the film’s income, the actor earned more than $30 million.

It would be another year and a half until Schwarzenegger’s next movie came out, but it would be worth the wait. After all, “Total Recall” had been in development for more than a decade before Schwarzenegger became involved.

The film was actually close to being made with another director, “Driving Miss Daisy’s” Bruce Beresford, and another actor, “Dirty Dancing’s” Patrick Swayze. When the film’s production company, headed by Dino De Laurentiis, declared bankruptcy, Schwarzenegger successfully implored executive producers Andy Vajna and Mario Kassar to rescue the science-fiction project. Schwarzenegger then pushed for “Robocop’s” Paul Verhoeven, an esteemed Dutch filmmaker, to direct.

Based on a Philip K. Dick story, 1990’s “Total Recall” was not a standard action movie, as it explored parallel stories of fact and fantasy. Its lead character was, at times, clueless and vulnerable. The top-billed actor, in other words, actually had to act.

“Arnold had been desperate to get into the movie because he knew there was something new in it,” Verhoeven says.

The actor’s asking price had leapt to $10 million, as much as any star at the time. Yet he worked hard, willingly performing as many as 40 takes of a single scene.

“The great thing with Arnold was that I could say to him, ‘That’s not good,’ ” Verhoeven says. “He had no ego about his acting: ‘Anything I can learn, I’ll do.’ A lot of other actors after 15 takes would actually get worse. But with Arnold, the more takes he did, the better he got.”

He also would fight for the film’s budget, personally asking Vajna and Kassar for an additional $170,000 for a special effects shot of Mars. Verhoeven got the extra money.

It was in this period that Schwarzenegger’s global following began to grow logarithmically. He worried about how his films would play overseas, and he even watched his films dubbed in German to make sure they were done properly. “Total Recall” was a worldwide smash, and it grossed $119.4 million domestically, even topping “Twins.” Schwarzenegger may have been among Hollywood’s biggest stars, but there was still one movie he wanted to make that eluded him. Its title: “Kindergarten Cop.”

Part of what made “Twins” succeed was Schwarzenegger’s willingness to hold himself up to ridicule. In “Kindergarten Cop,” released in 1990, he even welcomed making fun of his own often unfathomable pronunciations.

“There are certain things he mangles because of his accent,” says Herschel Weingrod, a writer on both “Twins” and “Kindergarten Cop.” Rather than avoid words he couldn’t easily pronounce -- like “tumor” -- Schwarzenegger invited them, Weingrod says. “He liked that.”

When the film was tested before research audiences, the scores were great. But at dinner after one research screening, Schwarzenegger told producer Brian Grazer: “You know, those are great numbers. But we can do better. Maybe we could tighten up a few scenes.”

“Kindergarten Cop” was another huge success, grossing more than $91 million.

It was finally time to reunite with Cameron and make “Terminator 2,” and this time he got to play the film’s good guy. It was the most expensive movie ever made at the time, costing $100 million. It remains Schwarzenegger’s biggest hit ever, grossing $204.8 million.

He has starred in nine movies since then, but there have been far more whimpers (“Junior”) than bangs (“Eraser”). As his fortunes faded, Schwarzenegger cast Pitt aside. His new representation organized another “Terminator” reprise, but the career trajectory was down, lurching from “The Sixth Day” to “Collateral Damage.” Suddenly, a new path opened up. On Aug. 6, he was running for governor.

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Times staff writer Patrick Goldstein contributed to this report.