Thanks to Netflix, Arnold Schwarzenegger is having a career resurgence now thanks to “FUBAR,” his new TV series, and “Arnold,” a three-part doc about the actor’s career. And “Arnold” is flush with all sorts of stories about Schwarzenegger’s life as a body-builder, movie star, and politician. One of the best? EW reports that the actor couldn’t handle his first major box office flop, 1993’s “Last Action Hero,” who found its failure “embarrassing.”
READ MORE: ‘Arnold’ Trailer: The Legendary Schwarzenegger Gets The Netflix Doc Series Treatment
On paper, “Last Action Hero” should have been another major hit for Schwarzenegger. The actor was coming off of James Cameron‘s “Terminator 2,” 1992’s biggest movie by a landslide, reuniting with “Predator” director John McTiernan on the film. But moviegoers didn’t take to the meta aspects of “Last Action Hero,” which sees a young movie fan receive a magical movie ticket that transports him into an action movie and lets him meet his hero, Schwarzenegger’s Slater. The film initially bombed domestically, taking in only $15.3 million its opening weekend and $50 million worldwide off an $85 million budget.
“Last Action Hero” eventually made $137.3 million in its theatrical run, but the poor numbers bruised the actor’s ego badly. “I cannot tell you how upset that I was,” said Schwarzenegger in the new doc series. “It hurts you. It hurts your feelings. It’s embarrassing.” Cameron affirmed how much the film’s poor showing affected the actor. “He sounded like he was in bed crying,” confirmed the director. “He took it as a deep blow to his brand. I think it really shook him.” Cameron continued: “I said, ‘What are you gonna do?’ He said, ‘I’m just gonna hang out by myself.’ That’s the only time I’ve ever heard him down.”
Schwarzenegger took the failure of “Last Action Movie” personally, but he eventually got over it thanks to family. “I didn’t want to see anyone for a week,” Schwarzenegger continued. “But you keep plodding along. And my mother-in-law also said this all the time: ‘Let’s just move forward.’ It’s a great message.” And by moving forward, Schwarzenegger quickly found his next project. His brother-in-law Bobby suggested the actor watch the 1991 French action comedy “La Totale!,” and after viewing it, Schwarzenegger realized he had a new big-screen vehicle.
The actor soon brought his idea to remake the French actioner to Cameron. “Arnold’s bringing me a project that he believes in,” Cameron recalled. “He’d never done that before. I thought we could have fun with comedy. I know he had done comedy. He has a good sense of humor.” The project eventually became “True Lies,” where Schwarzenegger plays a secret angle who battles both terrorists and the turmoil of his marriage to Jamie Lee Curtis. Andeteaming with Cameron saw the actor return to box office glory: “True Lies” grossed $378 million worldwide
But Schwarzenegger still takes the theatrical failure of “Last Action Hero” as a valuable life lesson. “It’s a play,” the actor said. “Life is a play. You have to be able to take the failures with the successes. And that’s just the way it is.”
“Arnold” is streaming on Netflix now.