Arnold Schwarzenegger started his transition from bodybuilder to actor quite early. In his debut movie, ‘Hercules in New York’ (1970), he played the title role. But what really drew the public’s attention was when he starred in the documentary, ‘Pumping Iron’.

The documentary provided a glimpse into the small but highly competitive world of bodybuilding and essentially became a precursor to the sport’s rise in popularity.

What went on behind the scenes?

While ‘Pumping Iron’ is termed as a documentary following the 1975 IFBB Mr. Universe and 1975 Mr. Olympia competitions, it isn’t entirely accurate in its portrayal. The center of focus is the competition between Arnold Schwarzenegger and one of his primary competitors for the title of Mr. Olympia, Lou Ferrigno.

For the film’s 25th anniversary, they made a follow-up film, ‘Raw Iron’, also known as the ‘Making of Pumping Iron’, where they debunked the dramatized events of the documentary. Here, Schwarzenegger shared how he had to alter his on-screen personality to fit the role of the ‘bad guy’.

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“I said to myself, ‘How can I sell the idea that I am a machine that has no emotions? That doesn’t care about any of my competitors, not even my best friend that was living with me at the time?'” he said. 

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The reality, however, couldn’t be farther from the truth. Schwarzenegger explained he had nothing but love for his friend Franco Columbu. Schwarzenegger would often help him out as much as he could, even if it meant losing the competition himself.

How Arnold Schwarzenegger became the bad guy

In the film, Arnold Schwarzenegger reveals that the original idea was for Lou Ferrigno to play the ‘villain’. The intention was for Ferrigno to seem like the big 280 lbs guy, who trains in a dark room in New York and beats Schwarzenegger.

But Ferrigno was a vulnerable guy who didn’t have that commanding presence, and eventually, the roles were reversed. “Slowly we changed the whole thing and actually made him the victim,” he added. “And made me the guy that pulls the tricks on him and it wipes out the competition year after year. The more I got into that, the more I started playing that machine.”

He explains how they created scenes where Schwarzenegger would deliberately psych Ferrigno out before the competition. But, Schwarzenegger claims, there was no reason in reality for him to do that. The seven-time Mr. Olympia title holder already knew that he would win.

To dramatize the film and make it more engaging, many liberties were taken with the script. But even if ‘Pumping Iron’ didn’t quite capture the reality, its success was crucial to popularizing bodybuilding as a sport in America.

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