Arnold Schwarzenegger praises son Patrick Schwarzenegger's 'White Lotus' performance
Arnold Schwarzenegger is proud of his son, Patrick Schwarzenegger, following his performance in "The White Lotus."
The father-son duo, who were featured in Variety's "Actors on Actors" issue, talked about acting and more, including Patrick Schwarzenegger's most recent role in season 3 of "The White Lotus."
"Everyone is coming up to me in the gym and saying, 'Your son is fantastic,'" Arnold Schwarzenegger said. "Someone else comes up to me and says, 'I hated your son in the series.'"
"The Terminator" continued, saying, "Hated him? What kind of compliment is that? They said, 'He was fantastic, but the character he played was so believable.'"
Patrick Schwarzenegger replied and said, following "The White Lotus," his biggest learning experience was "how much people associate you with your character."
"The first weeks, people came up to me and told me how much they hated me," he said. "By the end of it, they came up to me saying how much they felt bad for me. It was a roller coaster."
Arnold Schwarzenegger went on to tell his son that he was "blown away" by his performance in the hit HBO Max show.
"Your acting surprised the hell out of me," he told his son. "I didn't recognize you."
Patrick Schwarzenegger replied and spoke about how it's been "surreal" for him.
The duo drew a parallel between their acting journeys and realized they both had done nude scenes. Arnold Schwarzenegger recalled doing the opening scene in "The Terminator" naked, and his son mentioned a scene from "The White Lotus" too.
"It was a shock to me that you were following my footsteps so closely," Arnold Schwarzenegger joked.
Before "The White Lotus," Patrick Schwarzenegger told his dad about what it meant to him to carry the famous Schwarzenegger name. He previously opened up to a magazine about how the name could be an "obstacle."
He told his dad, "I feel it in multiple ways. Mike White said that it comes with baggage, the idea that when you have successful parents like I do with you and Mom, there’s an added level of what other people think. Mike was worried about, if he cast me, what other people would think. Which they did -- they did care about that; people said I got the role because of you and Mom."
"There were times earlier in my career where I was wondering, does it make sense to go under an alias?" he added. "It took a while for me to get to a point where I was less worried about living in your shadow versus wanting to do it the way I thought I should do it. "
Arnold Schwarzenegger replied and said, "I'm glad you kept the name, because now I can take credit. My son -- the apple doesn't fall far from the tree."
"The Expendables" star added, "I'm very, very proud of you."
See their full conversation here.
