Arnold Schwarzenegger “couldn’t believe” his eyes when he saw his son’s nude scene in The White Lotus, he said during the pair’s Variety’s “Actors on Actors” interview released on Tuesday.
“I said to myself, ‘I’m watching your show, and I’m watching your butt sticking out there,’” Schwarzenegger told his son Patrick Schwarzenegger, one of Lotus’ third-season breakout stars. “And all of a sudden, I see the weenie,” he went on, recalling he thought, “What is going on here? This is crazy.”
The younger Schwarzenegger let it all hang out in the premiere episode of Season 3, in which he played toxic alpha male Saxon Ratliff. His dad said he “didn’t recognize” his son in the role and was “shocked” to see his “weenie.”
“Then I said to myself, ‘Well, Arnold, hello. You did the same thing in Conan and Terminator, so don’t complain about it,’” the former California governor told his son during the interview.
The actor had indeed been semi-nude in various scenes of 1982’s Conan the Barbarian before baring it all in Terminator in 1984—though he emphasized it was “only the opening scene.” Yet still, he added, “It was a shock to me that you were following my footsteps so closely.” He’s also glad his son kept his last name, he joked, “because now I can take credit.”
Nepotism has been a topic of conversation for Patrick Schwarzenegger since his breakout role emerged. In February, he defended himself from naysayers who believed he was handed his Lotus role because of “who his dad is,” when he told The Sunday Times that he works on his characters “for hours” and took “10 years of acting classes.”
Even Lotus producer David Bernad told The Hollywood Reporter, “Patrick Schwarzenegger’s last name worked against him, by the way. We didn’t want to cast him because of that.”
“If you show you have the substance, you can get rid of the whole idea of nepotism,” the Terminator star told his son Tuesday. “You have never asked me to call a studio or to call an agent. You never asked me for advice when it comes to acting itself. You’re a rare breed, and I’m very, very proud of you.”
