STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Arnold Schwarzenegger told a full house at the Sun Valley Film Festival that three words he uttered during the movie Terminator” sounded so weird to him as a German that he asked director James Cameraon, “Why can’t I say it like, ‘I will be back?’ ”

Cameron retorted, “Are you the scriptwriter, or am I the scriptwriter?”

When Schwarzenegger backed down, “You’re the scriptwriter,” Cameron replied, “Then say the f-ing line the way it was written!”

Arnold Schwarnegger told moderator George Prentice that the studio listed “The Terminator” as a B movie because directors couldn’t see the intelligence behind it. But it got great reviews, becoming one of the top 10 movies of the year while making $6 million.

“I’ll be back,” became one of the best-known, oft-repeated lines in Hollywood, leading to the four-word phrase, “Hasta la vista, baby,” in “Terminator 2” and cementing an iconic place for Schwarzenegger in moviedom history.

“I think James Cameron always liked the idea that my accent removal coach failed,” Schwarzenegger said.

Schwarzenegger, who has long had a home in Sun Valley, recounted this and all the other major acts of his life during a free Cocktail Talk at the 2025 Sun Valley Film Festival held earlier this month.

He told George Prentice, the host of Boise State Public Radio’s Morning Edition, how he kicked off a long and varied life in the spotlight as a 14-year-old when he saw Soviet world-champion weightlifter Yury Petrovich Vlasov break a world record in 1961.

Arnold Schwarzenegger received the Sun Valley Film Festival’s 2025 Vision Award given to a filmmaker or actor who has the vision to achieve much in the film industry.

“I got so excited that a human being can be that strong and look that powerful and be that disciplined,” he said.

Schwarzenegger read a magazine about Vlasov from cover to cover. He began doing a hundred sit-ups during every lunch break. And he plastered his bedroom walls with posters of Vlasov, Muhammad Ali and others, which prompted his mother to point out that all his friends had posters of women on their walls.

His focus led him to win Mr. Olympia an impressive seven times. And the “Pumping Iron” documentary he appeared in opened the door to a career in Hollywood.

“I was known for having a clear vision. I visualized my face on (Vlasov’s) body. I started training and training and chasing this goal and at the age of 20 I became the youngest Mr. Universe ever,” he said. “I had such joy going to the gym every day because I was chasing something, and every step I took took me one step closer to my goal.

Sun Valley Film Festival Co-Directors Teddy Grennan and Candice Pate hand out awards to the Schwarzeneggers.

“I had learned how much joy it is to chase something,” he added.

Schwarzenegger said his entrance into politics was initiated when he traveled to all 50 states to promote health and fitness at the request of President George Bush, whom he met during the Reagan administration.

“He was wonderful, treated me like his own son,” he said. “George W. was pissed at me because his father invited me to Camp David more than him.”

When Schwarzenegger ran for governor of California, some people criticized him for knowing a lot about acing and bodybuilding but nothing about policy.

Patrick Schwarzenegger recounted how he called his father when he found out he’d been awarded the Rising Star Award by the Sun Valley Film Festival. “Well, I just got the Vision Award,” his father told him.

“I had a very clear vision of what needed to be done. I went to my first debate thinking I am going to be sitting at a table of losers,” he said. “And people said, ‘This guy is a Republican, but his heart is in the right place, and you can trust him.’ ”

The biggest mistake in politics today is that Democrats are dug in against Republicans and Republicans are dug in against Democrats, he said.

“I went to the Capitol, and I told the Democrats, ‘I respect you just as I respect the Republicans. Let’s do this together.”

Schwarzenegger said his former wife Maria Shriver was not sure he could sit in an office for hours and hours every day, even though he was, in her words, “a political animal.”

“I found out I loved that,” he said. “I was accomplishing things, solving problems. I didn’t want to be a political hack. I wanted to be a servant to the people of California. You can pass groundbreaking legislation, but your heart sinks when someone tells you about the house they lost.”

Partway through the talk Schwarzenegger motioned for his son Patrick Schwarzenegger, who had been sitting on the front row with five other members of the Schwarzenegger family, to join him.

Patrick, who starred in the third season of the hit TV series “White Lotus,” had been given the Sun Valley Film Festival’s 2025 Rising Star Award, while his father had received the Festival’s Vision Award.

“I’m so proud of him because he’s so talented,” the elder Schwarzenegger said.

Patrick recounted how he spent his summers in Sun Valley as a youth. He learned to ski here, brought friends here and biked into town to get pancakes at The Kneadery, always dreading the bike ride “up the big hill” as he rode home afterwards.

“Sun Valley was home away from home for me,” he said.

Patrick said that he had learned much, including determination, from his father. But, he added, there are differences within their careers.

“(The film industry has) changed so much since he was my age, which was a long time ago. I don’t do action films. I try to do projects I’m more interested in, like dramatic roles.”

The younger Schwarzenegger described the peaks and valleys of film work, in which he could be booked for six months then had nothing for six months. Before “White Lotus,” he might attend a hundred auditions without getting anything

“I’m reading hundreds of scripts a week. For me, I want to build my credentials, continuously finding a way to show audiences different characters.”

Patrick described how his father would take him to Universal Studios in his Hummer. Patrick would do homework in his father’s trailer, then go on set to watch his father at work.

“It was such a fascinating experience,” he said. “Even today when I go on set for me it’s my happy place to see everything happening behind the scenes.”

The Sun Valley Film Festival appeared in December this year as it gave Festival directors an opportunity to show better films and be part of the conversation leading up to the Oscars.  Ketchum and Sun Valley businesses seemed pleased as it brought business during a traditionally slow time leading up to the holidays.

Look for it to be back, as Arnold Schwarzenneger would say, in early December 2026.