It is massive – 334 pages plus a 556-page companion volume – and features portraits by Richard Avedon, Annie Leibovitz, Robert Mapplethorpe, Herb Ritts and Andy Warhol, among others, alongside interviews and essays (1,947 signed copies, from £1,250 850 sit on a Capitello book stand, £2,500 and 100 include a ChromaLuxe print signed by Leibovitz, at £12,500). I have been invited here to talk about Arnold, a giant, limited-edition, pictorial retrospective of his career that took a decade for its publisher, Taschen, to curate. Arnold Schwarzenegger at his Los Angeles home © Tracy Nguyen And so is that jawline, though his skin bears evidence of years of flexing under the California sun. Those famous biceps are still large and well-defined – especially for a man who recently turned 76. He is wearing shorts, tall dark socks and a grey T-shirt. Schwarzenegger gives a little shrug and invites me to sit with him on the patio. “Of course,” I reply, feeling about 65 per cent sure that he is joking. “Are you schnooping?” announces an unmistakable booming voice, as Schwarzenegger steps outside his house. On a huge coffee table near an outdoor fireplace is a magazine featuring Schwarzenegger on the cover, alongside a well-thumbed script with handwritten notes, a wooden box of Cuban cigars and the guillotine he uses to trim them. Nearby is a bust of Abraham Lincoln, one of three statues of the great American president I have noticed since arriving. My eyes fix – how could they not? – on the bronze sculpture of Schwarzenegger, frozen in one of his signature poses, that towers over his pool. It feels like a tacit invitation to explore the grounds of Schwarzenegger’s mansion in the city’s exclusive Brentwood neighbourhood. It’s close to 10am in LA and Arnold Schwarzenegger is eating a post-workout breakfast of oatmeal and hardboiled eggs in his house, leaving me alone on the covered outdoor patio where we are due to have our interview. Simply sign up to the Film myFT Digest - delivered directly to your inbox.
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