Clone Takes Over Swarzenegger's Life
In the new sci-fi film The Sixth Day, Arnold Schwarzenegger's character is faced with a futuristic cloning scandal when an exact replica of him takes over his life.
CBS News National Correspondent Hattie Kauffman recently spoke with Schwarzenegger about the movie and about his life on both sides of the big screen.
In The Sixth Day, Arnold's character is seeing double: someone has stolen his DNA and his memories. Now his clone is "home alone" with his wife and daughter.
"When we looked at the script, we right away saw it as a perfect movie about a subject that is a very serious subject -- that everybody talks about now -- which is cloning," said Schwarzenegger.
The movie explores what would happen if the technology fell into the wrong hands.
"At the same time we saw it as a family entertainment," he said. "And since I'm a family man and have four children, I always complain about that, that there's not enough entertainment for kids. And this is the kind of movie that is filmed in such a way that it is for the entire family."
When Kauffman asked Schwarzenegger if he was concerned about family entertainment because he is getting older, he was quick to downplay his age.
"I mean, who wants to talk about old?" he asked. "Of course, we all get more mature, we all start thinking about family, we all start thinking about our children. But at the same time, you don't want to alienate...the action fans that are out there, that want to see some action. And I think that's what's great about The Sixth Day."
Schwarzenegger is ever the diplomat, trying to satisfy all of his movie-going constituencies. Is he considering using those diplomatic skills in the political arena?
"It could easily be that I will be running for office someday," said Schwarzenegger. "But it's not, like, a definite, because it could easily be that I would just decide to be full-time involved in some charity. And if you think about my mother-in-law [Eunice Kennedy Shriver], she has never run for office...She has created Special Olympics and did this wonderful job by creating an organization that is now in 964 nations."
Eunice Shriver is fighting a postoperative infection after surgery to remove a pancreatic tumor last month.
"My mother-in-law is progressing with very small steps," Schwarzenegger said. "So it will be a long process if she makes it. And, of course, we're all very positive and we feel like she will make it. And we all are hoping and praying for her."
Family is obviously very important to Schwarzenegger, especially the moments at home with his kids.
"Last night, I was sitting at home...and my girls had over some girlfriends of theirs. They were 11 and 9 years old. And I was sitting in the bedroom, and they all were combing my hair for two hours, different styles," he said. "The hair spray, the fingernail polish came out, you kno, the toenails were polished, so you know, they were massaging me, all the girls. And then fixing my hair for the day's interviews. They said, 'You're in front of the camera tomorrow, daddy. Let me fix your hair.' So they all had their own ideas of what my hair should look like."
His wife, Maria Shriver, has claimed "he's perfect at home all the time. Best husband, best dad." It wasn't clear whether she was joking or not when she described Schwarzenegger as "perfect."
Schwarzenegger has been in about 39 movies. Some of the more memorable ones are:
Schwarzenegger, who was born in Austria in 1947, showed extraordinary entrepreneurial skills from an early age. It's common knowledge that he started out as a bodybuilder, but it's less known that when his success brought him to America, he went to college to study business and economics at the University of Wisconsin. By cleverly investing his bodybuilding contest earnings, he was a millionaire by the time he was 22.
His first acting job was in a low-budget parady, Hercules In New York. But his career took off when he appeared in the documentary Pumping Iron.
Schwarzenegger, who is a Republican even though he's married to President Kennedy's niece Maria Shriver, was appointed chairman of the President's Council of Physical Fitness and Sports in 1990.
To read more about Schwarzenegger, go to
Hollywood.com