Bodybuilder, movie star, politician: Arnold Schwarzenegger has played many roles. Now 76, the five-time Terminator becomes a first-time Tony Robbins with the publication of his self-help book, “Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life.”
This “fourth act,” he says, is a byproduct of the “failure and redemption and reinvention” that followed the end of his California governorship and the breakdown of his marriage to Maria Shriver. Yes, like a moribund franchise, the Austrian Oak has been rebooted — this time as an elder statesman ready to dispense hard-won wisdom as abundantly as he once doled out movie death. (For the record: “By the end of 1987,” he writes proudly, “I’d killed 283 people.”)
You’re probably already somewhat familiar with fourth-act Schwarzenegger, the cuddly sensei. On pandemic-era TikTok, you’d find him puttering around with his miniature horse and donkey, Whiskey and Lulu; on YouTube, you could catch snippets of him sternly comparing Jan. 6 to Kristallnacht. More recently, you might have slogged through the three-hour Netflix documentary “Arnold” or signed up for emails from Arnold’s Pump Club. Arnie is in full legacy mode and, to paraphrase a line from “The Terminator,” he absolutely will not stop — ever — until you are sold.
For the review in full, visit The Los Angeles Times.