After 35 years of mangling the English language in his films, Hollywood superstar Arnold Schwarzenegger has claimed that he can speak perfect English after all.

And he says he only sticks with his barely penetrable Austrian intonations because it’s what his fans expect.

‘It’s now become such a big part of me, the accent, that people really enjoy it,’ explained the 67-year-old, whose latest movie Terminator Genisys opens in Britain on Thursday.

Perfect English: Arnold Schwarzenegger says he keeps his accent as fans expect it

He said that he could speak unaccented English ‘if I need to’ but added: ‘The very things that they said would make it impossible for me to be successful in acting were the things that became my assets,’ referring to his name, his voice and his physique.

‘It proves that perception has changed,’ he said. ‘In the 1970s, people were frightened of the German accent. People said it gave them goosebumps.

'Now I have the most imitated accent. It’s a trademark,’ he told The Wall Street Journal.

However, the accent has not always been welcomed in Hollywood.

In his 1969 movie debut Hercules In New York, it was so thick it was dubbed after filming. In his second movie The Long Goodbye, in 1973, he played a deaf mute.