Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, in an interview on “60 Minutes” Sunday night, lifted the veil on some tricks of the trade in both his cinematic and political careers.

With reporter Scott Pelley lifting weights as they spoke, Schwarzenegger hinted that when he played a muscle man in the movies, he just pretended to lift 300 pounds.

“I mean, when you do it for the cameras you only do 50, so you take it easy,” he said. “You don’t kill yourself.”

He described a scene in the movie “Stay Hungry” with actress Sally Field in which he had to lift 225 pounds over and over. “I learned very quickly: Put on wooden plates,” Schwarzenegger said.


“You’re not telling me that’s what you did in the movies,” Pelley said.

The governor responded, laughing: " . . . No, no, not me.”

His governing style apparently involves some acting as well. “People think show business was in Hollywood, but I think [Ronald] Reagan was absolutely right,” Schwarzenegger said. “If he wouldn’t have the training in acting, this would have been a very difficult job.”

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michael.rothfeld@latimes.com