LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: Not many people have had a more diverse and unlikely career than Arnold Schwarzenegger.

He was born in a tiny village in Austria, became the world's most famous bodybuilder, then a Hollywood superstar, despite a thick accent, and then, to top it all off, he ended up governor of the richest state in America, California.

Now, more than 30 years after the release of the first extraordinarily successful Terminator film, Arnie is back in Terminator Genisys, the fifth instalment in the franchise.

Arnold Schwarzenegger and I caught up in Sydney earlier today.

How are you doing?

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, ACTOR: So far, so good. Thank you.

LEIGH SALES: That's good to hear. Thank you for making time to speak to us.

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER: That's OK.

LEIGH SALES: OK, are we right, everyone?

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER: I'm telling you, if you want to have good advice, never pay any attention to the camera guys because they will tell you over and over something is wrong and let's reshoot it, let's do this and let's do that. Hey, just do it.

LEIGH SALES: Are you listening to this, guys? OK, let's call it.

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER: Action.

LEIGH SALES: Action. Arnold Schwarzenegger, lovely to meet you.

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER: Thank you.

LEIGH SALES: Did returning to Terminator feel like slipping back into a comfortable pair of shoes?

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER: Well it was kind of like riding a bicycle, that you never really lose it, even though I have - the last one was done in 2002, came out 2003, so it's 12 years now and I'm back again.

LEIGH SALES: What's the experience like of making a film and then watching it back with the full array of special effects, especially a film like this that has very accomplished special effects?

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER: Well, I think that when you film, you really are not aware of any of that. It is sometimes challenging when you film and you only see a green background and then you have to kind of imagine that this is inside some huge factory or this is the future world and all of those things, so that will be then put in later on when you're not there. And what is really surprising is then when you watch it, because I was not there when a lot of this stuff was done visual effects-wise, and all of a sudden to see the size of the movie and to see it then with the music and to see it all when it's totally finished. Like, I've just watched it literally a few days ago before I went to Brazil and then came over here to Australia, I was blown away by it.

LEIGH SALES: Did you have any sense when you made the original Terminator that it was something special and it was going to become such an iconic film?

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER: No, as a matter of fact I was concerned when we did the first Terminator, there was another movie that came out just beforehand, it was called The Exterminator. And it was one of those B-movies. But then when the movie came out, we were all so surprised that this action movie all of a sudden was one of the top 10 movies for Time magazine and that it got so much - so many great reviews and all this and it made more money than we expected it to make, because it was really only a small $6.5 million production and then it made all this money.

LEIGH SALES: Could you ever have imagined, you know, from our childhood in Austria, then your bodybuilding career, your film career at the highest levels, your political career at the highest levels, could you ever have imagined in your wildest dreams that you would have such a diverse and interesting career?

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER: No, but, I mean, I tell you that I never thought that I will be able to do all of those things to the extent that I did it. I would say that I always was very motivated, I always had big visions. I'm very serious about my visions. I see them very clearly. Unlike most people, I really see them clearly and therefore I see that you can go after them if you work hard and if you know how to get there. That's number two. And number three, I think it is because America. America is - it's always known to be the land of opportunity, but I have experienced it first-hand. It's not just a slogan or a saying. It is really the land of opportunity because only in America you can do something like that.

LEIGH SALES: The increasingly partisan nature of politics in Washington has caused lots of commentators to wonder: is politics broken? Is the two-party system broken? What do you think about that?

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER: I think that we have gone through those periods in the past in America and worldwide where people are very intense and they argue about their beliefs and sometimes there is a time where people forget, where politicians forget that their ultimate responsibility is to be a public servant and not a party servant. And the worst thing that can happen is if they think they have to serve their party and the special interests rather than the people.

LEIGH SALES: Speaking of politics, the Australian Finance Minister is a guy named Mathias Cormann and he has a Belgian accent and some people think that he sounds a bit like you and he has been shamelessly ripping off some of your best lines. Let me show you.

MATHIAS CORMANN, FINANCE MINISTER: Bill Shorten is an economic girly-man. ... I'll be back with the Treasurer at 2 pm.

LEIGH SALES: How do you rate this guy?

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER: Well, it's obvious, I think, a compliment when someone uses your lines and when someone is imitating your accent. It has been not only here in Australia, but I mean, you can imagine in America, if it is amongst the comedians, if it is amongst the politicians.

LEIGH SALES: Have you got some other classic Schwarzenegger lines you can bequeath to him to use?

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER: I have too many other things to do to worry about to feed him lines. They used to say to me, "Your accent is gonna bury you. I mean, you're never gonna get in the movie business, you're never gonna go and be a leading man because you have this accent, and in America, people want to have actors sound like John Wayne or like Clint Eastwood, but not like some Nazi officer from Germany or something like that." And, you know, after I have proven that with hard work and with a positive attitude and having faith in yourself, you don't listen to the naysayers and you go and break through that and now it has become the biggest asset.

LEIGH SALES: You've had a lot of fun too, haven't you, with your career and getting to do some comedy and whatnot and, you know, not sorta take yourself too seriously?

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER: I never took myself too seriously. What I did take seriously and very serious was the issues that I tackle. That if you talk about promotion of health and fitness and you become the chairman of the President's Council on Fitness and you go through all 50 states and you go into the schools and you promote the idea of hiring more physical education teachers. Or if you go out and try to get an extra $500 million for after-school programs. Or if you go out and try to convince the people to get off fossil fuels and to go into more with renewable energy, since we have an abundant amount of that. So those issues I take very seriously. And - but I don't take myself that seriously because I'm - to me, life is all about, you know, hard work and my father always said to me, "Be useful". To be useful, it's very important, to do something that is bigger than you are, causes that are bigger than you are, but have a good time at the same time. Smile, have a good time, have a positive attitude and see always everything the half - the glass is half-full rather than half-empty.

LEIGH SALES: Well it's been very nice to meet you. Thank you so much for your time today.

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER: Absolutely. Thank you.