MOVIE NEWS – Arnold Schwarzenegger has revealed the worrying filming conditions he faced on the set of Conan the Barbarian, one of the actor’s breakout roles.

Arnold Schwarzenegger has revealed the perilous filming conditions behind the scenes of Conan the Barbarian. The 1982 film is considered one of the actor’s breakthrough action roles. It was ahead of Schwarzenegger’s other ’80s standout, The Terminator. A sequel followed the fantasy action in 1984, and there are rumours that a Conan the Barbarian 3 could be in the works with Schwarzenegger in the lead role.

Reflecting on the Conan the Barbarian movie, Schwarzenegger revealed the gruelling conditions under which he worked on the set. In his new self-help book, Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life, Schwarzenegger claims he had to do some nasty stunt work, including biting “a real, dead vulture that required [he] wash [his] mouth out with alcohol after each take.”

Highlighting the dangerous nature of situations that saw Schwarzenegger bouldering and outrunning dogs, the actor got wounded early on during the shoot, such that he “tore a gash on [his] back that required forty stitches.”

“I learned to ride horses and camels and elephants. I learned how to jump from large rocks, how to climb and swing from long ropes, how to fall from a height. I basically went to another vocational school, this one for aspiring action heroes. Then on top of that, Milius [Conan’s director] had me doing all kinds of terrible sh*t. I crawled through rocks, take after take, until my forearms bled. I ran from wild dogs that managed to catch me and pull me into a thorn bush. I bit a real, dead vulture that required I wash my mouth out with alcohol after each take. (PETA would have a field day with that one). On one of the first days of filming, I tore a gash on my back that required forty stitches.”

The filming conditions for Conan the Barbarian in 2023 would be a real problem

While the content of Conan the Barbarian is appropriate for such stunt work, the tasks Schwarzenegger had to perform were far beyond what would be acceptable today. Forty-one years later, it is difficult to imagine any actor having to bite an animal as scavenging as a vulture, which can carry a pile of diseases.

Based on the rest of the filming description, the ‘horses, camels and elephants’ Schwarzenegger rode may also have received questionable treatment.

This is not to say that there are not cases nowadays where actors are asked to do similarly intense tasks. Leonardo DiCaprio famously ate raw buffalo liver on the set of The Revenant. Although this may not sound as grotesque as eating a vulture, DiCaprio’s effort is still a gross human-animal interaction in a recent film.

In his letter, Schwarzenegger mentions PETA, which stands for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. PETA as an organization often criticizes the treatment of animals on the movie screen, including recently with Gladiator 2 and Jackass Forever.PETA would undoubtedly have been “outraged” if they had known about the filming conditions of Conan the Barbarian, and based on Schwarzenegger’s description of the filming, perhaps it is for the best.

Source: Insider