Arnold Schwarzenegger Talks Politics, Climate Change And His ‘Terminator’ Role

Arnold Schwarzenegger is opening up to Cigar Aficionado in a wide-ranging interview tackling everything from politics and climate change to his work as an actor.

“I think that in each of the ‘Terminators’, I play a little different role. The missions are different, how much I was with human beings changes my behaviour,” he says of the iconic franchise and the role he reprises in “Terminator: Dark Fate”, in theatres now. The 72-year-old star says people still identify with the character he first played in the 1984 original film.

“People like to be that character. They are so angry with what’s going on in their lives, and in the world. They want to fight back but they have no power,” he adds.

Of course, politics are never far from the mind of the former Governor of California, who says climate change should be at the top of the priority list for the U.S. government.

“There should be not one warehouse in the United States that’s not covered with solar panels. Give subsidies for it. We in California do that,” he says. “America can be a good example of how you can go and lead on the environment — just like Kennedy led with space exploration. We can show the world that you can have a successful economy, the No. 1 economy, and be No. 1 in the environment.”

Despite being an avid cigar smoker, Schwarzenegger isn’t about to push his habits onto others, explaining that he “signed a lot of anti-smoking bills” as governor.

“I always felt that no one else should suffer because of my smoke…I wasn’t trying to protect me or cigar smokers, I was trying to protect everybody,” he adds. “Let’s love cigar smokers, but let’s also love nonsmokers. Let’s figure out how to coexist. And how do you coexist? You meet in the middle.”

One place where he is having a hard time finding the middle is in politics. As a Republican, Schwarzenegger says he’s tired of the “bulls***” on both sides of the political spectrum, especially when it comes to cable news.

“If you want to really capture the feeling of what’s going on, I think it’s better to just flip channels every so often,” he says. “I cannot take all the left-wing bulls***, and when I switch over, I can’t take the right-wing bulls*** either.”

The December issue of Cigar Aficionado with Schwarzenegger on the cover is on newsstands Nov. 5.