Patrick Schwarzenegger on pumping iron with dad Arnold: ‘He’s not competitive – he doesn’t have to be’

Actor Patrick Schwarzenegger, 27, opens up on his new film Moxie, moving in with mum Maria Shriver during lockdown and what dad Arnold Schwarzenegger taught him about being a man.

The heroes of your new high-school comedy, Moxie, are all feminists and you’re the single male ‘asshole’…

No one likes me in this film! I am the asshole, the issue, the problem, the villain no one is rooting for — nor should they! I represent the old norm of this broken culture. But at the same time I am the reason this whole [anti-sexist] ‘Moxie’ movement comes about. It was challenging but at the end of the day I got to work with [director/writer] Amy Poehler and that was amazing.

As a boy, what did your dad teach you about how to be a man?

I think the idea of what a man is has totally shifted in the past few years but also in the last 10, 50, 100 years. The way my dad grew up in the environment of Austria and Germany right after World War II, there were a lot of broken men. So as to the ideal of what a man was, there wasn’t really much there.

I think that kind of threw him, coming to America. And then marrying my mum and having our family, he’s continuing to find what it really means to be a man. That could be how you are treating your significant other or how you are describing your feelings.

It could be how much you are working out in the gym — that is probably what it used to be, this ideal of an alpha male. But it continues to change and to grow.

You play the captain of the football team in Moxie. Given your dad was Mr Universe, were you the ultimate school jock?

I grew up playing basketball, tennis, swimming, football — not baseball because I sucked at baseball, sucked at soccer. But then I pretty much stopped everything in sophomore year.

I started taking classes at Santa Monica City College in their business department when I was in 10th grade and I had my own business that was up and running when I was 15.

What was the business?

A clothing line called Project 360. We started with bracelets and I put a bunch of empowering words onto them like ‘Love’, ‘Peace’ and ‘Empower’. I raised $20 to $30,000 dollars and donated it to a battered women’s shelter in Long Beach.

How’s it been living back with your mum, journalist Maria Shriver, under lockdown?

I moved back during the beginning of quarantine because we didn’t know how long it was going to last. One of the things we recognised was how many people were at home and struggling in terms of not being social or having certain anxieties. So me and my mum started these ‘home together’ online videos where we talk to individuals who specialise in mindset or routines or anything from cooking and home loans to small business mentoring.

According to Instagram, you’re obsessed by ice cream. Fave flavour?

Banana Cream Pie. I love anything with banana or peanut butter. I love weird flavours too. I just tried Jeni’s Everything Bagel and it was surprisingly delicious.

You don’t look like a man who eats a lot of ice cream…

I do. I eat a lot! But I work out a lot too.

I had shoulder surgery two or three weeks before the lockdown. I tore a ligament in my right shoulder really badly so I couldn’t move and I had to sit and do absolutely nothing for a while. It was terrible. It really messed with me mentally and physically because I am a really big routine person. I start my day with a workout and am always outdoors.

But I am almost back to normal now so I work out pretty much every day. I find that it teaches you a lot about yourself and it helps with a lot of determination and goal setting. It really allows you to see the work that you put in and you reap the rewards, whether that is actually in the gym or what it teaches you outside the gym.

When you pump iron, does your dad get competitive?

He’s not competitive. He doesn’t have to be. He is 73 and can still lift more than I can. But he doesn’t mess around when we’re in the gym. He’s all go.

There are no phones, nothing. The gym, for him, is like therapy. It is like his holy place.

Do you still host a book club?

I need to start that back up. I am reading a great book called Atomic Habits. It says people try to focus on large, unattainable goals but should focus on habit-building. So rather than saying you want to read 50 books this year, create a habit of placing a book on your pillow so when you go to bed you read it.

Is acting a sideline?

People always ask me that. To them it doesn’t really make sense that I am doing business and film and have my investment company and the fund and all these things.

I love film as a way to put myself in other people’s shoes and grow my platform to gain recognition. I’ve clearly had a lot of help along the journey of my life from my parents and others around me and I hope to find ways to give back to others as well.

Moxie is out on Netflix