Recently, Arnold Schwarzenegger revealed that he once hired an accent-removal coach to rid himself of his thick Austrian accent.
This is one of Arnold's most recognizable features, so that would've been a major mistake.
He revealed all about his coach on The Graham Norton Show, according to Variety.
Arnold Schwarzenegger talks about accent-removal coach
“I had an English coach and an acting coach and a speech coach and an accent-removal coach, who has passed away since then, but I should have otherwise gotten my money back,” the Terminator star said while reflecting on his early acting days. “The bottom line is, I worked on it. I remember he'd say, ‘You know you always say s-ree. It's three, with a T-H.' So he had me say, ‘Three thousand three hundred and thirty-three and one-thrid' with the T-H and not with the S.”
Norton congratulated Schwarzenegger on being able to pronounce “three” without his accent, and the bodybuilding champion said, “After 5000 years, right?”
Article Continues Below“The funny thing was all the stuff that they said, the Hollywood producers and the directors and all the geniuses were saying this was an obstacle for me to become a leading man, become an asset,” the actor said.
Meanwhile, the accent helped propel him to stardom as a leading man.
Arnold Schwarzenegger Hired an Accent Removal Coach After Directors Said It'd Ruin Leading Man Potential: 'I Should've Gotten My Money Back' https://t.co/2pCrPT45lu
— Variety (@Variety) October 31, 2023
“When I did Terminator, Jim Cameron said, ‘What made Terminator work and why it became successful is because Schwarzenegger talks like a machine,” Arnold recalled.
Luckily, Arnold Schwarzenegger stuck with the accent and never hired another coach to try to change it. It's one of his most defining characteristics that has made him a box office legend.