Netflix
Arnold Schwarzenegger is addressing accusations of misconduct that have been hanging over him for 20 years.
Netflix's new docuseries "Arnold" chronicles the actor, bodybuilder, and politician's life, from his early life in Austria to his rise to superstardom thanks to his roles in "The Terminator," "Twins," and "True Lies."
It also delves into Schwarzenegger's personal life and sees him address the secret son he fathered with his housekeeper while married to Maria Shriver, as well as the claims that he groped and humiliated several women in separate incidents across three decades.
Days before he was elected governor of California in 2003, the Los Angeles Times published a report in which six women accused Schwarzenegger of touching them in a sexual manner without their consent.
In archival footage from his campaign trail interviews, the "Fubar" star is seen calling the report "made up" and declaring that he "never grabbed anyone or pulled up their shirt or grabbed their breasts."
However, while delivering a speech on stage, he also issued a mea culpa of sorts, admitting that he "had behaved badly sometimes" on "rowdy movie sets" and had "done things which were not right which I thought was playful."
"Those people that I have offended, I want to say to them I am deeply sorry about that and I apologise because that's not what I'm trying to do," he added at the time.
Netflix
Now, reflecting on the scandal two decades later, Schwarzenegger expanded his apology in a to-camera interview in the documentary, admitting that his past behavior was "wrong."
"My reaction in the beginning, I was kind of defensive," he said while reflecting on his previous statements.
"Today, I can look at it and kind of say, it doesn't really matter what time it is. If it's the Muscle Beach days or 40 years ago, or today, that this was wrong."
"It was bullshit," he added. "Forget all the excuses, it was wrong."
Carla Hall, one of the Los Angeles Times reporters who broke the story, was also interviewed for the docuseries and said that she was taken aback by the public reaction at the time.
Not only were some people angry at her and her colleagues for going after someone who many considered to be a well-liked public figure, but the story ultimately had little impact on the outcome of the governor race.
"Personally, I was surprised that it didn't have more of an effect on the election," Hall said. "I thought that more people would be offended themselves."
She also denied that the story was deliberately timed to come out five days before the election. Instead, she said that it ran October 2, 2003 "because that's how long it took."
"When Schwarzenegger announced he was running for governor, the staff of the LA Times immediately went into high gear to start looking into stories that we had heard for years, but no one had actually investigated them fully," she said. "We had barely six weeks to work on this, and we started talking to women."
"Arnold" begins streaming on Netflix on June 7.
