Arnold Schwarzenegger flexes acting chops in zombie movie

Maggie sees Schwarzenegger play a dad whose daughter has got weeks to live, writes Jeananne Craig

FROM his Californian tan and expensively tailored suit, to that hulking frame and the gaggle of fans waiting outside his hotel, there’s no denying Arnold Schwarzenegger’s A-list credentials.

And whether he’s cycling through London — helmetless — or posting gym videos to his millions of social media followers, the five-time Mr Universe winner seems happy with his status as an eternal action hero.

All of which makes Maggie, Arnie’s new low-budget indie film, about a small town farmer trying to protect his terminally ill daughter, sure to raise a few eyebrows.

The blockbuster veteran plays pick-up truck-driving Wade Vogel, whose teenage daughter Maggie (played by My Sister’s Keeper star Abigail Breslin) has just weeks to live after being infected by a zombie virus in an America that’s been riddled with the disease.

After an acting career mainly playing the ‘ubermensch’ in films such as Terminator and Total Recall, the former governor of California couldn’t wait to get his hands on the script.

“When I read it, I knew I had to do it. It is more vulnerable than any role I have played, more real, more emotional,” the 67-year-old explains.

“This is something very new for me, and for the zombie genre. It was so different, I didn’t just want to star, I wanted to produce, which I normally never do.”

In the film, penned by first-time screenwriter John Scott 3, we see Wade searching for and tracking down Maggie, who is being held in a city hospital.

“We’ve seen the zombie hordes and machine guns in other movies — it all seems like an unbelievable future. Maggie makes the disease real by shrinking the world of the movie to focus on just one family, in the middle of nowhere, on their wasted farm,” Schwarzenegger explains.

Being a dad helped the star, who has four children with ex-wife Maria Shriver and a son with former housekeeper Mildred Baena, get to grips with the gritty role.

“When you have kids, inevitably you can relate to being a father figure, or being a protector of someone, much better,” he says, his Austrian accent still strong after almost half a century in the US.

The former bodybuilding champ isn’t giving up on action movies just yet though; in fact, he can currently be seen in the latest Terminator instalment, Genisys, playing the robot protector of Sarah Connor (this time played by Game Of Thrones actress Emilia Clarke) and dusting off that famous “I’ll be back” line.

With all the confidence you’d expect from the man dubbed ‘The Governator’ during his political career (he was elected governor of California in 2003 and held the position for two terms), he insists the stunt-filled role didn’t take its toll, 31 years after the original Terminator film.

“I really never feel that way, because I’m always staying in good shape,” he says.

In Terminator Genisys, we see Schwarzenegger’s character fighting a younger version of himself, thanks to impressive special effects.

So if he had the chance to turn back time and give youthful Arnie some advice, what would it be?

“I would go through movies I’ve done that I thought I made the wrong decision on. If I made the wrong decisions politically, I’d correct them; if I made the wrong decisions in my personal life, I’d correct them,” muses the star, who separated from wife Shriver in 2011, after it emerged he’d fathered a son with Baena.

“But it’s always easy to be smart in hindsight? I don’t ever think about that, because there are too many things to concentrate on that are real in life, rather than hypothetical.”

Overall though, he’s “proud of all those things I’ve accomplished” in acting, politics and sport, and credits his parents, Gustav and Aurelia, with helping him become a success after humble beginnings in the Austrian village of Thal.

“I was very fortunate that I’ve had a lot of help, because you wouldn’t have been able to do all this yourself,” he adds.

“If I hadn’t had parents that gave me the discipline, I never would have had the discipline to stay with any of those things. I was very fortunate to have the help and the guidance.”

Maggie is in cinemas on Friday, July 24