Arnie approves statue of himself

A 9ft (3m) tall statue depicting Arnold Schwarzenegger at the height of his bodybuilding career has received a final critique by the former Mr Universe before being sent for bronzing.

The former California governor, who recently announced his return to acting, visited northern Idaho to suggest a few modifications to the clay sculpture.

It is destined to stand in a rippling, full-flex pose outside his childhood home, which is now a museum in Thal, Austria.

Schwarzenegger first commissioned Lewiston artist Ralph Crawford in the 1970s to create a small bronze which became a trophy for a fitness event. Other commissions followed, including the most recent.

“(Crawford) has been known in the physique world as a Rodin,” said Schwarzenegger, referring to famed French sculptor Auguste Rodin. “Everything is very dramatic.”

Schwarzenegger noted Crawford’s passion and his ability to sculpt accurate proportions when it comes to veins, muscle separation and head position.

He also said he appreciates Crawford’s method, taking months to create a sculpture.

“It’s the old-fashioned way you work,” he told the Lewiston Tribune. “Work like hell. That’s part of the charm. There’s not a magic studio.”

He said he chose a bodybuilding pose because that is what launched his career in the United States.

“It was the bodybuilding that got me to America, that got me into movies, that got me the governorship,” he said. “That’s where I learned about reaching out and helping other people.”

Schwarzenegger was born in 1947 in the village of Thal, just outside Graz, where he began his bodybuilding career. He emigrated to the United States in 1968 and became a naturalised US citizen in 1984 but has retained his Austrian citizenship.

He said his childhood home where the statue will stand is a two-storey building which has been restored to what it was like when he was a boy. That means it has no running water, electric wiring runs on the outside of walls, and an outhouse and primitive gym are outside.

Crawford, 77, said he has already started work on a new sculpture of Schwarzenegger, depicting him during his time as governor.

While visiting Crawford, Schwarzenegger toured the artist’s home, admiring other bronzes Crawford had created of American Indians and signing autographs for Crawford’s children and grandchildren.