Arnold Schwarzenegger has addressed past groping allegations in an upcoming Netflix documentary series.
Five days prior to the California governor election in 2003, which Schwarzenegger went onto win, the actor and politician was accused of groping by six women across three decades in a report published on the Los Angeles Times.
At the time, Schwarzenegger dismissed the allegations before later admitting he had “behaved badly” on film sets. “It is true that I was on rowdy movie sets and I have done things that were not right which I thought then was playful,” the actor said (via the Guardian).
“But now I recognise that I offended people,” he added. “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.”
In the upcoming three-part documentary series Arnold, Schwarzenegger addresses the scandal and admits his actions were “wrong”.
“My reaction in the beginning, I was kind of… defensive,” Schwarzenegger said (via Rolling Stone). “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 of 40 years ago, or today, that this was wrong. It was bullshit. Forget all the excuses, it was wrong.”
The actor went onto win the election despite the allegations. In the documentary, Los Angeles Times reporter Carla Hall says: “Personally, I was surprised that it didn’t have more of an effect on the election. I thought that more people would be offended themselves.”
Arnold covers Schwarzenegger’s acting and political career, featuring interviews with friends and co-stars. The series is released June 7 on Netflix.
The documentary comes after Schwarzenegger’s new Netflix action series Fubar, which represents his first time leading a scripted live-action TV series. The show also stars Monica Barbaro, Gabriel Luna, Jay Baruchel and Fortune Feimster.
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