Arnold Schwarzenegger is dyslexic: he was beaten for it when he was at school

Arnold Schwarzenegger (76) spoke at length about his reading and writing difficulties. The Austrian-born Hollywood legend suffers from dyslexia and was even physically punished at school because of it. “I could tell you that I’m fantastic in everything, but that would be a lie,” the “Terminator” starts his long post. He has just finished recording his audio book “Be useful”, which will be released on October 10th.

“I could tell you how great it was to sit down and record my own words, but the truth is I was dreading it,” admits Schwarzenegger. “Here’s my secret: I’m a terrible reader,” continued the American-by-choice. However, Schwarzenegger’s dyslexia is not entirely new, as there are earlier reports about his school days in which his reading and writing difficulties were discussed. The actor, ex-bodybuilder and ex-politician has not yet spoken about it with such openness and clarity.

When he was at school, he was beaten with a ruler for it

“In Austria in the 1950s, people didn’t talk about learning disabilities, and if I had to read aloud in class, it was usually a disaster and I was hit with a ruler,” says Schwarzenegger about his school days in Europe. However, he now knows that he is dyslexic. This also hindered him when preparing for a film, he had to read the script over and over again for months until he knew every line by heart: “I need time and repetitions to memorize the words.”

And of course he now needed much longer to record the audio book than other authors, who would normally need two to three days for such a work. He himself asked for a recording device for his home and managed 20 to 30 pages a day. Again and again he did repetitions and divided texts into small pieces: “Because I knew that small successes add up to big victories, or in this case to a whole book.”