Arnold Schwarzenegger

The big guy is happiest when he's helping poor kids, saying weird things about race and saving America from single-parent hell.

By Christina Valhouli

Jan 29, 2001 | If Arnold Schwarzenegger were America's camp counselor, our kids would do 200 knee bends before breakfast. The 53-year-old former Mr. Universe would also blow the whistle on the growing trend of single parenthood -- a "tremendous danger," he says. Schwarzenegger is now bringing his tough love to the inner city, where he hopes to boost kids' self-esteem through the Inner City Games Foundation, a national network of after-school programs. While he remains the odd man out in liberal Hollywood, the rest of the nation may prove more receptive to the Last Action Hero's message, which sounds, well, compassionately conservative. The welcome mat is out for him at the Bush White House, and he admits to flirting with a run for governor of California.

If the star is considering a leap into politics, he'll need to prepare. Reporters will surely ask, for instance, what exactly happened in the U.K. during his recent publicity tour for "The Sixth Day." Schwarzenegger allegedly groped three female journalists (his publicist denies this), earning him the nicknames "Scharwzenookie" and "Kindergarten Cop-a-Feel" from the Fleet Street press and a "Groper of the Year" award from the London Sun. Rumors are also circulating about the actor's health. In 1997, he underwent elective heart surgery to replace a faulty valve, and the studios reacted as if he had the plague. "I really could feel people kind of pulling back," he told the Los Angeles Times. "You know, they don't return your phone calls the same way they used to."

In our recent conversation, the movie star was sharp and animated as he discussed Hollywood violence, the crisis of the family, Bush-era politics and life with a Kennedy liberal, his wife Maria Shriver, with whom he has four children.

What do you see as the most pressing problem in the inner city today?

The parenting problem. A lot of minorities have such a problem with the single-parent situation. The parents are the single most important influence on a child, followed by education and the peer group. The number of single parents in the U.S. has quadrupled since the '60s, and there has also been an increase in violence and school shootings. All that stuff has increased largely because of a lack of parenting, and many households only have one biological parent -- so many of them are fatherless. It really creates a big problem.

You see single parents all the time in Hollywood, like Jodie Foster, Camryn Manheim and now Calista Flockhart. Do you think it's sending a bad message?

I would say you have a better chance if your mother happens to be Jodie Foster or any of those women who can afford a swim teacher or a basketball coach, because there is a mentor right there. But in the inner city, parents do not have the money to hire a coach or join the soccer club. They have no one to drive the kids, no chauffeur or nanny. I think single parenting absolutely has an effect on kids down the line.

I see it firsthand in my family. If I am away on a film for three weeks, even though I come home every weekend, you can see the kids getting out of control. One person cannot create the discipline and the guidance and helping with homework. When I am at home, Maria and I drive the kids to school together; we pick them up together; we take them to dancing, soccer, horseback riding lessons. It takes a lot of effort. If you are not on top of the situation, the kids lose confidence in you.

I think the situation with single parenting [in minority groups] is disastrous. The statistic is that 64 percent of blacks are with one parent, while with whites, it's like 26 percent. With Hispanics, it's maybe 35 percent. It's gone up so much since the '60s. In the '60s, among minorities, only about 20 percent had single parents.

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