2. Diction

That established, let’s talk about the skill with which Arnie handles his dialogue cues. Most actors would try to act them and inject emotion and character into the readings (overrated, in my opinion), but not the Muscles from Brussels (that’s Arnie, right?) – instead, he just says his lines like he’s reading them off of the paper for the first time and lets the script speak for itself. Because Arnie knows that good writing is the key to a good movie (that’s why he did Eraser, see?) and that people respond to natural performances. Humans don’t talk like they do in movies with smart remarks about cheeseburgers and Amsterdam, they talk stupidly and badly and dumbly.

That brings us to those immortal one-liners. Do you understand how hard it is to say a short sentence with almost no delivery in your voice at all? Some people thought it was impossible, but Arnie came along and showed ‘em who’s boss. Take “See you at the party, Richter!” for example, one of the funniest lines from the 1990 classic Total Recall and one of the funniest lines about parties full-stop. Arnie’s dedication to his craft is well and truly on display here as he speaks each and every word so that you can understand it and in an order that will makes sense to audiences. Trust me, it’s harder than it looks.

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