Actor and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke of the “breakthrough” he experienced in Belfast as he was presented with an honorary degree.
The 78-year-old star found it “unbelievable” to return to the city of his public speaking debut, six decades on.
Ulster University awarded the Austrian-born icon the doctorate for his public service, environmental advocacy, and arts contributions. He received a red carpet welcome, with students cheering, holding signs like “Ulster he’s back” and “Hasta La Vista Ulster”, and some bringing Terminator 2 copies.
The actor first visited the city for a bodybuilding competition in 1966, when the sport was in its infancy, and years before his acting debut in the 1970 film Hercules in New York.
He told the students on arrival his trip is “kind of a 60-year anniversary”.
“So I came here, I was invited by Ivan Dunbar, this Irish man, I think his family is here… he passed away I’m sad to say, but that’s where my beginning was, in Ireland, in Belfast.
“And it’s wonderful to be back in Northern Ireland and to kind of get to see, this is not something that I dreamt of when I was 19-years-old, when I was here 60 years ago, that one day I will be coming here to get an honorary doctorate degree, it’s unbelievable.”
Students lined the atrium in the university to listen to Schwarzenegger’s speech and cheered as he turned to hold up his award.
In his speech he said that in that 1966 competition in Northern Ireland his body building idol Roy “Reg” Park encouraged him to speak on stage to the crowd.
“So I walked over to the microphone, thinking ‘he wants me to do another muscular shot, or something like that’, no, he asked me a question,” he said.
“He said, ‘how do you like it here?’ and I’m now almost fainting, because I’ve never, ever spoken in public before, and we don’t have to tell you the fear that we all have of public speaking, so to me, I had this always, I had almost a heart attack.”
He added: “So then (Reg) said to me, says, Okay, tell them, ‘I like Belfast’. So I said, ‘I like Belfast’ again, standing ovation, everyone jumping up, you gave me great applause.
“Then he says, tell him that you’re going to be back and then I said, ‘I come back’ – at that time, I didn’t say I’ll be back that was before Terminator – so I said, ‘I come back’.
“So anyway, standing ovation, he said ‘thank you very much, that was fantastic, the first time you spoke in public, you did such a great job and your English is great’ and all this stuff.
“And then afterwards I left, I said to myself, ‘oh my God, I thought I’m going to die when I speak in front of people, but this was the most encouraging audience’.
“So what I’m saying is what happened that day in Belfast was so important to me, because every single time afterwards, when I won a competition, I went to the microphone and said thank you very much for making me the winner, being Mr Universe, it’s great to be in London, or it’s great to be New York, or wherever it was and I thanked the audience, and said, ‘thank you fans for being so enthusiastic’.
“And I said a few words, and each time I said, more and more and more, they eventually couldn’t shut me up.
“I love talking so much in public, so this is what I’m talking about, this was a breakthrough.
“I always tell people about that breakthrough that happened here in Belfast.
“This is why I have such fond memories of Belfast, and this is why it is so great to be back now.”
Following a ceremony to present the honorary degree, Schwarzenegger answered questions from broadcaster Holly Hamilton, where he encouraged students not to “waste a minute, just study and study and study”.
“Because while you’re wasting a minute, someone else is going to study and you want to make sure that you are ahead of everyone else,” he said.
“The world is a very competitive place, and I want you to succeed, and I want you to create a vision and have a goal.”
Dancers performed a Terminator-themed Irish traditional dance routine, donning sunglasses with the famous single red eye.
Following the ceremony Schwarzenegger then met with Sandra Weir, one of the women featured in a picture of the young bodybuilder on his first visit to Belfast 60 years ago.
Reminiscing on her first meeting with a 19-year-old Schwarzenegger, Ms Weir said: “He was very, very easy to talk to, you know and he was gabbling away and everything, we didn’t know what he was saying.”
She said the pair “had a good laugh” during their brief reunion on Monday, saying “he was in good form, good form then and even good form now”.
Schwarzenegger also met with 91-year-old Eric Downing, a natural bodybuilder from Belfast and the daughter of Ivan Dunbar, the man he stayed with on that first visit 60 years ago.
Before leaving, he signed a poster and a childhood drawing done by a member of the security staff at Ulster University.
Simon Aldworth said it was a “lifetime” dream to meet the Terminator star, saying “you can actually see that my hands are shaking”.
