Arnold Schwarzenegger Had One Big Condition To Star In Twins

The central gag of director Ivan Reitman's 1988 comedy movie "Twins" is the visual juxtaposition of placing the ultra-muscular, 6'2" Arnold Schwarzenegger next to the less muscular, 5'0" Danny DeVito and claiming that they are twin brothers. The premise of "Twins" is that the Schwarzenegger character, Julius, is the result of a secret DNA-tinkering experiment to make a "perfect" child. Unexpectedly, however, the embryo split, leading to the birth of both Julius and Vincent, the DeVito character. Yes, this usage of Jules and Vincent pre-dates "Pulp Fiction." 

The boys are separated at birth, however, and raised in very different circumstances. Julius is raised among professors in luxurious schools in the South Pacific. He is sheltered, wide-eyed, and innocent. Vincent, meanwhile, is placed in an orphanage and later runs away from an abusive nun. He grows up to be a petty crook. When Julius learns about Vincent's existence, he travels to Los Angeles to find him. Their personality clashes, and differing heights, formed the basis for the film's comedy. 

Made for somewhere between $15 million and $20 million, "Twins" was a monstrous box office success, raking in over $216 million across the globe. The late 1980s were a huge period for mainstream comedy films, and flicks like "'Crocodile' Dundee," "The Naked Gun" (which both does and doesn't hold up), and "Three Men and a Baby" became giant blockbusters. Surprisingly, very little of the budget for "Twins" went to its two leads, even though both of them fetched very high prices by that point in their careers. Schwarzenegger, in particular, was a humongous star at the time, having just come off the hits "The Running Man" and "Predator." As reported by Variety, Schwarzenegger elected to take a greatly reduced salary for "Twins," provided he got a cut of the proceeds. It turned out to be a lucrative choice, given how much money the movie made.

Schwarzenegger's son Patrick, who conducted the Variety interview, brought up that his father wasn't paid much for "Twins." They both noted that "Twins" was a risk for Arnold, as he was, up to that point, only known for action-thrillers. He had appeared in comedies like "The Villain" and the widely-derided "Hercules in New York," but he had never starred in a mainstream studio comedy like this before. Arnold pointed out that he technically was paid nothing for "Twins," and that went double for DeVito and Reitman. This was a way to keep the budget low and mitigate financial risk, at least from the perspective of the film's backers. As he put it:

"I said, 'Why don't we, all three, take no money?' If we don't take any salaries, we can shoot the movie for $16.5 million. We worked out a deal where we got 40% of the backend of the movie. It happened to be the best deal we've ever made."

So, yes. Collectively, Schwarzenegger, DeVito, and Reitman owned 40% of "Twins." Given that the movie made $216.6 million, they would have raked in almost $29 million each. That was a far, far higher paycheck than even the highest-paid actors in Hollywood were getting in 1988. On the "Nerdist" podcast, Schwarzenegger even noted that he got more money for "Twins" than for any other film in his career (up to that point).

For DeVito, the success of "Twins" merely re-solidified his status as a bankable comedy superstar. For Schwarzenegger, however, it proved that he could actually lead a comedy film, and he pivoted to comedies frequently thereafter. In 1990, he starred in "Kindergarten Cop," another movie directed by Reitman that made a killing at the box office. Unfortunately, lightning didn't strike again when Schwarzenegger, DeVito, and Reitman reunited for the comedy "Junior" in 1994. Be that as it may, Schwarzenegger's career was still cracked open by "Twins."