Jesse Ventura On Being Cast In Predator

what were the conversations like when you first met Arnold um I first met Arnold at a a Saturday Night Live wrestling in New Jersey really he was there and they brought him up to the booth and I was introduced to him right there he was just there as a fan I guess I I I guess he was there and I I met him there at first and then how I got Predator that's an interesting story deals wrestling George Scott was the booker then and I went and I I was underhandedly under the table working with Barry Bloom my agent in LA right and so I went up to George Scott I said George book me in California any time it runs and George looked at me and says oh you like that warm weather because you're from Minnesota huh I said yeah George I like the warm weather you know I gave him the excuse he needed to hear I said yeah George it's the warm weather no it wasn't I knew that if I got to California Barry Bloom would be bringing me in to meet people because when Hulkamania hit Big Barry Bloom kept sitting back going wait a minute there's this other guy Jesse venturo has got way more Talent than Hulk Hogan this guy's got talent beyond wrestling and uh so I uh what happened there was they kept booking me out in California and the one day I flew out there Barry picked me up at the airport he said at 2:00 we're going to go meet a friend of mine named Jackie Birch and she's casting the next Schwarzenegger film and she said there's a he said there's a part in there you're perfect for it said Sergeant Blaine Cooper 64 250b killer that's you and so I walked in at two to meet Jackie Birch I had on a doag six earrings my big long goatee multicolored hair I looked as far from the military as you could possibly look I look like a a 1center a biker probably and uh I'll never forget Jackie Burch little short girl she she walked up to me and she looked at me like this and she went up and down twice didn't and said let's go meet the executive producers she walked me across a lot I met Joel Silver and Larry Gordon the two exe producers and they were handshake hey good we hope you went back with Jackie Jackie pulled the script out she said read this for me and I looked at it and I said bunch of slack jawed [ __ ] around here this stuff will put hair on your hog leg make you a goddamn Tex Tyrannosaurus just like me you know and she handed me the script she said take this back and uh uh the whole script and read it tonight wow within an hour they offered me the part and it was a sought after part everybody in California was going after that role I had it wow Barry then says what do we do do you want me to call Vince and I said God no I said for number one Vince ain't going to take your call and number two I gotta tell him so here's the story here you you have fun with this one so I get on the phone oh I've been offered the rooll George Scott George Jesse Ventura I need to talk to Vince I only need him for five minutes five minutes but it's extremely important I have to talk to him okay Jesse I'll see what I can do George comes back sorry Jesse's in a meeting and da D D D D D I said okay H up well Barry Bloom then calls me back he said have you talked to Vince I Saidi can't get through yet Barry says you better cuz he said they just informed me if you don't respond within an hour they're going to recast it oh you know they're going to recast it yeah so I called back again and I got George again I said George Jessie V look I only need two to three minutes of Vince's time but it's important George comes back to the phone and he says do you want to know what Vince said I said tell me he said he doesn't have time right now for Jessie Ventura's personal life wow I said oh okay I said that's cool George I said then don't interrupt him I said take this to him when he has time maybe tomorrow or the next day whenever that happens tell him I've just been cast for a role in the next Arnold Schwarzenegger movie and that I'm accepting and I hung up so I called Barry Bloom back I said Barry uh uh uh tell them I take it we'll take it great boom Barry calls it calls me back you got it you got it we're cast you got the part the money the whole thing because I wasn't so much worried about money it's called get foot a in the door b o yeah you know the money was good because it was a major still there's only about seven actors in the whole damn film so they had plenty of money to spread around but it was sufficient