Arnold Schwarzenegger, 77, is an actor, an Emmy-winning producer and the former governor of California. He stars in season 2 of the Netflix action-comedy series “Fubar.” He spoke with Marc Myers.

My early years in Thal, Austria, were challenging. After World War II, the economy in the Graz suburb where I grew up was shattered. Everyone suffered.

My father, Gustav, was a very, very sweet man, but when he drank, his personality changed. He became more violent and demanding. His behavior and drinking were influenced by the war’s remnants—shrapnel in his legs that caused him pain, the lingering effects of malaria and what we now call post-traumatic stress disorder. My mother, Aurelia, was a homemaker.

Schwarzenegger, left, at 6 months, with his mother, Aurelia, and half-brother, Meinhard, in Thal, Austria, in 1948

Our family lived on the second floor of a three-story building. The first floor was occupied by the local forest ranger and the second was for my father, the town’s police chief. The forest ranger had a phone but we didn’t, and there was no running water.

I wasn’t happy with the life I saw unfolding. I always had a feeling deep down that I needed to look for something else, something outside the box.

At age 10, I fell in love with America. That came from watching film rolls in school. The teacher would advance the strips by turning a knob, showing one image at a time. I was blown away. They were about things like the Empire State Building, the Golden Gate Bridge and cars with huge fins driving on U.S. highways with six lanes on each side. All of it was over the top.

At some point, there was a roll on Hollywood. I’d never seen anything like it—the glamour, the lights and the houses. I said to myself, “What am I doing here?” I wanted to be in America and to become famous and rich.

As I got older, the question shifted to “How do I get there?” At age 15, I stumbled into bodybuilding at our local lake and said to myself, “Well, that’s in America!” The lifeguard was an athlete and always had other top athletes around, including weightlifters. Soon, I became part of that group.

Schwarzenegger, 11, in art class at school in Thal

As a teen, my testosterone was kicking in and I wanted to look like a he-man. I went through magazines and read about Roy “Reg” Park, an English bodybuilder who played Hercules in Italian movies.

I read that Reg won Mr. Universe three times and became an actor. My dream was possible. All of my time was spent in this world of physical fitness, building up muscles to compete in contests and fantasizing about movie stardom.

At one point, I was in school looking out the window and daydreaming when a piece of chalk hit me in the head. My teacher had good aim and said, “Arnold, what do you think I’m doing here, talking to myself?” I had no interest in what he was saying.

Schwarzenegger competing in the IFBB Mr. Universe bodybuilding championship in the late 1960s

In 1967, I won the amateur Mr. Universe title in London when I was 20. I then trained in Munich for another year and won my first professional Mr. Universe title.

After I won in 1968, Joe Weider, a bodybuilding enthusiast in America who published muscle magazines, brought me to Los Angeles. He put me up at an apartment in Venice, near Gold’s Gym, where I trained.

When I arrived in L.A., I was totally disappointed. The city looked nothing like New York, with its tall buildings. Venice’s sidewalks were dirty and no one cleaned them, and drugs were sold in back alleys.

Two more Mr. Universe titles followed, in 1969 and ’70. From the start, I knew bodybuilding was going to lead to acting.

In 1970, I was cast in “Hercules in New York,” and then in a range of TV series and films, including “Stay Hungry” in ’76, for which I won the Golden Globe Award for best acting debut. Then came “The Streets of San Francisco” and “Pumping Iron” in ’77, and “Conan the Barbarian,” the big one, in ’82. I was on my way.

In the middle of all this, I studied remotely for a bachelor’s degree in business at the University of Wisconsin-Superior. I graduated in 1979. From the time I arrived in America, I went to community college to take English classes and get smart about business. In 1983, I became a U.S. citizen.

Initially, my parents weren’t supportive of me bodybuilding. But when I won my first trophy, my mother took it and ran around the neighborhood to brag about her son.

Today, I live in a contemporary house in Brentwood in Los Angeles. It’s a perfect place where I can see the foliage and the mountains. I’m close to town, it’s private and I have all my pet animals.

In the 1980s, I was invited to a White House dinner and took my mother to meet President Reagan. At the table, I went to scratch my nose and she hit my hand.

In front of everyone, she said, “Don’t pick your nose in the White House. Please, Arnold.” I wasn’t, but that didn’t stop her. No matter how big you get, your mother knows how to shrink you just a little.

Schwarzenegger in Sacramento during his first news conference as California governor in 2003

Arnold’s Donkey

“Fubar”? I play Luke Brunner, a CIA operative who discovers his daughter is also an operative after years of lying to each other about their jobs.

Favorite home spot? In front of my fireplace outside.

Pets? I have a miniature donkey named Lulu, a pig, a miniature horse and other animals that walk around in the house when my floor-to-ceiling windows are slid open. Otherwise, they are in their stalls.

Messy? No never. They’re all house-trained.

Best cigar ever? A vintage Cuban-made Davidoff Dom Perignon that I smoked at Davidoff’s store in London in the 1990s. You can only get them now at auction.