F  L  A  U  N  T

“I would never run away from my name,” Patrick Arnold Shriver Schwarzenegger says, patiently pondering a question he’s likely been asked over and over again. “I look up to both of my parents. That’s why I have Shriver and Schwarzenegger in my last name. I am extremely proud of both of them and the work that they do, for giving me the life that I have, and for finding ways to help other people.”

Patrick is the second-youngest child of California power couple Maria Shriver (whose own family tree extends its roots to include the fabled Kennedys) and the state’s former Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Patrick—an entrepreneur, actor, philanthropist and model—had more bridges to power and prestige as a swaddled infant than might be fathomable to a fully grown adult. Babies cannot pronounce “Schwarzenegger,” let alone imagine what life awaits them with a surname so recognizable, half of that life will be spent cutting off the question, “Are you…” with a succinct, “Yes.” And yet, at age 26, perhaps Patrick’s most-admirable quality is his complete awareness and acceptance of this unequivocal social disposition.

Early on, it was clear that he desired to carve out his own path, regardless of lineage. Before he graduated from the University of Southern California, Patrick co-owned a pizza joint. For most students, the archetypal pizza parlor is a simple thing: a venue to forge new friendships in uncomfortable booths while dabbing grease from an affordable slice with a napkin. Instead, Patrick saw a business opportunity and started the franchise Blaze Pizza.

“I have been an entrepreneur since I was a little kid,” he says, describing his early forays into business as one of the “things” he has decided to pursue. “Like any kid, I had a lemonade and cookie stand, but I eventually ended up running my dad’s memorabilia site that raises funds for charity. Now, I have my own business—Achilles Advisors—and I invest in early startups, consult, and help companies grow. To be a successful entrepreneur, you must have a ton of internal drive because most people don’t want to leave their 9-to-5 job to work from 6am to 7pm every day of the week. Entrepreneurialism and planning a business and creating it is a taxing way to live. It’s not always as rosy as it sounds. It is very lonely and can mess up other parts of your life.

“For me, it has never been about money,” he continues, describing what excites him about investing in new ventures. “And maybe that is because I come from a family that lives well. But I wouldn’t suggest becoming an entrepreneur just because you can. You really have to have that burning desire to go out there and want to create stuff, work for yourself, and, ultimately, you have to find other reasons than just monetary ones to succeed. I am driven to get behind things in the health and wellness space, to hopefully help create a healthier and better world—to help younger entrepreneurs and give them the helping hand that I had.”

As for the other pursuits that may challenge Patrick’s balancing of his own mental health and wellness: there’s acting. Here, you might expect him to lean on his father’s fame and success in this ultra-competitive space, but he has no interest in the easy way. Plus, he’s fit but not exactly a bodybuilder. “I would never do something if I felt it was just given to me,” he says, mindful of his leg up, especially in Hollywood. “I have never worked with my dad on a film. I have never been on any of his projects, even though he has tried to find ways of doing it. I do not want to feel like it is a cop out, that he just got me a role because I am his son. Out of the thousands of auditions I have been on, I have been rejected 99.9 percent of the time. That is just what happens.”

Patrick is especially proud of his work on National Geographic’s The Long Road Home, the 2017 dramatic mini-series where he stars alongside Jason Ritter and Kate Bosworth. The story of American troops struggling to survive an ambush in Iraq was not just a rewarding acting experience, but his unceasing curiosity about the world transformed his contribution to the show into a new awareness about the lives of soldiers, and a better understanding of parts of America he might not have otherwise witnessed.

“Working on that show was amazing,” he says. “It allowed me to live on a military base [in Texas] for four months. Without being in film, or working as an actor, I would never have had an experience like that in my life. To get to be there, to work with actual members of our military and live there and understand to the slightest degree how they operate, work, and live—it helped me in so many ways beyond acting. I am a big fan of our military and helping veterans. To raise awareness and money to help the people who have served our country—for me to get to hang out and spend time with them, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

For the upcoming Netflix film Moxie, directed by Amy Poehler, Patrick plays what he describes as, “An absolute toxic douchebag. You know the type—the high school football star who is a terrible person. It’s just so opposite from who I am, and she helped me a lot.” He considers the experience and continues about working with Poehler, “It was so interesting to work with her. She is a director who is also an amazing actress, writer, and producer in so many different fields. Someone who encompasses it all. I appreciated how she operated, from how she worked with everyone from the transportation crew to makeup and wardrobe. She is the best person I have ever worked with and for—she would be so encouraging, telling me, ‘Sweet, sweet Patrick. This is so good. You are such a good douchebag.’ It was a lot of fun.”

The film is based on the novel of the same name by Jennifer Mathieu. The story is centered on a teenager—whose mother was part of the Riot Grrrl punk-feminist scene in the ‘90s—who sparks a feminist revolt at her Texas high school after enduring sexist taunts from fellow students and administrators. Poehler is a fan of the book, which she optioned for the film version, and Patrick’s “douchebag” performance as well. “Patrick cared deeply about bringing a specificity to the character he plays in Moxie,” says Poehler. “The material is sensitive and so is he. He is interested in people and the human condition, and it’s evidenced by the way he treats others who get the pleasure of working with him.”

Work is hard to come by these days. If you haven’t heard by now, there is a pandemic that has settled particularly hard on this nation that prides itself on being the “best” at, well, everything. Being number one is still quite an achievement, even if it pertains to catastrophically bungling the response to a global health crisis. The United States of America is at a moment in its history where that word “united” dangles precariously like letters from an old, broken-down movie-house, ready to tumble from a marquee that announces this country’s most noble idea: unity. An idea, over 240 years old, that is straining (not for the first time) under the encouragement of a White House hellbent on using division as a narrow pathway to maintain and increase its power. 

For his part, Patrick spent the early part of California’s coronavirus lockdown by helping his mother to launch a series of conversations, across her social media platforms, with a wide variety of influential artists and civic leaders as a way to give so many of us stuck at home, not just a distraction, but possibly a bit of hope too. It also provided a pivot point where privilege might be expressed, reshaped, and repositioned as advocacy.  

Patrick came under scrutiny recently—symptomatic of anyone with a large following who shares an opinion—for professing his love for America over the Fourth of July weekend. After receiving a ton of negative messages, he was compelled to explain why he had optimism for the future, despite his shared frustrations about where we are right now. It is in these moments, when one wonders, along with his ever-growing collection of professional hyphenates, that Patrick Arnold Shriver Schwarzenegger, a dual citizen (American-Austrian) and ever-curious about the world and how to make it better, will ever choose to follow in the footsteps of his ancestors which include diplomats and Kennedys on his mother’s side and a father who was the Governor of the state he calls home. 

“That is the thing I find beautiful about America,” he says, compounding his Fourth of July explanation, though not exactly addressing the idea of running for office, or serving his country, as so many in his family have done before him. “The idea that you can be whomever and whatever you want, whether it’s a teacher or an economist, an actor and an entrepreneur, a church leader and a basketball coach—whatever you want to do, you can become that person if you put in the work and pursue what you really want to do.

“For me, film is something I enjoy extremely,” he continues. “It puts me in other people’s shoes and helps me to understand different perspectives. There are people close to me who say I am trying to do too many things, but I don’t see why the things I choose to do can’t coexist. They all feed into one another. People are always going to compare me to my father, especially in the acting space. ‘Why aren’t you a big action star? Why don’t you have huge muscles?’ I get it, I am a Schwarzenegger, but I am Patrick Schwarzenegger, not Arnold. I am my own person and I want to create my own path and find ways to impact the world.” 

From the outside looking in, we’re all for it. The entertainment industry is wrought with sons and daughters—grandkids, married-in, or franchised—of successful producers, household names, icons and otherwise. But there are far more names out there with connectivity and privilege who squander their opportunities, who don’t help others attain their business ambitions, who aren’t auditioning and auditioning and feeling the repeated sting of failure, let alone those who desire to make a dent and influence change in the world beyond their own interests. 

Patrick Schwarzenegger may have been born into a position of influence, but as we’re witnessing more than ever in this time of social upheaval—it’s not where you come from, but on which side of history you choose to take a stand. 

Photographed by Shane McCauley

Styled by Avo Yermagyan

Written by Gregg LaGambina

Groomer: Candice Birns using Dior Beauty