Little Guy From Pumping Iron Interview

Seeking out Arnold Schwarzenegger’s ‘advices’, the Little Guy inadvertently became a Pumping Iron fixture. On vacation with a friend, Little Guy walked into what he thought would be a workout at awesome Gold’s Gym but, as soon as he opened Gold’s Gym’s door, he was smack dab in the middle of the even awesomer Pumping Iron movie production led by George Butler, who soon offered Little Guy a role in Pumping Iron and the opportunity to hang out with Butler and the top bodybuilders in the world for two weeks. Little Guy’s famous cameo: here

Highlights

  • Little Guy and friend went on vacation to Venice, California to study Arnold
  • Pre-vacation, Little Guy thought he’d eventually be able to compete against Schwarzenegger
  • Little Guy’s father told Little Guy that he wasn’t in Schwarzenegger’s league
  • Bill Grant was the perfect host at Gold’s
  • Kent Kuehn and a few others introduced them to everyone
  • Ken Waller wasn’t called the Freckled Heckler for nothing
  • Zane and Columbu didn’t get into the gym camaraderie as much as others
  • Schwarzenegger trained with Ed Corney during the filming of Pumping Iron because Arnold didn’t want to train with anyone that could outpace him
  • Arnold Schwarzenegger charges Little Guy $50 an hour for training in 1975, $240 in today’s dollars
  • George Butler tells Schwarzenegger not to charge Little Guy
  • George Butler wants Schwarzenegger to give Little guy his time in exchange for Little Guy being in film
  • Schwarzenegger tells Little Guy to let him know if anyone is pushing steroids on him more than he’s comfortable with and he’ll tell them to back off
  • Says Dave Draper would drink alcohol while doing squats(between sets we assume)
  • Little Guy’s friend took a ton of great Gold’s Gym photos with all the top pros
  • Little Guy’s friend’s camera and invaluable photos are stolen at the airport
  • Little Guy and friend hung out with all the top bodybuilders and the movie crew in and out of the gym for 2 weeks
  • Pumping Iron production offered Little Guy more exposure if he could pay for his own ticket to South Africa
  • Little Guy’s father doesn’t approve of Schwarzenegger saying he skipped his father’s funeral
  • There is more of Little Guy that didn’t make it into movie
  • Schwarzenegger’s “yelling while posing” advice story was not his own, he was adapting someone else’s story to add interest
  • Little Guy worked at Nautilus over the years in different capacities
  • Little Guy trained with Casey Viator numerous times for years
  • Little Guy plays banjo
  • Little Guy says Viator was quarantined for Colorado Experiment and couldn’t have taken roids
  • Little Guy demonstrates early Nautilus machine from his home gym
  • Lou Ferrigno is a friend of Little Guy
  • Little Guy’s real name is not Little Guy but rather Wes Brown
  • Little Guy’s friend’s name is George Culp

Wes Brown and George Culp

Wesley Brown Contest History

1975

Teen Mr America – AAU, 9th

1979

Mr America – AAU, Short, 12th

George Culp Contest History

1977

Northern Hemisphere – AAU, Junior, 4th

1978

Mr Atlantic USA – AAU, Junior, 4th

About Yegor Khzokhlachev 797 Articles
Gorilla at Large

1 Comment

  1. It would be interesting to know what George Butler had promised him would be worth his while if he went to South Africa.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.