Tom Arnold recalls suffering stroke while getting kids ready for bed
Tom Arnold shared the details of his stroke and explained how that inspired him to get in shape.
Tom Arnold is well-known for being a funny guy, but there's one thing he's taking more seriously these days.
Arnold, whose new Tubi show "Underdeveloped" premieres Sept. 8, has made health his primary focus after experiencing a stroke a year and a half ago.
In a new interview with Fox News Digital, he recalled first noticing something was wrong when he was playing a game with his kids, son Jax, 10, and daughter Quinn, 7, with ex-wife Ashley Groussman, at bath time.
"I noticed when I turned back around, it felt like my right eye, a curtain had come down like I couldn’t see out of it," Arnold said. "And I thought, ‘Well, maybe I punched myself in the eye.' I did feel … my brain felt weird. I felt something was up."
By the time he put his kids to bed, some of his vision had returned, and he decided to see a doctor in the morning, thinking at the time, "It can’t be that serious."
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Doctors told him he had suffered a stroke, and he admitted that he thought, "Oh, you got to be sh--ting me. Because that's just one of those things you don't want to hear, you’re having a heart attack, you had a stroke – you know, God forbid, cancer or something like that. But you do as you get older, think, ‘Yeah, one of these times I'm going to go to the doctor, and it's going to be very unpleasant.’"
Tom Arnold said his "brain felt weird" before discovering he had a stroke. (Michael Tran/AFP via Getty Images)
According to Arnold, on the UCLA stroke protocol 1 to 10 scale, his was luckily only at a 1. But it was a "wake-up call" for the actor.
He had gained weight during COVID and hadn’t been as active while homeschooling his kids, but he finally admitted he’d made excuses about his health in the past and that it was time to be honest with himself and his family.
"I realized I need[ed] to, no matter what, get in shape. Up to that time, [I] also kind of blamed the kids. I'm like, 'They won’t let me work out because every time I get on the elliptical they're arguing or something is going on.' And we sat down, I said, ‘Hey, your Dad had this thing and I really need to get in shape and get physically fit so I could live for as long as possible with you guys.’ And I think … they've been very supportive."
Arnold revealed he was honest with his kids about his health, and now they find ways to be active together. (Allison Dinner/Getty Images)
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The 64-year-old is also keen to pass his health lessons onto his children.
"I think the best thing you could do is set an example and say, 'Well, this is what I’m doing, this is why it's so important.'"
Arnold says he and his kids stay active together through play and physical competitions.
"I just am very blessed that I got this wake-up call," he said, especially after he began working with Charles D’Angelo, a trainer of his friend, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who reached out when he heard that the former "True Lies" co-stars would be working together again on "FUBAR."
"I just went at it hard and here I am."
The "McHale's Navy" star said he regularly does sessions with D’Angelo over Zoom, but Arnold initially kept his expectations low despite the encouragement from D’Angelo that he could help him slim down to his "True Lies"-era weight.
Tom Arnold worked with friend Arnold Schwarzenegger's trainer to lose a significant amount of weight after his stroke. (Getty Images)
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"I go, ‘Yeah, but that's not possible. You can't in six months, we're not going to be able to.’ He goes, ‘No, it is possible. We're going to do it.’ And so I just had to have blind faith, you know, I just did what he told me to do."
Arnold described some of his routine, saying, "I went up to an hour of cardio, hard cardio. I ate what he said to eat when he said to eat it. And I was never hungry. But it's just all of a sudden in the spring, we're getting close to that. And the weight just came off. And I weighed less than I did when we did the movie ‘True Lies,’ and felt much healthier. So, I just had to believe in him and what he does."
Earlier this year, in an interview with Men’s Health, he revealed he had gone from 285 pounds down to 205.
Tom Arnold says he "just had to believe" in Schwarzenegger's trainer to achieve his weight-loss goals. (Chelsea Guglielmino/FilmMagic)
Arnold’s friendship with Schwarzenegger began on the 1994 film "True Lies," and most recently, Arnold appeared in Schwarzenegger’s Netflix series, "FUBAR."
He revealed that they FaceTime on a regular basis and that the "Terminator" star is "so into his iPad. Like, you wouldn't think that. Like, he'll send over pictures, and he'll draw [on] them, ‘I love you, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Happy whatever,’ and he spends a lot of time doing that."
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Arnold also shared that while the action star hasn’t changed much and is still "a maniac and will get on his frickin' bicycle and ride into traffic," his softer side has emerged with age.
"I think he’s sentimental more," Arnold said. "A lot of people he started with are no longer here. And he's not afraid to say, ‘I love that guy. He was my best friend. I wouldn't be where I am without that guy.’"
Arnold also praised his friend’s relationship with his children, saying he’s "a great father with all of his kids," and that Schwarzenegger remains "best friends" with ex-wife Maria Shriver.
Schwarzenegger and Shriver, who share four children, Katherine, Christina, Patrick and Christopher, separated in 2011 after he disclosed his affair with the family’s housekeeper and admitted he was the father of her son, Joseph Baena. The divorce was finalized in 2021.
Arnold says Schwarzenegger has gotten more sentimental over the years. (L. Cohen/WireImage)
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"He's not afraid to say I'm sorry for whatever bad behavior," Arnold said. "But he is steadfast about his kids, all of his kids. They are in his life."
"Nothing will ever be perfect within the whole family because of the feelings and resentments, but he's taken it all on, do you know, being a really solid man."
As for Arnold, he's looking forward to his new series, "Underdeveloped," about the business of television, and he's hoping it will be relatable to anyone.
"It's like every other job I've had, whether it be telemarketing or, you know, McDonald's, where I worked for a year, or the meat packing plant for three years," he told Fox News Digital.
"You know, you have these characters on a daily basis dealing with whatever they're dealing with, bringing that to work, you know, backstabbing, sh-t talking, which I'm a huge fan of, of sh-t talking," he added with a laugh. "And you develop these relationships with people, forced relationships a lot of times."
Tom Arnold stars as Ralph in the Tubi series "Underdeveloped," a mockumentary comedy about television production. (Tubi)
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"Underdeveloped," is a mockumentary series that stars Arnold, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Mark Pellegrino and Samm Levine about television producers who are to make a show work.
"I love those shows like that. And the irony about this show is it's [about] show business. They're in a studio and there's a lot of greed, there's a lot of corruption. My character is sort of in the middle of it. He was forced to hire his brother-in-law by his wife," Arnold explained.
Thanks to a waiver with SAG-AFTRA, Arnold was able to speak about the show.
"I'm a strong union guy [from] my meat-packing days," he said, noting that the production agreed to terms from the union, adding, "They said, ‘Well, here's our dream deal, and if you sign that, we will let you do it.’"
"People always think that the [Screen] Actors Guild, they must be rolling, well a lot of times you do these things for the people that are not rolling. Also, as an actor, you assume that you will not be rolling one day," Arnold continued. "And I think the idea is that it puts pressure on the big studios to go, ‘Hey, they get to do this thing that we like doing. Why don't we?’ Well, maybe we’ll get this thing settled."
Tom Arnold's new Tubi series, "Underdeveloped." (Tubi)
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Arnold is even reuniting with some of the writers from "Roseanne," the series that gave him his Hollywood start with ex-wife Roseanne Barr, for an appearance on the picket lines soon.
"I don't know if Roseanne is going to be there. It'd be great if she was because then you’d say, ‘Hey, look, this strike is so important that I'm with a guy I hate,’ and I'd say, ‘I’m with a woman I hate. But we're picketing because we have this in common.’ That seems like it would be a home run," he joked.
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