Arnold Schwarzenegger’s son has recently revealed how he was targeted at school for being 'really overweight'.
Joseph Baena, 25, opened up about his experiences with his first major acting role in Bully High and how it reminded him of his own run-ins with bullying when he was younger.
Baena plays the character of Eddie, a baseball player and class president, in the new film directed by Bill McAdams Jr.
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Check out the trailer below:
The plot follows a Pakistani high school exchange student, Maryam, played by actor Aneesha Madhok, and her experiences with being bullied for wearing a hijab at school.
Speaking to People, Baena revealed that his latest role has brought back memories of being bullied himself: "I was bullied when I was a kid, elementary, middle school, and not really in high school, but I just felt like an outsider in high school at the beginning."
The 25-year-old revealed that he was 'really overweight from the end of elementary school into the beginning of high school'.
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He explained to the news outlet that the source of this bullying was sadly coming from the closest people around him.
The Bully High star noted: "It wasn't like outside people or people that I didn't know, or popular kids or whatever.
"It was my closest friends that were the ones that bullied me the most and made fun of me for being overweight and all these kind of things."
Commenting on how he got into bodybuilding, Baena also added how the bullying was a 'really big struggle' for him to overcome.
"So, that was really a big struggle for me in finding myself and figuring out and creating that ambition to change my weight and my physique and all these kind of things," the 25-year-old revealed.
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Sharing even more similarities with his character, the bodybuilder was also his high school's president in his senior year and noted how these shared experiences helped him massively with his first major film role.
When detailing how he got himself prepared to play the role of Eddie, a character Baena dubs as 'the studly guy on the baseball team', he explained: "It wasn't too hard to get into the character.
"Being the president, I feel like I curated a good community within the school where everyone was very inclusive, all the clubs were running really smoothly, all the dances ran really smoothly."
The synopsis for the film explains that it works as 'both a love letter and a scathing commentary about the prevalent and controversial issues of religious prejudices, sexual orientation, and bullying.'
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Covering a whole plethora of social issues faced both within high school and wider contexts, Baena explained that the bullying he received for being 'overweight' is 'very different' to the discrimination that takes place in Bully High.
He added: "But that was the most similar thing that I could personally compare it to."
The 25-year-old also told the news outlet that audiences should go into the movie with an 'open mindset'.
He stated: "They should think, 'What can I get out of this? What can I get out of this film?'
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"It has a really strong message of bullying, obviously, and racism and all these different things that people don't necessarily recognise, but it's always around.
"It's constantly there. So, I think inclusivity, protection, and to take away just the good message that the film brings everyone."
Bully High is currently available to stream on Tubi.
Topics: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Celebrity, Film and TV