Arnold Schwarzenegger unlikely to return full-time to movies, says director -- EXCLUSIVE

Image Credit: Sylvain Gaboury/PR Photos; Albert L. Ortega/PR PhotosIvan Reitman helped turn Arnold Schwarzenegger from a muscleman to a funnyman with movies such as Twins and Kindergarten Cop, but the filmmaker doesn’t think his old friend will return to movies full-time now that he is no longer governor of California.

Schwarzenegger hasn’t said definitively what his next step will be, though he did a handful of cameos while governor, most notably joining the menagerie of veteran action stars for Sylvester Stallone’s The Expendables. While Hollywood and many of his longtime fans wonder if he’ll try to return to his leading man days, Reitman thinks he will largely focus his efforts on public policy, which could mean running for another public office or perhaps just advocating for particular issues. (Schwarzenegger didn’t succeed much in helping California’s budget crisis, but he was regarded as a strong force for environmental issues.)

“I had a lovely talk with him about a month ago, and my guess is he will continue in government work,” the director told EW at the premiere of his latest film, the Natalie Portman-Ashton Kutcher comedy No Strings Attached. “He’s joked around about coming back to acting, but I think really he would like to do something serious.”

Serious like Black Swan? “No,” Reitman laughed, “serious in the real world.”