TV & film star, Aleks Paunovic is known for towering over his peers in Marvel’s Hawkeye, Snowpiercer, and latest series; The Silent Service on Amazon Prime Video, but a recent meeting with Arnold Schwarzenegger left Paunovic “fan girling” when he met the legend during the filming of the Netflix action-series Fubar.
Aleks Paunovic was ‘Pumped’ to Meet Arnold Schwarzenegger
“Yeah, well that’s a story,” Paunovic tells M&F. “First off, I had a blast on the show. The cast, producers, and everyone that is a part of it was spot on! I hope Fubar goes on for a while and I’ve been an Arnold Schwarzenegger fan since Pumping Iron. Dude is next level! So, my first day was his last day on set for the season I had a moment of, ‘oh no, I’m going to miss my chance to meet the man!’” And, I’m fangirling like crazy but trying to keep it together. So, I asked the Assistant Director if there’s a chance that I can just say ‘hi’. He said; ‘Possibly, wait here.’
“A few moments go by, and I see he and Arnold talking. Arnold looks over at me and nods his head and waves me over. I’m nervous and excited to meet the man, I put out my hand to shake his and I say, ‘Thank you for having me on the show. I’m a big fan, loved Pumping you… I mean Iron! Pumping Iron!”! He stops me, grabs my shoulder and says, ‘Pumping me? Sorry!, I don’t go that way!’ and laughs and walks away. All I was thinking of was taking my words back as soon as I said them, hoping he didn’t catch the slip-up, but it was too late and he busted my balls. At the time, I wanted to dig myself into a hole. But man, it was quite funny, and a perfect example of his quick wit and humor. Hell, if I was him, I would have done the same thing!”
From Meeting Legends to Making Legendary Water
Aside from making an impression on his movie heroes, Aleks Paunovic is also passionate about making the environment a better place, and is behind “Legend”– a new responsibly harvested water, sourced from the Rockies with a 7.9 PH level and set to be released in April. “2 major things have me pumped up,” says Paunovik. (3 if you count Arnie of course!) “One, it’s helping to get rid of single-use plastic. My buddy Jason Momoa has done an incredible job getting the world to really take notice and get away from single plastic use with his water brand “Mananalu.” It was a coincidence that this opportunity came my way, and I’ve known Jason for a while and I know he would be proud that I can be part of the wave of moving his vision forward. The second thing is; we want to support suicide hotline and rehab facilities in each province of Canada. So, if you’re struggling or just have a moment where you need to talk to someone we can help in a small way. If we can help one person that makes our team happy. And makes me proud to be a part of Legend.”
Coming from three generations of boxers, Paunovic loves to train with the punch bag and shows no signs of stopping. “I just love it so much,” he shares. You can catch Paunovik in his latest action-packed project; The Silent Service, which is also Amazon’s first Japanese original series and is based on the popular manga series written and illustrated by artist Kawaguchi Kaiji.
All 8 episodes are available to stream now.