By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
A YOUTUBE video with more than 500,000 hits and a meteoric rise up the world bodybuilding rankings has propelled Highton hunk Calum Von Moger along the path to Hollywood.
Following in the footsteps of idol Arnold Schwarzenegger, Calum laughingly admits he has been compared to the action movie star.
“Arnie has seen the video, I’m told,” the 23-year-old smiled.
A whirlwind three-week trip taking in supplement promotion contract talks in New York and photo shoots Miami will finish with a series of movie auditions in Los Angeles.
The photo shoots in Miami are with high-profile fitness industry and body building photographers Ulrich Oehman and Luis Rafael.
Calum’s fifth placing in this year’s Mr Universe competition in Austria as a relative newcomer made the bodybuilding world sit up and take notice.
Calum said he admired the classic bodybuilders of Schwarzenegger’s era more than simply piling on muscle upon muscle.
The 188cm strongman competes at 97kg and maintains his weight around 104kg in the off-season.
“This is all new to me. It’s taken me by surprise but I’m not getting my hopes up about anything,” he said.
“It looks exciting and I’m getting some cool offers but I enjoy doing what I do and I won’t get too excited until it really happens.
“My manager wants me to move over to the US perhaps next year, live there for a while and see what work I can get.”
Calum has chosen a different career path to his brothers, two of whom are in the Australian Defence Force and another is a paramedic.
One of his older brothers was the first to arouse Calum’s interest in weightlifting, training in a rundown gym in Anglesea as a skinny teenager. He still trains solo at Derrimut’s Corio gym between shifts at GNC Livewell in Westfield Geelong.
