FROM his Californian tan and expensively tailored suit, to that hulking frame and the gaggle of fans waiting outside his hotel, there's no denying Arnold Schwarzenegger's A-list credentials.

And whether he's cycling through London — helmetless — on a 'Boris Bike', or posting gym videos to his millions of social media followers, the five-time Mr Universe winner seems happy with his status as an eternal action hero.

All of which makes Maggie, Arnie's new low-budget indie film, about a small town farmer trying to protect his terminally ill daughter, sure to raise a few eyebrows.

The blockbuster veteran plays pick-up truck-driving, flannel shirt-wearing Wade Vogel, whose teenage daughter Maggie (played by My Sister's Keeper star Abigail Breslin) has just weeks to live after being infected by a zombie virus in an America that's been riddled with the disease.

After an acting career mainly playing the 'ubermensch' in films such as Terminator and Total Recall, the former bodybuilder and Governor of California couldn't wait to get his (massive) hands on the script.

"When I read it, I knew I had to do it. It is more vulnerable than any role I have played, more real, more emotional," the 67-year-old explains.

"This is something very new for me, and for the zombie genre. It was so different, I didn't just want to star, I wanted to produce, which I normally never do."

In the film, penned by first-time screenwriter John Scott 3, we see Wade searching for and tracking down Maggie, who is being held in a city hospital.

Authorities are putting those diagnosed into isolation wards, to complete their agonising zombie transformation away from the public, but Wade takes his daughter back to her family — stepmother Caroline (Joely Richardson) and her half-siblings - and refuses to surrender her.

As the dangerous disease progresses, however, Caroline decides to move out with the other children, leaving Wade alone and powerless while Maggie suffers.

"We've seen the zombie hordes and machine guns in other movies — it all seems like an unbelievable future. Maggie makes the disease real by shrinking the world of the movie to focus on just one family, in the middle of nowhere, on their wasted farm," Schwarzenegger explains.

Being a dad helped the star, who has four children with ex-wife Maria Shriver and a son with former housekeeper Mildred Baena, get to grips with the gritty role.

"When you have kids, inevitably you can relate to being a father figure, or being a protector of someone, much better," he says, his Austrian accent still strong after almost half a century in the US.

"Maybe I wouldn't have been able to play it 20 years ago, but now I'm able to play these kinds of parts."

The former bodybuilding champ isn't giving up on action movies just yet though; in fact, he can currently be seen in the latest Terminator instalment, Genisys, playing the robot protector of Sarah Connor (this time played by Game Of Thrones actress Emilia Clarke) and dusting off that famous "I'll be back" line.

With all the confidence you'd expect from the man dubbed 'The Governator' during his political career (he was elected Governor of California in 2003 and held the position for two terms), he insists the stunt-filled role didn't take its toll, 31 years after the original Terminator film.

"I really never feel that way, because I'm always staying in good shape," he says.

"I'm working out every day — you've seen the pictures of me riding my bike through London. I ride my bike every day for an hour minimum. If I'm up in the snow country when I'm skiing, I ride the Lifecycle [exercise bike], so I do something every day, and then I do the weight training also."

In Terminator Genisys, we see Schwarzenegger's character fighting a younger version of himself, thanks to impressive special effects. So if he had the chance to turn back time and give youthful Arnie some advice, what would it be?

"I would definitely go through any movies I've done [that] I thought I made the wrong decision on. If I made the wrong decisions politically, I'd correct them; if I made the wrong decisions in my personal life, I'd correct them," muses the star, who separated from wife Shriver in 2011, after it emerged he'd fathered a son with Baena.

"But it's always easy to be smart in hindsight, right? I don't ever think about that, because there are too many things to concentrate on that are real in life, rather than what is hypothetical."