"T3" SET REPORT PART 3: ARNOLD IS BACK!Reported By: Randy Jennings Thursday, May 16, 2002 The smoke and tombstone debris clears. Arnold's big action scene of holding Sarah's coffin in one arm and blowing away the innocent SWAT victims with his new bad-ass piece of hardware successfully wraps. Our WB Unit Publicist immediately grabs Arnold, after he sets his gun down, to tell him we are here ready to interview the Terminator himself. The Oak is on his way but first he stops in a shaded tent to check the footage on the monitors. They play back the scene for Arnold while I lean in to see for myself some of the first complete footage of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. The Unit Publicist, a wonderful gal who is obviously a big Arnold fan herself, is wearing a rare "Collateral Damage" T-shirt and an Arnold After-School Initiative badge around her neck. The strap on the badge boldly displays the Oak's name. The only thing she is missing to complete her Arnold ensemble was an ArnoldFans T-shirt. I quickly remedy that so she walks around with it in hand for the day. Arnold is now on his way and heads towards us. He strips off the thick Terminator leather jacket that must have been murder in the scorching sun. All that is left now are muscles! I "pull no chain" when I say Arnold looked more ripped than he has appeared since... hmm, well, a LONG time. On the set of "Collateral Damage" and in that movie he appeared massive and bulky but now Arnold still looks massive - but looks to have more definition. His arms are better shaped; Tan and "cut" yet nearly back to Mr. Universe condition. Schwarzenegger leaves his Terminator shades on and by doing so he does remarkably appear to be the Terminator of 1991. The Stan Winston award-winning make-up on his face, this time around, resembles more of cuts or shrapnel damage rather than bullet holes. Although rather bloody looking, Arnold is all smiles as he is always the "ham" ready to promote a movie. "Hey," Arnold recognizes me under my new TheArnoldFans hat,"How are YOU doing?" I couldn't be better after our handshake introductions and having Schwarzenegger as the iconic Terminator stand just two feet away from me. TAFs: Can you tell us about some of the new weaponry we will see the Terminator with? Bigger and better? Arnold: "A lot of OUTRAGEOUS weapons and neat things, different guns. Thatšs what we do all the time." Arnold then describes the gun kick of the heavy weaponry he just finished using on the set. "Yeah. It automatically comes with a device that lies right on your thigh so that it kicks into the thigh but not really. The idea of it is to make it as steady as possible so you can hit the target. If the gun keeps moving up or whatever like some old guns do, then you have to do the short bursts like we did in the old days. When I was in the army, all the machine gun fire was always ba-da-da, ba-da-da, ba-da-da so you stay on target. Ba-da-da-da-da-da-da is wasting ammunition." Q: Is this more physically challenging than the last? Arnold: "Well, we just started so we have only done two major action sequences so I cannot tell you because the major stuff is still to come." Q: Are you still a kinder, gentler Terminator? Arnold: "I can't talk about that too much. I can only tell you that it could easily be that Išm both." Q: How does it feel redoing such an iconic character? Arnold: "Well, it's fun and it is a big responsibility at the same time because people expect this movie to be as good if not better than the second one and the first one. The good thing about it is that Hollywood and the whole industry is in a mood for making the sequels better than the originals, or making the triquel better than the sequel and all that stuff. In the old days, just 10 or 20 years ago, they just tried to do a hit and run thing where they throw a little bit of money at something and then it'll make some money off that and then bow out. Now, theyšre thinking of it much differently and so therefore they make it in a quality way. They hire good people, the best in the business in every department and spend the money on it." Q: Can you compare the two directors? Arnold: "They're two different personalities. Both are very talented." Q: What does Jonathan Mostow bring to it? Arnold: "Well, hešs very intelligent. Hešs very knowledgeable with visual effects. He has the patience. He has the discipline and hešs a director. He directs. He directs every department and has control over every department and because he comes from that background, he also is very much into directing the actors. Some action directors have a tendency of paying a lot of attention to details of the action but not a lot of the details in the scene itself and the acting." Q: Why did you decide to do T3 without Cameron? Arnold: "Changed my mind." (fin) On that outburst of laughter we know our interview session is at an end. Arnold still has that great sense of humor, charisma, perfect tan, massive muscles and larger-than-life presence. Next Summer - Arnold conquers the box-office! Next article - Stan Winston conquers the future! ---------- |