 TAFs Exclusive Interview with Terminator's Rosengrant!
John Rosengrant Part 2 Interview & Exclusive Photos!
Reported By: Randy Jennings
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Welcome to TheArnoldFans Part 2 interview with Terminator legend, John Rosengrant. If you're wondering where Part 1 went, well, that's an interview that I did with Titan Publishing and that will be printed soon in an upcoming Terminator project. More on that soon. For now, let's move on to this ALL NEW interview I had with Rosengrant, special effects and make-up hero of all four Terminator films! We also have several exclusive photos to share with you... never seen before, until now! Warning, the last image below is a spoiler so you may want to avoid scrolling to the very bottom of this page.
Rosengrant and I first talked in great length about the passing of Stan Winston, his business partner of almost three decades. The Discussion we had about the legacy that Stan left behind and a nice tribute to the late and great Winston, along with many other topics, will be in print soon.
After my phone interview, I later met Rosengrant, who was hanging out with Charlie Gibson(ILM master) at the Hollywood premiere of Terminator Salvation.
TheArnoldFans: What big contributions were you personally responsible for on the previous Terminator films?
Rosengrant: Well, I always ended up in the room and I sort of had my hands in everything when I first started working for Stan. Running appliances and there are two things that I had done on that movie that were quick and interesting things that were featured in the film. Like when Arnold cuts his eyeball out and throws the eye skin in the sink. I called the shop and told them that was going to shoot and we had to come up with something really quickly. I started making these skins that Arnold could throw into the sink.
And also when we were filming the crushed scene when the T-800 gets smashed at the very end, we built a puppet one that could get crushed but it wasn’t flattening down as much as Jim wanted it to and this was long after we wrapped principal production. There’s the shot where it crushes and the eye dims down and it flattens all the way. Well, what I had to do was take some foil that the key grips and lighting guy’s used to wrap lights with and I took one of those and burned the shit down over a Terminator skull and paint it up (laughs). So for the shot it was one of those things we had to do in minutes.
TheArnoldFans: Any other last minute pick-up shots?
Rosengrant: We were at Roger Corman’s place shooting little pick-up shots and there were some bits that he needed to help sell the story and we shot the scene where the Terminator is breaking down the door. That was just us at work with Jim at Roger Corman’s place. But I helped build the endoskeleton and I helped puppeteer it. It’s always a collaborative effort in everything.
Yes indeed, Rosengrant worked on some fantastic special effects and gore for the Terminator films, including this great Marcus arm for "Salvation" that really doesn't get much screen time. We've also seen other gruesome pictures from Legacy Effects showing other detailed cyborg limbs, decayed bodies and experimentations on resistance fighters that didn't make the final PG-13 cut. A true shame.
TheArnoldFans: What are your top 3 Arnold movies?
Rosengrant: Well, I think he’s a genius and I love him in Terminator 1 and 2 but I’ve always loved Predator. I’m probably biased (laughs) because I’ve worked on all of those movies.
TheArnoldFans: How do you think the Predator design turned out?
Rosengrant: I think that did turn into a masterpiece. That was a great, great character. And speaking of Stan, I think that’s the biggest thing he thaught us - that we create characters and not effects. And I think that transcends and comes through whether it be Pumpkinhead, the Predator, the Queen Alien, the Terminator, Iron Man, whatever. It’s developing a character, those are the best monsters or villains, the ones that really feel like it’s a character.
TheArnoldFans: What were some of your new techniques for Terminator special effects in this film?
Rosengrant: Charlie Gibson was the effects supervisor, he did all the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies and he would have us blend our puppets or make-up, or elements whenever possible to help mix it up. Because it provides great reference for when it’s going to be all CG and it also help for it to be on set for the actor to truly react to and if it’s not in the shot. It’s not just a tennis ball there. So hopefully, it’s a nice blend of keeping the audience confused but to be entertained by the state of the art of it.
TheArnoldFans: How did you get to work with Stan Winston?
Rosengrant: I was introduced to Stan and I showed him my portfolio and he thumbed through it and I kept bugging him until I finally conned him into hiring me.
TheArnoldFans: How did you come up with the T-600 design?
Rosengrant: We got to work with the art department and McG and take our design of the Terminator and incorporate it into this world. So the T-600, it’s a new beast that we haven’t quite seen what he’s looked like with giving a neanderthal kind of crudeness to a Terminator.
TheArnoldFans: I'm sure the Harvesters are mostly Computer-Generated, but did you build a full-scale leg or claw for any close-up shot?
Rosengrant: I wish we would have. We did not. He ends up being an all CG piece in there.
Rosengrant was at least happy to have built a couple of huge T-1s. In this image we see John and another Legacy Effects worker adding some final details to the rusty beasts. In the factory, a life-sized Arnold from T3 watches over their progress.
TheArnoldFans: How large is your new studio and do you still have a large trophy room of all the film characters?
Rosengrant: It’s a little different now. We have about the same square footage as what we had with the other two buildings combined – maybe a little bit more. We were finding it was becoming increasingly difficult in the two buildings to hold onto that space. It’s a lot of square footage to have dedicated to just a cool room but we do have areas where cool things are presented.
TheArnoldFans: What are endoskeletons REALLY made of? Something lightweight?
Rosengrant: The T-800 is as light as you can make them but they get chrome plated so that adds a bit of weight to them. The T-600s and the T-700s, we tried to keep those as light as possible and maid those out of tuff Europhanes – which still have a metallic look to them. We took some of our peaked innovations from "Iron Man" and although those are much shinier, we kind of developed the technique of taking Europhane rubber to look like metal. We transferred and turned all the Terminators from this so it was really tuff and could withstand punishment but still had a great paint look to it where it looked like old rusty metal. So it's a different look than Iron Man but the same techniques were applied.
Did I leave out some questions? Sure, but TheArnoldFans has a lot more Q's and A's with John Rosengrant in the upcoming surprise publications found at your local book and comic stores soon.
We hope many of you enjoyed the Arnold Schwarzenegger T-800 cameo in Terminator Salvation. Charlie Gibson, who did the Arnold CG rendering, signed my Schwarzenegger print-out while John Rosengrant signed my T-RIP figure. Click HERE if you missed the topics Charlie and I discussed about Arnold's CG role.
Unfortunately, after speaking with the studio, I'm told that I can never share those Arnold bust images that were created at Legacy Effects and then scanned to create the CG likeness. Bummer, I was hoping to share those with the Arnold community here but maybe another website will leak them and get in trouble by the studio later?
At least we have this exclusive Christian Bale bust image from Legacy Effects. Check out the cool facial scare. We'll leave you with this image but be back soon for more interviews and other surprises.
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Randy Jennings
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