"SEE ARNOLD RUN" EXCLUSIVES: PART 1!
TAFs Interviews First Assistant Director!
Reported By: Randy Jennings
Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Arnold fans everywhere will be tuned into A&E this Sunday night to experience a very controversial film. TheArnoldFans interviewed First Assistant Director Greg Zekowski of the A&E biopic "See Arnold Run". We also caught up with the promotion manager to learn what kind of hype will be involved in promoting the film.

TAFs: Can you let me know a little more about your position on this movie and the other TV shows and films you have been involved in?

Zekowski:
I was the First Assistant Director on "See Arnold Run" for A & E and Paramount Pictures.

In recent years I have been involved in shows like the Star Trek 3D Experience "Borg Encounter" in at the Las Vegas Hilton, Directed Second Unit on another Paramount Show "Special Unit 2", Commercial for McDonald's (the one with Justin Timberlake) and a television Movie of the Week called "Homeland Security" just to name a few.

The First AD on any film is the guy (or girl) that runs the set. We are scheduler, right hand man to the director, baby sitter, counselor, 1st Sergeant, creative problem solver and safety monitor for a crew of up to thousands. We are responsible for the shooting of the film and making sure to our best effort that in a responsible manor we get the script on film. There is much more to the job including directing background action and keeping everyone happy, but I will try to stay somewhat short winded.

The bottom line is we are responsible for literally every second of every shooting day.

TAFs: Tell me about some of the best locations where you shot.

Zekowski:
I do not know about the best, but filming on the beaches of San Diego was fun. They were crowded and full of tourists we had to work around. The scenes shot there were set in 1974, so we had all our extras in wigs and period suits. Very fun. Shooting near the ocean is always very, very loud.

TAFs: What looked like the single most expensive set? Perhaps a recreation of a Schwarzenegger movie set like Mars or a jungle? No, no jungles or Mars.

Zekowski:
The film revolved around his Mr. Olympia Competition and the governor's race. The most expensive set was surely his house. We shot in Lajola at a very expensive house.

TAFs: Like VH1's Arnold Popumentary, does this "See Arnold Run" portray Schwarzenegger throughout much of the film in a negative, womanizing, light?

Zekowski:
When the film is over, are we left to think Arnold is a bit of a creep or a hero? I think, and this depends of course on the edit, that the script and what we shot was more of a simple story showing what drives Arnold from a personal stand point. What drives him? That was central to the plot. The story does show the many hard issues that came forth in the campaign. The writer and producers did not try to hide from the issues. The biggest problem was there was so much to tell that reducing it down to a manageable size was very difficult. There were many stories to tell with so many interesting characters that the Movie of the Week format restricted how much story we could tell. Remember that any film or television retelling is limited by the time slot. And any retelling of history in a dramatic format will always have a bias. Good, bad or what ever, the whole story will never be able to be told. So as filmmakers you do your best.

TAFs: Were any actors cast to play Arnold as a boy, his mom, father, brother, Jim Cameron, Franco Columbu etc.?

Zekowski:
Yes, we did. I would be more willing to answer this one after it airs. I do not want people distracted by that stuff when they first watch any project.

TAFs: I understand there are two actors playing Arnold. Can you tell me how close they sound to the real Arnold? And what prosthetics were used, if any, to transform them and give them Arnold's features? Gaps in teeth?

Zekowski:
Well, I will not say too much here except they both did a great job. They worked very hard to get Arnold down. Arnold is such a well known personality and there was I think a lot of pressure on the actors to get Arnold right. They handled it so well, never letting the pressure slow down the filming. We had a furious filming pace on this one.

As for Gaps and all that well, you can't take a set of pliers and wrench open someone¹s front teeth. There are prosthetics that can be used but only to a limited extent, the biggest thing was Roland getting into shape for Pose-Offs at the Mr. Olympia Competition Scenes. He worked so hard constantly. Hours and Hours at the gym, all the actors did.

In other "See Arnold Run" news, Justin Nichols who oversees the promotion had earlier let us know that the original plan was for people to put up See Arnold Run lawn signs. Now plans have changed.

Justin Nichols:
Happy New Year! The lawn signs have been changed to a mock political campaign/street team. We will have 25 total teams in 5 cities (NY, Chicago, SF, LA, DC) all promoting for the See Arnold Run Biopic debut on Jan 28 and 30. The street team members will be handing out tune in buttons, stickers, waving picket like signs and using a bull horn to promote their message.

We feel that this will be an extremely exciting way to help promote for the show.

Best,
Justin

Thanks to this guy, we received a big batch of buttons in the mail! Thanks Justin!