welve years after filmmaker James Cameron directed the last of his two Terminator films, star Arnold Schwarzenegger returns in his signature role as a killer cyborg in the upcoming Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. But this time Cameron isn't around. Instead, director Jonathan Mostow (U-571) takes the reins, helming the production from a script by John Brancato and Michael Ferris, from a story by them and Tedi Sarafian.
That's not all that's changed. Acclaimed young actor Nick Stahl takes over the role of John Connor, replacing Edward Furlong, who memorably played Connor as a boy in 1991's Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Claire Danes joins the cast as a former classmate of Connor's named Kate Brewster. And model-turned-actress Kristanna Loken plays the TX, an advanced female cyborg sent from the future to battle Arnold's aging T-800 model. (For himself, Schwarzenegger, 55, worked out to regain the form he displayed in the 1984 original Terminator.)
Cast and crew took a moment recently to discuss the upcoming sequel and its legacy. T3 opens July 2.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, why was Jonathan Mostow chosen to direct this film, given that James Cameron chose not to do it?
Schwarzenegger: The thing that we looked at was, A, it has to be someone that is very hungry. Hungry for making their big step forward, and thinking that this is going to be his way or her way of making the big step forward into the big league. And for that, they had to prove something. So we were looking for a director who had a great track record, but that needed an extra-big step and needed that opportunity. So we talked to Ang Lee and we talked to John Woo and we talked to all of those different directors that were in that category that have done already successful things, but doing this well will establish them as the big next deal.
And ... after searching, it became clear that Jonathan Mostow was the guy. He felt very comfortable with the visual effects. He felt comfortable with the stunts. And he was very good with directing actors and all that stuff. And he was at the same time extremely hungry and was looking for something that would send him to that next [level].
What were the new challenges for you in this film?
Schwarzenegger: I think what we tried to do in this one is make the movie an ongoing story about the machines versus [the] human race. ... Kind of like the Frankenstein creation ... where you create something for a good purpose ... and all of a sudden, it goes out of control, and it becomes this big monster. ...
The character of the Terminator, in the first one, was a villain. He was basically the Goliath. And in the third one, he became David, where you felt kind of like sympathetic. And you said ... "Oh, my God, with this sophisticated machine [the TX], with all these abilities, there's no way that he can win." ... So it became kind of the switch from the first to the third one, which was something that we felt would be a really great idea: ... to have the character stay pretty much the same, but because of the circumstances, and who he is confronting, one never would have thought in the first one that this guy ever would become a vulnerable character. And now in the third one, he is. ... And then, at the same time, he's not, because there's a moment where he becomes kind of like the other Terminator for a little bit. And so that was interesting to play out, and to create the circumstances around it. So the stories evolved. But it's a continuation of the saga.
Did you really feel the physical strain this time? Was it harder?
Schwarzenegger: I had shoulder surgery, because of the movie and because of injuries I got in the movie. ... I got a beating in this movie. But I don't think it has to do with the age. It just has to do with the stunts. ... What was challenging was to get the body back into the kind of a shape that I was in in the first and then the second one. So I had to train really hard for that and diet much more, because your metabolism when you get older slows down, and you gain much more weight. ... I had to really get on a strict diet and then train two, three hours a day, and many times, during the night, when we were shooting, whenever we had an hour off, I went to my gym trailer, and I worked out with the weights and did all that stuff. Because it was very important to get in good shape. It's already embarrassing enough to be naked for three days out there on the set, but then on top of it, maybe, to be out of shape, I couldn't have handled both. One I could handle, but two, I can't.
A big chase in the movie involves you hanging from a crane that's driving down a street and crashing into a building. How much of that is you, how much of that is the stunt man hanging from that hook?
Schwarzenegger: I would say it's about 50 percent to 70 percent me, and then the rest of it ... to be honest with you, sometimes I don't know. Because when the shot is further away, I do not know whether it is me. I remember doing some of those scenes, but I still did not know, because a lot of the stuff was done again with different lenses or somebody else. ... It took a long time. I remember it very well. And the one where ... my body's dragged through the building, that scene I basically paid for, because they didn't want to do that scene. And I thought it would be really important to do that. Again, to show the other dimension ... of how indestructible the Terminator is, and how he can take this kind of punishment. And they didn't want to go for it, so I paid for that. Which was like $1.4 million. ...
What happens is, when you ... have a certain budget, and you fall behind three or four days with the shooting, then you start cutting certain things. And I didn't want them to cut certain things because they fell behind, because it hurts the movie. And this scene was written in, and I had very clear vision the way it should be. And so I said to Jonathan, "Jon, we have to shoot the scene. It doesn't matter what anyone says." And then I said to [producer] Andy [Vajna], I said, "Why don't I put the money in, and then later on, when the money comes back, you pay it back to me?" But, I said, "We have to have that scene in there, because I think it's a great scene."
Are you contracted for a couple more Terminator movies now?
Schwarzenegger: I am ... I don't think about any other movie until this one has played out. Because, I mean, the key thing is ... to let the audience decide if they want another Terminator, or whatever the movie is, rather than for me to make that decision. Because, I mean, the fans are the ones ... that make the movies successful. If they go to the movies, and they all go and make the box office be a huge hit, then we will do another movie, because then it's clear that they want more of it.
Is it true that you postponed a decision to run for governor of California to make T3?
Schwarzenegger: To be accurate, I thought about running. And then I realized that I already have this contractual obligation, so I didn't even get further into it. ... So I didn't postpone anything, because I was only thinking about running. I wasn't really announcing a candidacy or anything like that. I was not at that place. ... I think it was the right decision, because the fans demanded another Terminator. I signed a contract, and you have to stay with your commitments. And I'm very happy with the way it turned out. I think Jonathan Mostow did a great job. So I've no complaints. And I don't wish that I'd done anything else.
Jonathan Mostow, can you talk about why Edward Furlong was not in the movie?
Mostow: It's not so much that Eddie Furlong was, like, rejected, because he wasn't. I absolutely considered the idea of using Eddie. But it goes back to the whole reason I did this movie in the first place, which is, I though it was interesting that you had a unique situation where you had a character that everybody knows that's now suddenly 12 years older. ... And so this character's psychologically in a very, very different place in his life. ... He's spent a decade with sort of the ultimate existential dilemma. Am I the leader of the world? ...
So when I started this movie I just said in every area I want to start from scratch and make sure that I'm building up and making my choices for the right reasons. I don't want to do anything just because it was in the last movie. ... In the case of this character, I knew I needed a top-of-the-line actor, and I also needed somebody who had a soulfulness about them, so I could believe that they were really carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders. And Nick Stahl is, I think, one of the top actors of his age. And secondly, his own personal circumstances in his life, he's been a working actor since the age of 13. He never went to high school. He never went to college. He's lived on his own, in his own apartment, supporting himself since the age of 15. ... There is sort of a kind of a soulfulness about him that worked perfectly for this character.
Claire Danes was also brought in at the last minute, to replace Sophia Bush, who was originally cast. What happened there?
Mostow: It was one of those horrible, tragic situations, because originally I wanted Claire Danes for the part. And then for sort of typical Hollywood deal-making reasons, that didn't happen. So I said, "OK, well, now I've got to find somebody." So I had auditions, and I made what I thought was the discovery of my lifetime, which is that I found this young actress, Sophia Bush, who blew my socks off. Fabulous. And just to make sure, I brought her back like three times to read for me. ... And every time she was better than the last time. Put her in the movie, started filming, and then something happened that only happens once you start a movie, which is you look at the dailies on the big screen, and she was too young. She was 19 years old, and everybody else was 22. And at that age, three years is a big, big difference. And I did everything I could with wardrobe and makeup and everything to try to kind of make her look older. But it just wasn't working.
So it wasn't her ability?
Mostow: Oh, no, no, no.
There must be a lot of pressure for you, given the size of this film's budget [reportedly around $200 million]?
Mostow: Among my friends, that is the question I got the most. "God, what does it feel like to have the pressure of, like, a zillion dollars on your head?" And it's interesting. I've done movies for like a million dollars, and now I've done them for a little bit more than a million dollars, and there's no difference. You always feel exactly the same thing. You feel that you don't have enough time, and you don't have enough money, because whatever resources you're given, you try to push the envelope.
What about the pressure of the franchise itself?
Mostow: The budget was something that was, like, talked about. ... I mean, for $200 million I expect to go sit down in the theater and have, like, an ass tickler installed in the seats ... or like a personal masseuse. So I was unhappy with those stories, because I was concerned that they would create too unrealistic expectations for what could be in the movie. But taking on the franchise, yes, because that's a creative issue. That's about "Wow, those are two great movies you're following up. What are you possibly going to do to [to live up to them]?" Forget about exceeding them. Even to come up with something that can stand on its own as sort of the third installment of a trilogy and make it feel like it's part of a whole. I mean, let's face it. There's very few movies that have a "3" after them that have been much good. ...
The bet that I made—and we'll find out if I'm right—was that ... the reason I think people love these movies is the stories were great. ... Terminator is the story of a young woman, Linda Hamilton, discovering her own inner strength. Terminator 2 is the story of a mother reconciling with her son. Terminator 3 is the story of a young man coming of age and coming to grips with his purpose in life. Those log lines describe small, independent movies at the Sundance film festival, made for like $400,000, with money raised from dentists. And yet, here you have that same kind of emotional truth, and yet, like, lots of stuff blows up, and stuff flies around from outer space. So that is to me what makes these movies so particularly special. And that was the creative challenge, which was: Could we come up with a story and then execute with performances that were in that league? And that's what kept me up at night, not the money. Because it wasn't my money.
Are you attached to the next movie if there's another one?
Mostow: Yeah. I mean, I've made a deal to sort of develop it. But again, until I know that there's a script that's worthy of making a fourth one, I won't get locked into doing that. But let's see if people like 3.
Nick Stahl, how much of Edward Furlong's earlier performance informed yours? What came into your mind when doing that?
Stahl: I remembered that role distinctly from when I was kid, watching him do that. I knew that there was a lot of fans of this movie that wanted to see something repeated. They want to see the same sort of formula, and they get used to certain characters. And to me, he was John Connor as well. But I basically just had to approach it as if it was my own, as if it really hadn't been done before, just because that's really all I could do, is draw from my own experience. I knew they wanted to go a different direction with it, a different director, different direction for the story. So I just took my cue from Jonathan Mostow and was basically doing the same thing he was.
What were some of the biggest physical challenges for this role?
Stahl: The truth is, it was a physical movie, but like an actor's version of a stunt is like falling on the ground with kneepads on. They had an amazing group of stunt guys that did incredible work. And I tried to physically prepare myself somewhat, and I did like weapons training, and I learned to ride a motorcycle, and all this fun stuff. Things that you want to do as a kid. But it was a very physical movie, like we never really stop moving. It was such a furious sort of pace. So it took a little stamina as far as that goes. You've got to try to continue to sort of stay alert and keep up with the pace, I guess.
Claire Danes stepped in after you'd already shot scenes for a couple of weeks with Sophia Bush. What was that like?
Stahl: They cast this girl in the role first, and for whatever reason it wasn't working out for them. So we just had to reshoot all of the scenes I did with her. Luckily I had only filmed like two or three. ... It's hard to compare. It was tough at first, because you have it in your head who's playing the role and the face, you put the name to the face. But I think it was a blessing at the end of the day that Claire came into this movie. I think she's a great actress. I've been a fan of her work for a long time, and I think she just really adds so much to this story. I just felt like that's really what it is about this franchise in particular, these three movies, is that in the context of this sort of larger-than-life world, this concept, there's real human emotion and relationships. And I think Claire has a certain innate, just very rich emotional kind of presence. And I think that that just added so much credibility to this movie.
Are you contracted for a sequel?
Stahl: I am, actually. ... I'm actually set for two more, but it's all speculative as far as whether it'll be done. I think it depends on the success of this movie.
Kristanna Loken, you trained with a mime coach to learn how to move like a machine?
Loken: I did a lot of training. The mime coach was kind of the icing on the cake. They worked a lot with building internal energy and keeping your muscles engaged, almost working against an exterior kind of force. Being able to alienate different muscle groups in your body and allowing them to move independently of one another. Really very difficult. Very controlled. So it was really right for the character.
Was that you in the nude scene, when your character arrives from the future on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills?
Loken: That was definitely me. After all my time and hard work, I wasn't going to allow anybody else to do that [laughs]. ... I think if you're going to pretend that it's you, and you're not jeopardizing yourself for your own welfare, then you should do it. Absolutely. ... It was early September, and it was the very last night of filming, which was great, because I really got to fine-tune my body to look the way I wanted to look.
Can you talk about your fight scenes with Arnold? Was there physical contact?
Loken: Oh, very much so. I mean, when you're doing a fight scene like that, it's extremely intimate, and you're working in very close quarters. And it was kind of an interesting metaphor for me thinking, "OK, your first big, big movie, and you're fighting this kind of male iconic, strong figure. What does this represent?" But he really fueled a lot of my workout, my training, just kind of having him in the back of my mind and being naked in front of the world. It was a little bit of that, too. But he was great to work with. Of course, he's done the character twice before. He's very knowledgeable about the fight sequences, what works what doesn't work. And just very empowering energy. And to feed off of that was really a great opportunity.
How tall are you?
Loken: Five foot 11.
So you're almost as tall as Arnold?
Loken: Yeah. And I'm in heels and he was in boots. So it was good.
Claire Danes, people last saw you in The Hours, and here you are playing an action hero.
Danes: Here I am. Action gal. ... I was hired the day before I started working, literally.
So you were thrown in the deep end.
Danes: Yeah. My character was kidnapped by the Terminator, and I was kidnapped by the Terminator ... production. I didn't quite know how to make sense of it, because I didn't have time to. I had been in Australia with my boyfriend on holiday, and coincidentally the afternoon I had arrived in L.A., expecting to only be here for about three days before I returned to New York, I got a frantic call from my agent saying, "There's been a crisis on the Terminator set. They had hired another actress, but she proved to be too young for the part, and they need to recast immediately, and they would like you to step in now."
So someone messengered the script to me. I read it as quickly as humanly possible and tried to evaluate it with some kind of sound judgment, and I just said yes. I mean, I couldn't not at that point. I was free. It seemed like a really exciting opportunity. What a great adventure. And I'd just done three very sensitive, experimental, thought-provoking films of a smaller scale. And I guess I was prepared to go blow some stuff up. I was channeling my inner badass.
You have to bring the human side to it. Can you talk about balancing that and keeping it at the right pitch within this big action thing?
Danes: Yeah, it was a little challenging, because there was a little bit of that "And, cry ... now!" There was no time for me to listen to my moody music. But I was hired because I was professional. And I just thought, "OK, I'm just going to be a professional, then. And if you want me to cry now, I will. So there. Take that." I did have some of that spirit in me at the time. And my character finds herself in a very extreme circumstance. She's on the edge of the pending apocalypse. There was quite a bit to react to. I wasn't crying over a hangnail. It was serious stuff. But, yeah, there was pressure.
What about the physical demands?
Danes: They were formidable. I mean, I was pretty out of shape when I started. And by the time I began filming, I was so exhausted I really didn't have an opportunity to get on a treadmill or anything. I cook up excuses, I know. But yeah. I got thrown around a lot. I spent way too many days in the back of that bloody pet van with that gimbal throwing me around. I had to take anti-nausea pills. I was seeing a chiropractor two times a week for a while, because my spine was all kind of misaligned. But I was proud of all my ailments.
What about working with Arnold? Any surprises? It's different from working with Meryl Streep.
Danes: Vaguely [laughs]. I didn't know how to process him as a human being initially. Because I have so many associations with him. He comes with so much history. He's the ultimate icon. His public persona is so impenetrable. But blood runs through his veins just like you and me. He's not just like you and me, but blood runs through his veins.
What was the weirdest special-effects thing you had to play against?
Danes: I was always looking at things that weren't there. And I'd be reacting to a piece of yellow tape on the side of the matte box, and it was meant to be some robot that I hadn't seen. That was kind of hard. ... There's that scene where I'm shooting the ... flying thing—this is how I refer to it, "the flying thing"—and I remember what I was reacting to was [visual-effects supervisor] Pablo [Helman] running with a paper plane. He did not look so intimidating. So it was funny. But I had a sense of humor about it. And it was a real surprise to finally see the movie in its ultimate form, because it was like I was watching it for the first time.
Are you contracted for two movies, like Nick?
Danes: Yeah.
What would you like to see happen with Kate in the next one?
Danes: I really hope I don't have to pump too much iron. I really hope I don't have to have Linda Hamilton arms. I just can't do it.
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