08 June 2009 (Movie Interview)

Words: Sheena McGinley

Behold the FINAL interview from the 'Terminator Salvation' junket in Paris. As mentioned in One Night In Paris... Terminator Salvation Special, young Anton Yelchin (who plays Kyle Reese in the movie), looked a wee bit rattled by the time he shuffled into our hotel room - and not just because he looked like the adolescent incarnation of The Preacher from 'Poltergeist'. The dubious looking energy drink he was clasping conveyed his state of mind more than his oversized hat/random gold chain combo (I found myself hoping that both were purchased in a caffeine-facilitated fit). Besides being bleary-eyed and sleep deprived, the 20-year-old actor held his own in a room populated with six European journos, alongside our accompanying aroma of sweaty anticipation (Christian Bale was the next actor due to walk through our door). He spoke of his love of film noir, working with Sir Anthony Hopkins, "dicking" around with Sam Worthington, his shyness, and how he'd never go see films like 'Terminator' in the cinema...

The introductions begin as usual. Yelchin responds to each with a semi-concious "HI... HI... HI... HI... HI... HI... and I'm Bryce Dallas Howard."

Sheena: "You might as well be at this stage."

Anton: "Hah! Yeah *hangs head*. I'm Anton Yelchin and I'm from Los Angeles."

(pendantic) Man from Brussels: "Los Angeles? So even though you were born in Russia (hence his flawless accent in Star Trek) you say you're from LA?"

Anton: "Well, I moved when I was six months old. OK, I'm Anton Yelchin from Russia, twenty years ago."

Dutch Dude: "Of course in Terminator there's a lot of playing with timelines so it makes sense that you could say you're from Russia 20 years ago."

Anton: "Yeah, it makes sense. I'm from Russia 20 years ago, I impregnated a woman, she birthed the savior of mankind... my timelines are all fucked up right now" *reaches for energy drink himself and his hat are hunched over*

S: "Literally. You've been very busy, what with Star Trek out not too long ago too. Now, your resemblance to Walter Koenig (who originally portrayed Chekov) was evident but marginal - you know, you didn't have the hair..." *plasters own fringe to head*

Anton: "Yeah, that was a choice they made."

S: "And it was a good one. That hair isn't a good look on anyone. Yeah, but you really embody Michael Biehn. The similarities - physically, facially - are quite pronounced. Did you just spend hours looking at him?"

Anton: "Ah, thank you... I did a lot of work going into it... I think people judge you by your previous work, but your job as an actor is to change yourself all the time, you should be like a chameleon. Jump from one character to another and try to embody them as much as possible. A lot of work that I did was watching Biehn, his posture in the first film. His reactions to things - the paranoia, anger and vulnerability he brought to the things that he did -"

S: "He's like a cat."

Anton: "HE IS! A very primal being there. Especially in the way he moves. He moves like he's being hunted all the time, especially in that opening sequence (in Terminator 1) where he's running through the store. So, those were things I looked at... the fascinating thing with Kyle Reese is that he's such an idealist - and a romantic. I mean, he falls in love with a picture (of Linda Hamilton)... in fact, that's beyond being a romantic. He's an intrinsically lonely individual.  I mean, he falls in love with a picture as it comes to symbolise everything he doesn't have in his life.  And then he falls in love with the real thing, partly because of the picture."

S: "Well, it's a really nice picture, what with the wind and the Rambo hairband."

Anton: "Yep, it's a REALLY nice picture, it's one of the nicest Polaroids I've ever seen, in fact. But, uh, there's a great depth of their performance when you watch T1. When you go and study as I have, there's a lot there. So I try and pick up on all those things and see how would they come out in a person who's 10 or 15 years younger. He doesn't have the military background so that's why he's off point sometimes. Like, Kyle Reese in T1 would never go stick a gun in someone's face and get it taken away."

Maria from Barcelona: "What you do you think of Terminator 1, 2 and 3?"

Anton: "I'm a big fan of 1 and 2."

S: "That appears to be the general consensus."

Anton: "I saw 1 a long time ago, I was like four, or five - no, hang on - I saw 2 when I was five... and then I rented 1 a while ago..."                       

S: "That would've been quite traumatic viewing for a five-year-old."

Anton: "Nah, I think Arnold is more traumatic in Terminator 1. In the seven years between 1 and 2 you can see how Arnie's become a movie star. So I think as a little kid you can't help but be so impressed by him, and how cool he is, and envision yourself as John Connor. T1 I don't remember finding as interesting as it was a love story. Like, I waited for them to blow stuff up. And I waited... and there was love, it was like, AAAARGH. But whenever they're on TV I'll watch them (the image of the T1000 impaling Edward Furlong's foster father through his head and onto a cupboard door obviously had little impact on the 5-year-old Anton)... T3 I honestly couldn't make it thrrrrouuuuggh..."

S: "So you weren't influenced by Nick Stahl's portrayal at all, then."

Anton: "No, it wasn't the actor so much, it was the decisions they made, uh..."

S: "You found it too cheesy?"

Anton: "Yeah, very cheesy for me. They maybe lost track of what Terminator should be about (explosions, obviously). But it happens, it was made 10, 12 years after T2. On this film, McG wanted to go back to what was essential in T1 and T2 (guns and grit)."

Pretty German Girl: "Speaking about you being 4-years-old, I read that your parents tried to get you into their profession (figure skating), but you totally declined. Why?"

Anton: "I declined by default - I was just TERRIBLE. They saw it and they just thought 'Wow, this is not happening for this kid'."

S: "'Oh, how embarrassing, never let him do it again'."

Anton: "Yeah, they were like - yep, no, not this guy. My mom used to say 'You have a potentially good pair skating body', but I don't know what that meeeeaans. NO, idea what that means *throws hands in air*, but she would say 'You can DO this', but I couldn't. All I would do is talk. All the other kids would do a couple of laps and I would still be on my first, talking away to the coach. And I just failed."

DD: "Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

Anton: "No, only child."

DD: "Well, that's very unlucky for your parents..."

S: "Ahhhh?! He's only a bleedin' movie star!"

Anton: "Yeah, instead of an athlete, they got a repressed, tortured artist kid. Nah, my parents just only ever wanted me to be happy, but also to have something in my life so I wasn't just schlepping around - and have some sort of... uh. So, for a while it was school and then I realised I was good at it, and they said 'well you'll have to dedicate yourself to it'. They're athletes so they're very dedicated. To them dedication is everything - you don't half-ass anything, you either do it or you don't."

DD: "When did you come across acting?"

Anton: "When I was nine. I started going to an acting class because I was very shy and a friend of ours suggested to my parents that they take me to this class and I did that for a year. And I really enjoyed it cause I did all these sports which I was NOT very good at and really didn't have a good time doing. So to suddenly go and be part of this class which was so much fun, there was improv and imagination... The acting coach suggested that I go do some auditions and ironically my first audition was for Chucky Cheese, a chain in the States, which is like this freaky mouse that sells pizza -"

S: "Why would anyone buy pizza off a mouse."

Anton: "I KNOW!  WHY would you? Although I used to have my birthday parties there when I was little.. But, anyway, 'I'll be back' was the first line that I ever did!

Collective: "Awwwww."

Anton: "I was like, *squeaks* 'I'll be back!'"

S: "And it obviously SNOWBALLED from there."

Anton: "Yeah! But there was never really an intention for me to do this. My parents thought that everyone in LA wanted to be an actor, which they thought was ridiculous. But they were very happy I found something I was willing to dedicate myself to."

S: "You're very interested in music as well, but I hear you've also made some short films?"

Anton: "Been in them or shot short films?"

S: "Shot them."

Anton: "Yeah, I've shot some weird short films, random stuff. Nothing that I've written. I just walk around for weeks shooting things and then I edit them together into something on my computer."

S: "Do you post them anywhere?"

Anton: "I put one on YouTube, but it's ridiculous..."

S: "DOESN'T MATTER! What's it called?"

Anton: "It'll be a mystery... ah no, it's called Bogart... maybe? But it has nothing to do with Bogart really. It's like a bunch of clips of rocks falling in water, me swinging around a pole." *laughs*

S, getting a bit overexcited by the thought of pole swinging: "BRILLIANT."

Anton: "Yeah, just weird shots of interesting things. But really it's more of a joke to put random stuff on YouTube. Like I did another one which was actually really good but my computer crashed so... um yeah, so there you go."

S: "You might try your hand at music videos."

Anton: "Yeah, it would definitely be a lot of fun to shoot, I mean I have a band so maybe if we do a video I'll shoot that video."

MfB: "What kind of band do you have?"

Anton: "They're called the Hammerheads? We're actually playing a show in the Viper Room in LA."

DD: "That's not too bad. What do you play in the band?"

Anton: "I play the guitar, and I sing. It’s kind of old school punk rock. The bands it's similar to, or influenced by rather, would the The Cramps... and, and, and The Cramps... Oh and Johnny Thunders and The Heartbreakers, stuff like that. And also a lot of old blues. So we take blues songs and play them a little differently just for fun. But I have no interest in being a musician (lucky band mates), it's just something I do."

Pretty German Girl: "You said acting classes was something to remedy your shyness, did that actually work or are you still fighting this fear?"

Anton: "Uh, well I'm definitely more extroverted than I was, cause you kind've have to be, but I still get very shy at certain times I guess... Uuuuuumm (silence). Yeah. Around certain people. Like I trrryy, but there's just certain people I just don't know what to say around. Especially if I have a respect for them, like around Christian I'd be kinda shy. I have a lot of respect for him so I would never be cocky with Christian - like they way I would be with Sam (Worthington)."

DD: "Why is that?" (we all lean forward at this point)

Anton: "Just 'cause myself and Sam got to be really good friends and we just dick each other around."

MfB: "But if you're an actor on different projects you'll always meet people you admire or respect - that could be awkward!"

Anton:  "NAH, it's not awkward in anyway, it's just how you treat a person. Like, when I worked with Anthony Hopkins he wanted me to call him Tony. I was like, I'm not calling Anthony Hopkins 'Tony, you're not Tony to me' - so I called him Sir Anthony… So it's not like I can't work with a person, once you're rolling it doesn't matter who they are. But you know, in conversation I'd be more polite and perhaps more introverted than I would be around someone else... I think it would be disrespectful for me to go and say some of the stupid stuff I say to Sam to Christian… But you know, when you're rolling you just do it. It doesn't matter whether it's Anthony Hopkins, or Albert Finney - who I also worked with when I was younger - it doesn't matter, cause they're working with you like a serious actor would so you lose all of the inhibitions, and then when they cut you can go back to feeling all intimidated 'n all."

DD: "Do you think you were too young to fully appreciate working with them?"

Anton: "I recall being in the presence of something that can only be described as pure creation. There was a scene we did and you just watch Hopkins work and the whole set is quiet and there's just something going on. It's like what's going on in Hopkins could be hanging in The Louvre. There's an incredible beauty and purity of spirit and something phenomenal happening, and I remember acknowledging that a lot... I see things that Robert Downey would use when I worked with him, the freedom with which he went to certain places based on what he knew about his character. With those kinda actors, there's  a freedom there - they've done their work to such perfection that they don’t worry about getting something wrong they just go for it. But that's when you see performances that really move you. And the last performance I saw like that was Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight. You're blown away by the freedom of expression there."

Maria from Barcelona: "Do you like big movies, going to see them, like Terminator."

Anton, without hesitation: "No."

M: "NO?"

Anton: "Not really. I don't wanna say - well, I've not really gone to the theaters in a while, the last film I saw in theaters was Gomorroah, which I really liked (a hum of approval goes around the table). But mostly I just Netflix (DVD rentals). Actually, there was a Jules Dassin festival by my house, so I saw Rififi (Du Rififi Chez Les Hommes) and Night And The City, which were great to see onscreen."

DD: "So is it all the more remarkable for you to be in a big film like Terminator?"

Anton: "It's bizarre. Definitely bizarre. It's a great environment to find yourself in. I do what I do to work, but there's also this aspect of running around with a toy gun - or NOT a toy gun - a REAL gun! You know, and shooting at shit and running around 7-foot-tall Stan Winston models, and screaming and yelling at Worthington as everything around us blows up. You feel a very juvenile excitement of 'this is awesome. I get to blow stuff up...'"

READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR McG // READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH BRYCE DALLAS HOWARD // READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH MOON BLOODGOOD // READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH CHRISTIAN BALE 

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