03 June 2009 (Movie Interview)

Words: Sheena McGinley

Last week, I had the joy of ordering outrageously priced room service AND meeting the cast of Terminator Salvation in Paris - including director McG, Bryce Dallas Howard, Moon Bloodgood, Anton Yelchin and Mr. Christian Bale.  A blow by blow account was posted for your perambulatory pleasure in the Gossip Section. There you can read about the intricities of what each cast member was wearing and quite an in depth analysis of the magic material that was covering my hotel bedroom walls.

Here is where you can read the transcripts of the interviews - the questions of which were asked by myself, a Dutch Dude, a Man from Brussels, Maria from Spain, a Pretty German Girl and a Mute Potato from Switzerland. Again, for slightly more information regarding them, do refer to the One Night in Paris - Terminator Salvation Special.

Terminator Salvation's director, McG, was first to grace us with his slightly sweaty presence. He put his perspiration down to his prior exertions in the gym, but I reckon it was nerves. Terminator is, after all, a far higher profile endeavor than We Are Marshal, two Charlie's Angels films and the smattering of music videos he's lent his name to to date. If his Terminator isn't a riotous box office smash, there may not be any more. That's quite a bit of pressure.

After waffling about the French Open for slightly longer than necessary, McG pulls himself together and sets about dazzling us with his creation. Oh and be warned, this does contain spoilers - it also includes thoughts on sheep cloning and an outpouring of guilt regarding Bale's rant:

McG: "Have you had a chance to see the movie yet? How about that Sam Worthington?! Christian is also so elegant. And what we needed to do was ground the film with integrity. After the first three films it had lost its way. It became a little bit of a farce. And we wanted to begin again, in the spirit of The Dark Knight - or Batman Begins, rather - and Daniel Craig, with Bond. And to do that I figured it'd be critical to have the most talented actor of his generation, Christian Bale, to come in a bring the message to the world that this is a serious undertaking" (no pressure there, Christian).

Sheena: "Was it your decision to lower the rating to accommodate a younger audience (Terminator 1 and 2 were rated 18s and 15s respectively), and - if so - are you still happy with that decision?"

McG: "I mean, we were given permission to shoot whatever film we saw fit, we didn't aim for a rating at all, we just wanted to shoot the film that was right. And at the end of the day, we looked at the cut, and there was maybe two or three examples of maybe too much blood pouring out of someone's arm, which would've taken us to the next level rating, and it didn't seem valuable to the story."

S: "But you've denied us Moon Bloodgood's goods" (she shot a topless scene which was was omitted)

McG: *laughs* "Ah well, perhaps in the DVD (buy the DVD, kids!). She's quite beautiful. That was designed to be a very delicate, feminine moment, not a vulgar - and I didn't want it to be guilty of here's a genre movie - and here's the girl taking her top off. So anything that would compromise the story - the Sam Worthington character and the study of the human heart, and John Connor's rise through the resistance... I wanted the emphasis to be on that - and the intelligently staged action, I hope. We don't rely on cuts, we stay on the one shot and create regularity."

Dutch Dude: "Does it interest you - what makes us human and the combination of technology?"

McG: "Absolutely, now more than ever. We live in a time where we have digital machines that have some form of artificial intelligence, so we're very comfortable with that. If you've got a bad heart, they'll give you a new one. But more particularly, if you're depressed, no one will ask you about your mother or your father in the freudian age. They'll give you serotonin re-uptake inhibitors until you feel better. They can disrupt the human genetic code, they can clone a sheep - that'd popular in your neck of the woods..." *nods in my direction*

S: "Yeah, we Irish love sheep."

McG: "And those are the things which make this material more resonant now - because what was once science fiction is indeed now a reality."

DD: "So do you see your film as a forewarning?"

McG: "Yeah, it's a thinly veiled cautionary tale."

S: "There was a rumoured ending which involved John Connor's face getting grafted on to Marcus's Terminator endoskeleton. Was that going to happen?"

McG: "It was MUCH darker than that. What we were going to have happen was, Connor's face was going to be grafted on to Marcus's body and he was going to wake up and shoot everyone in the room."

S: "Oh brilliant!"

McG: "Revenge of the robot. But we thought that'd be too dark."

S: "Nope, I think that would've been fantastic."

McG: "We have the storyboards to that - sorry, I'm hot, I've just been to the gym -  yeah, we have the storyboards to that included in the DVD" (plug number two for the DVD, folks. This is a man on FIRE)

DD: "How difficult was it to get the face of Arnold Schwarzenegger?" (yep, Arnie as you remember him - naked - turns up in one of the scenes. Which was nice)

McG: "Very difficult."

Maria from Barcelona: Did you speak with him much regarding it?"

McG: "Yeah, all through pre-production, feature photography and post production. We spoke all the while but he's very busy being the governor of California."

DD: "So could you tell us something about how that went about?"

McG: "Yeah he knew about the idea, but he wanted to see proof of concept to make sure it turns out well. We went to ILM (digital production company) and looking at everything. But as it progressed he said 'oh, I like it, I like it', which felt very good."

S: "It was a great surprise." (One of the few, thanks to the trailer)

McG: "WASN'T IT A GREAT SURPRISE!? MAN, it's hot in here… I don't wear a suit very often, usually I'm in my director gear. This is my costume cause I want to be respectful of the press" *nervous laughter*

S: "You dedicated the film to Stan Winston, can you tell us a little bit about him?"

McG: I was on the set with John Rosengrant (who worked with Winston 25 years ago on the first Terminator film) when they found out of Winston's passing. You can imagine how emotional that was, to be working with one of his proteges. And we're working with the robots that he created and so we decided to dedicate the film to the great man who gave us the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, the queen alien from Alien, the list goes on and on.

It was then that Maria from Barcelona asked: "And how was it working with Christian Bale. How was he?" Now, this is a fairly innocuous question. He could've been as vague as he liked, but was surprisingly forthcoming, especially since he declined to comment on Bale's infamous onset rant in a recent interview with The Guardian.

McG: "Well you're about to find out! He's a gentleman. He's extremely professional. He's very, very focused. What I like about Christian is that he works very diligently, he works very hard to be the best he can be, and I think that honors the audience and THAT's why we love Christian Bale movies - because you know he's not just sleep walking his way through a performance. He's very focused and he brings the best he has - that, that audio tape leak is terrible for Hollywood. It's bad for movie making. It's no different from the press room for any of you - if you talk to your editors and get excited, that's for you to be talking about, that's not for the world to hear. And then, if it's taken out of context, it's unfortunate.  So, the truth is, he's a very nice guy. He's very focused on his wife and child, it's a fact, you're about to see it for yourself. And he's just very passionate on the set. You know? Jesus I'm sweating. They put make up on my face too! Um, but that's the simple truth about Christian Bale. He's very very very passionate and, if you'll notice, he's also in character when you heard him get excited - he's speaking like John Connor. He's from Wales. He has a decidedly English accent (that's open for debate but how and ever), but he was speaking like John Connor (at this point, McG starts getting excited himself). I was making a war movie, you guys have seen it - I wanna believe, if we we're all in a bunker together, I'd say *jumps up* 'C'MON, I NEED TO BELIEVE WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE! C'MON LET'S GO, YOU READY?! LET'S GO!!!' Then, if somebody does something, it's like 'ARGH! WHAT ARE YOU DOOOOING?!?' You know! And then someone takes it out of context - that's not great... I blame myself completely. Because it's my job at all times to protect the actor. So I take it very, very personally that on my watch that happened. It's terrible because it didn't happen on a Michael Mann movie, it didn't happen on Chris Nolan's movie. It happened on my movie. And I will also say, in fairness, there's nothing more I could've done about it, but a violation of that nature happening on one of my movies hurts my feelings. Deeply, deeply hurts my feelings. Because I want an environment where people feel free to do what they want to do - to succeed, fail and try - that's what it means to be an artist. So the fact that happened is terrible, but we're living in a dangerous time regarding that. Look a Wolverine! The whole movie got leaked out. It's gonna be more exciting for those... uh..."

S: "Who's going to be the first to expose something private on the internet."

McG: "Exactly right."

M: "Can you tell us about the future of the franchise, can you tell us what happens?"

McG: "Should there be a next movie, and it's up to the fans of the world - but so far so good, people seem to like this one very much (silence) - should there be a next film, it will be centered on John Connor coming back in time, to galvinise the armed forces of the world, meet his mother, and find Marcus, who is mid transition into becoming a machine and fight and impending Skynet invasion - in Barcelona (Maria coos with glee), in New York, in Paris, and Alexandria."

S: "There's so many timelines!"

McG: "No really, it's not that bad."

S: "Any thoughts on who might play Sarah Connors?"

McG: "No, not as yet."

DD: "Are you going to direct it?"

McG: "I haven't decided."

S: "Do you have the offer?"

McG: "Yeah, we've agreed to do that, but it depends. I defer to you, I defer to the people to say 'I enjoyed the film or I didn't enjoy the film' (silence). The next film will see growth… this film's role was to re-establish credibility (more silence). Because after the third one it got a little "Talk to the hand" and the Elton John glasses. Which is fine, but we needed to go back to expand our world."

At this point, McG's publicist poked her head around the door for the third time: "OK, that's me, I'll see you guys at lunch, OK?" This was the first we'd heard of said lunch but we nodded the affirmative anyway. If there's one facet in which McG has succeeded, it is the "intelligently staged action." It's just a shame its brilliance is set against a soundtrack of disengaging dialogue (not surprising considering the script had no less than 6 writers in the end, including McG and Bale). In short, if you're a fan of grit, explosions and attractive sweaty sorts, McG has made a cracker of a film for you.

 READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH BRYCE DALLAS HOWARD // READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH MOON BLOODGOOD // READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH ANTON YELCHIN // READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH CHRISTIAN BALE

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