LOS ANGELES?In a recent interview, a reporter?s question to ?Terminator Salvation?s? director, McG, about the much-talked-about on-set outburst of his star, Christian Bale, provoked a long and passionate defense from the filmmaker.
McG, whose daring gamble to direct the fourth film of the sci-fi series seems to be paying off (Variety?s review proclaimed: ?McG?s direction is always intelligent?), gallantly said that it was all his fault. The director of the two ?Charlie?s Angels? movies, attempting to boost his directing reputation by taking on a series distinctively created by James Cameron, explained that he encouraged the tension on the set to intensify the dramatic conflict for a scene they were filming.
As many folks know, Christian, who plays John Connor, exploded into an invective-filled rant at Shane Hurlbut, the movie?s cinematographer, for straying into his sightline during a scene. The audio clip, lasting almost four minutes, was posted on TMZ.com and went on to draw almost two million hits on YouTube. McG also took the blame for not making sure such leaks were prevented.
Safe environment
?I?m to blame for the whole thing, because first and foremost, it?s my job to create a safe environment on the set at all times, so the actors can explore any given emotion,? McG explained. ?I always believe in the sanctity of the film set. I?m not kidding. It?s really my responsibility.?
He continued, ?A set is the equivalent of any of us at the dinner table. We?re all likely to lose our head, get a little uptight, and if that were taken out of context, it would seem wildly offensive. In great many ways, this is a war movie. So, if I?m on the set getting in Christian?s face saying, ?You better get your f*****g s**t together and you better fire up and make me believe that your life is in danger. Now, get off your f*****g ass, Christian, and show me something,? that?s going to get him to a place where he?s very fired up and in the spirit of creating a real life-and-death performance. It?s never meant to go outside of that arena.
?It?s no different than Kate Winslet in ?Titanic.? There?s a wonderful scene where Kate chooses to be naked as she?s falling in love with DiCaprio?s Jack. Believe me, there was a moment on that set when the robe came off, with her body looking less than flattering and the cameras rolling, but she had to trust that that was never going to get out in the public consciousness. If those out takes got out on TMZ, she would have been very embarrassed.
?People shouldn?t accuse Christian of being a bad guy because he?s not. He?s a good guy; he loves his family. He has no entourage?he?s an actor?s actor. He drives to an event like this in an old beat-up pickup truck. He operates from a place of passion.
Leak
?I?m ashamed and embarrassed on behalf of Hollywood that a leak would happen, because the last thing we all want as film fans is to have actors saying, ?Hey, I?m Al Pacino. I don?t want to put my face in all that cocaine for a scene?they might think I got a problem in real life.? You?re Tony Montana, a cocaine dealer. You have to do it!
?I don?t trust ?TMZ.? That?s very bad for all of us. It?s not in the interest of great art, so it?s a sad day. Look at ?Wolverine,? for goodness? sake. The whole film got leaked out! Who?s to say if it hurt or helped the film? You get my drift? It has become fashionable for people who work in postproduction houses to say, ?Hey, look at what I found. I?m going to be the big man, and I?m going to leak this out.? It?s very unfortunate.?
Set in 2018, ?Terminator Salvation? is, as McG mentioned, a war movie that pays homage to Cameron and his star, Arnold Schwarzenegger (who famously played the first T-800 Terminator model) by featuring a character scanned from the actor?s images in ?The Terminator.? The people at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) created a new code from those scans and came up with a photorealistic Schwarzenegger who makes a ?digital cameo? appearance in ?Terminator Salvation.?
Asked if the Governator knew that his CG-enhanced likeness is going to appear naked in the new movie, McG replied, ?He?s very proud of his physique. If you look a little more closely at the DVD resolution of that first movie, he is indeed naked in it (laughter). He knew the whole time, but he said, ?Hey, I have to see it before I can give you my approval.? So, we had to keep working on it, and ILM had to develop a code to create Arnold from the first picture. It required a great deal of diligence to do it in photorealistic capacity.?
Proponent
McG added, ?When we finally got close to finishing it, we put it in front of Governor Schwarzenegger. He became very excited about what it was. Now, he?s a very vocal proponent of what we?ve done.?
?Terminator Salvation? also stars Sam Worthington and Anton Yelchin (watch these two guys break out this year), Helena Bonham Carter, Bryce Dallas Howard, hip-hop star Common and Moon Bloodgood.
E-mail rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com, and read his blog, ?The Nepales Report,? on http://blogs.inquirer.net/nepalesreport.
