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Although he is not yet a
household name, Australian actor Sam Worthingtons involvement in
the high-profile films Terminator Salvation,
Avatar (December 18th)
and Clash of the Titans (2010)
will certainly bring him to the attention of American moviegoers.
{sidebar id=1}InTerminator
Salvation, Sam Worthington is Marcus Wright,
a stranger from the past whose last memory is of being on death row
before awakening in this strange, new world. It is 2018, and the
Terminator are controlled by the artificial intelligent network
Skynet, which became self-aware 14 years earlier and turned on its
creators, unleashing nuclear annihilation on an unsuspecting world.
While the army of Terminators roams the post-apocalyptic landscape,
killing or collecting humans that hide in the desolate cities and
deserts, John Connor (Christian Bale) must decide whether Marcus can
be trusted to stand with him, infiltrate Skynet and face the enemy
head-on.
At the films
press day, Sam Worthington spoke about working with filmmakers like
McG and James Cameron.
Q: Youve
been working on these high-level, big productions for some time now.
Is this surreal for you?
Sam: I started
Avatar in 2006, and
Ive been working non-stop.
Q: And now the
publicity starts and people actually know who you are. Is that an
adjustment for you?
Sam: Nah, its
the next part of your job. You know its coming, so you do it. Your
job is to sell the movie you spent four months dwelling over, and
that McG has spent the last year dwelling over. Hopefully, we can
sell it correctly and people will go and see it.
Q: Were you a
fan of this franchise?
Sam: I
reacquainted myself with it before we shot. I was maybe 14 or 15 when
the second one came out, so I remember the liquid man because it was
pretty revolutionary. Seeing them again, you realize just how
talented Jim Cameron is, as a storyteller.
Q: Can you talk
about doing the stunts in this film, and the injuries during them?
Sam: Well, you
get beaten up. Its Terminator.
Its not fuckin Pride & Prejudice,
is it? You know what youre steppin into, so you take a few hits
and you take a few knocks. Just putting an actor in those situations,
the audience is seeing the character gettin blown up, running
through minefields and gettin shot at, and it draws them in a bit
more. Were not bustin em out going, Oh, thats a stunt
man. It keeps them involved in the story. I think all of us tried
to do as much as we could, before the insurance got involved.
Q: What was the
most dangerous stunt for you to do in this?
Sam: Being
strung up wasnt a very good day, but that helped the scene. I
didnt want to be strung up, and neither did the character, so that
helped. And, jumping off when the truck blows up was difficult.
Youre doing things that a stuntman can do. Im not a trained
stuntman, but Ill try to give anything a go. Some of the wire
stuff is a lot more difficult than it looks.
Q: What was
your reaction when you finally saw it all cut together?
Sam: I think
its fast. I think its the movie that McG told me he wanted to
make, and thats good. I get excited. Youre in it, so you cant
be too objective because you know whats coming next.
Q: Its
amazing to see that there is not tons of green screen and that there
is a lot of real-life robots and stuff?
Sam: Yeah. McG
is very smart. Instead of looking at a tennis ball, the guys at Stan
Winstons would build an actual robot, as a point of reference. In
this day and age, thats the smart thing to do. With a lot of blue
screen and green screen technology, audiences are tuned in. Its
good to have a point of reference.
Q: Wasnt the
acting in Avatar
almost all green screen, though?
Sam: Yeah, but
Jim is very clever, in the sense that he tries to make it as real as
possible. Even though youre in a big grey soundstage with nothing
there, he will try to give you as much as possible to make the
terrain and the place real. There would be plants to walk through
and, if there was an explosion, theyd throw shit at you, and
things like that. Acting is reacting. You cant just react to
nothing. Thats too hard a task to ask any actor. You always need
something tangible.
Q: Did James
Cameron say anything to you about being in Terminator?
Sam: I told him
that they wanted me to do it, and I said, Heres my take on the
character and heres what I want to do with it, and he told me,
Just dont fuck it up! That was about it. And then, he went
back to filming Avatar.
As Jim said, he wants to look at it, as a fan.
Q: Did you get
together with Moon Bloodgood and work out your scenes with her
beforehand?
Sam: Like any
scene, you dive in on the day. You kind of have an idea of what you
want to do, and you see where it goes. We did talk about things,
obviously, but I find that, in making any movie, its about
exploration and a bit of friction. If you get a bit of friction, you
can produce a pearl, and I think some of those scenes are like that.
Q: How was it
to work with Christian Bale?
Sam: I find
Christian extremely passionate and dedicated. People call him
intense. I hate that fuckin word. I hate it! He turns up, does his
job, and its all about the story and the character. To work with a
guy like that is actually a privilege.
Q: What was
your take on your character? How did you see this guy?
Sam: To
be honest, I looked at him as Dorothy in The
Wizard of Oz. That
was always stuck in my head, about this person waking up in another
world and finds himself as they go on this yellow brick
road and find the heart, the brain, the sensitivity, and all these
characters you meet. And, hes going to Skynet, which is Oz, to ask
the question, Why am I not fuckin dead? Thats how I
looked at it. Thats why Im wearing a blue coat. Dorothy wears a
blue dress. Things like that were stuck into it. Alice
in Wonderland, same thing. Thats how I
approached the character. I also wanted to be a robot that felt pain,
not only physical, mental and emotional, but heres a guy who
wanted to die for his sins and the irony is that he wakes up and he
cant die. Hes stuck and his penance is to suffer, until he
transforms and becomes a better human being.
Q: What kind of backstory
were you given, and what kind of backstory did you come up with
yourself?
Sam: We all came up with
our own backstories, to be honest. Now, its that he killed a
brother and two cops. That was McGs idea. I had my own backstory.
To be honest, I didnt want you ever to know what he did. Its
personal. We ADR-ed that line because audiences were coming back
going, What did he do?, so we put it in. But, I personally
wanted you never to know. The guys obviously done something wrong
cause hes on death row, but if you say hes a pedophile or a
psychopath or that he accidentally killed someone, then you already
have a preconception of him, and I didnt want that. As it stands,
I think its okay. Its still a bit ambiguous. Did he kill the
brother?
Q: What was McGs
reaction to your Dorothy analogy?
Sam: He thinks Im mad
as hell. Hes a good director. He lets you come in and do your job,
and gives you little, subtle hints along the way, until youre on
the right path. Thats what any good director does. They dont
treat you like a monkey or a puppet. They implore you to bring in
whatever you can bring in. My job is to bring in as much as I can,
and then he goes and puts it together. Thats my job.
Q: Did you guys have any
time to hang out off set and blow off some steam in Albuquerque?
Sam: Theres not much to
do in Albuquerque. Theres green chili and weaving. Thats about
it. And, the hours were long. I do an extraordinary job, so I try to
live an ordinary life. I go home and wash and cook and do bullshit. I
watch TV.
Q: When youre working
on something like Avatar,
is there a lot of physical precision involved?
Sam: Kind of. Youre
never dictated by the technology with Jim. Jim is paramount to the
actors. Everyone thinks that hes technology driven, but hes the
best fuckin acting director Ive ever worked with. He picks up
on subtleties and details that you wouldnt believe. So, hes
employed me to come in and do my job, and then we use the technology
and I work with him. Its give and take. Jim isnt a dictator. He
wants it fuckin high, but so do I. Im not there to get pushed
around. Im there to work with the man. And, thats why I got the
job. I dont get pushed around. Ive done 10 years [of acting] in
Australia. I didnt do that for nothin. We worked together. Its
a privilege to work with directors who like pushing the boundaries
and taking risks, like McG. Hes taken a hell of a risk on this
movie, with his career. Thats what I like to be a part of.
Q: Can you give a little
bit of your background and how you got into acting?
Sam: I was a brick layer.
I built houses and never wanted to act. When I was 19, I met a young
girl who auditioned for the premier drama school. I auditioned with
her for moral support, to cheer her along. I got in and she didnt,
and she dumped me a week later. We werent seeing eye to eye. I
didnt know what wings on the stage were. I thought Chekov was on
the Starship Enterprise on Star Trek.
I didnt realize he wrote plays. So, I was a sponge that took
everything in. And then, you finish your sentence after three years
and they release you for good behavior, if youre lucky, and you go
and work, and you learn how to act. Im still an infant in this,
but its been 10 years. Ive always thought that you do as much
as you can, in your own country, so you can sit in a room with Jim
Cameron or McG and offer something. Thats my apprenticeship. You
dont build a house and then go, Hey, can I do the Twin Towers
project? No ones going to give you the job. So, my belief is
that you do as much as you can, and I looked at other actors in
Australia who have done the same thing.
Q: Youre doing another
big fantasy project right now with Clash of
the Titans, right?
Sam: Were filming it,
at the moment.
Q: What attracted you to
that?
Sam: Who wouldnt want
to run around in a dress and kill the Kraken. Thats the appeal. I
read the script and was jumping around the bed with a ruler, and my
girlfriend was looking at me like Im nuts. She said, This is
the one youre going to do, isnt it?, and I said, Its
deep, trust me. But, I had a take on it that I gave (director)
Louis Leterrier and the studio, and they were mad enough to let me
loose and see if it can work.
Q: How will it differ from
the original?
Sam: Weve been filming
it for two weeks now and Im more bruised and battered than I was
on Terminator. Weve taken on Medusa, weve taken on the witches,
and then we just kill everything else. Its a bit more brutal.
Theres no togas, or theres very little togas. I said, Im
not wearing a toga. Bugger that! You cant look manly in a toga,
Im sorry. I couldnt do it. Louis is a very good action
director, so its going to be exciting and big, and my job is to
bring the heart.
Q: Whats your take on
Perseus?
Sam: Its hard for me to
discuss that because Im in the middle of it. Its something
that, when we go and promote that movie, I can tell you whether it
worked or not. Im in the middle of discovering whether the take is
gonna work.
Q: Do you live in L.A.
now?
Sam: I go where the work
is.
Q: So, you dont have a
house back in Australia?
Sam: Ive got two bags.
Ive got a bag of books and a bag of clothes. I sold everything
before I went and did Avatar,
and for the last four years, Ive been going back to back to back
on jobs. So, at the moment, Im living in a hotel up the road with
me mates.
Q: Whats in the book
bag?
Sam: Just lots of books
that inspire me and that Ive read, over the years.
Q: Theres probably
never been a movie like Avatar,
where nobody has seen a scene of it and theres no trailer, but
people are expecting it to be the second coming. Have you seen any of
it?
Sam: Yeah. I watched it
recently.
Q: Does it live up to the
hype?
Sam: Its amazing! Jim
said, The hype is gonna kill it. Jim is not nervous. He doesnt
get nervous. Its not the be all and end all. Hopefully, what this
does is open up a world of the possibilities of what motion capture
can do and the possibilities of what this 3-D technology can achieve.
Hopefully, it starts that kind of revolution, and I think it will.
Q: When you choose the
projects that youre going to do, are the expectations in your
thought process at all?
Sam: No. I pick because of
the director. Youre working with them, and my job is to facilitate
their vision. The second thing is, Would I go see the movie?
Theres no point in doing something for four months, or 13 months,
that you wouldnt go and see. That seems ridiculous.
Q: So, youre okay with
all of the hype that comes along with projects like those?
Sam: Thats just part of
the fun, isnt it? I guess Ill find out. My mates are sick of
seeing my head. If this happened when I was 22, it could be a bit
overwhelming. Im 32. I know who I am, so Im just going to enjoy
the ride. As long as it doesnt affect my work, and I keep
producing work of a certain quality, that keeps me in the game, then
Im okay. As soon as it starts affecting what I can achieve, or I
feel that Ive got nothing to offer, Ill go back to brick
laying.
Q: Were you ever
approached for The Green Lantern?
Sam: I think theyve
been talking to people. Ive been talking to (director) Martin
Campbell about it. Its one of those things where theyre still
doing the script. I said, Give me a script. Let me have a look at
it. I like Martin a lot. I met him on the Bond stuff, and I like
his work, but the second step is, Is it a movie that Id go and
see?
TERMINATOR SALVATION opens in theaters May 21
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