Arnold Schwarzenegger – The Terminator is back

Arnold Schwarzenegger is back on screens in one of his most famous roles – the Terminator. Terminator: Genisys marks the fifth film in the franchise and is directed by Alan Taylor. Alongside Arnie, the movie also stars Emilia Clarke, Jason Clarke and Jai Courtney. Arnie talks about being back as the Terminator, how he keeps in such amazing shape and more.

SO ARE WE GOING TO HEAR YOU SAY, ‘HASTA LAVISTA!’ IN THIS MOVIE?
“Did I say Hasta La Vista during the movie? No, I don’t think so. ‘I’ll be back!’ I said. Yeah.”

WHY DO YOU THINK THAT THE TERMINATOR HAS SUCH A LONG LIFE? WHY DO YOU THINK THAT THIS SERIES CAN KEEP BEING REINVENTED AND TOLD AND REINTERPRETED?
“I think that the people are fascinated with the idea of time travel. I think people like futuristic movies. I think, in this case, they like it specifically because what used to be considered science fiction now is almost becoming a reality. And also they like… the indestructible kind of a Terminator character; they see that he can be a villain and can be very destructive – like he is in this movie. But he can also be a protector like in this movie, where he is kind of like a fatherly figure to this girl. So they like that. They see it as a heroic character in a way, because even when he does something bad, he’s a machine. You know he’s not a human being. So they disregard that it’s bad.”

BUT YOU’RE NOT A MACHINE. YOU’RE A HUMAN BEING. SO OVER THE YEARS, AS THE ACTION HAS CHANGED, HOW DOES YOUR BODY HANDLE THE PHYSICALITY OF THE ROLE OF THE TERMINATOR?
“I think that the fortunate thing is that I’ve been training all along. So when I go skiing, I still ski for four or five hours, you know… up and down, up and down, just like I did when I was younger. That’s the same with stunts you. I do it from morning till night. I don’t feel like I have to tell them at four o’clock in the afternoon, ‘Look guys, I am 67. Okay? So let’s cool it now.’ That never happens. So I do my work. And I go all out and I have the endurance luckily, because of my training. And then you just have to be careful with the injuries. Because you know when you’re 20, you’re not going to get injuries as easily as when you are 67. So you just have to think about you know warming up and not just jumping into things like that. But you know it really works. If you’re in shape.”

HAS YOUR PASSION OVER THE YEARS CHANGED? YOUR LOVE OF ACTING?
“No. Especially I think what’s great that I interrupted my acting career and did the political career. So that was a great break. And it was at a great time in my career. And to be a public servant and in such a big State, an important place, it’s like the sixth largest economy in the world – it was absolute heaven. And I don’t regret one second of that. Even though I lost a lot of money because of it, because I didn’t make movies during that time. It didn’t matter because everything that I have achieved in my life is because of America. So to give seven years back and to do all of the other charitable work, I was more than happy to do that.”

SO NOTHING FEELS MORE CHALLENGING AT THIS POINT? OR IS THERE SOMETHING?
“No… the key thing is, is just to stay focused snd that you love what you’re doing. And you know I think I have a very clear vision of where I go with that character, or whatever the movie is, and then you get very enthusiastic about it. Then you just grind it out and you just have a good time doing it.”

WAS THERE A COOL MOMENT IN THE MOVIE FOR YOU, AN ACTION SEQUENCE? LIKE HANGING FROM A
HARNESS OR A HELICOPTER SEQUENCE OR SOMETHING?
“I wouldn’t say ‘cool’. I would say tedious. Because all the stuff that looks cool, to get there is tedious; you’re in a harness, you get thrown around, you bang into things. Then you get dropped every so often! By accident! It’s always very tough work, these action movies. But then when you see it, you know, it’s fantastic. People always ask me, what was the most fun movie you’ve done? And what about ‘Terminator’? I said well you know I think you have more fun doing ‘Twins’ or ‘Kindergarten Cop’ than to do a ‘Terminator’movie or a ‘True Lies’ movie or something like that. They are very tough movies to do, because you work a lot of nights. Because at night, it looks more dangerous and more scary for people. So when we did ‘Terminator’, a lot of it was as night. But night shooting is not that easy. You know so I wouldn’t say they’re fun. I think that the end product is fun, but you’ve got to be very disciplined and you’ve just got to always focus on the end goal.”

FINALLY, WE’RE ALWAYS SEEING YOU OUT AND ABOUT ON YOUR BIKE?
“I ride my bike at least 3 times a week. Motorcycling and also bicycle.”

WHAT IS IT YOU LOVE ABOUT CYCLING?
“Well, my bicycling it’s like…You know, I do the lifecycle at home and the elliptical and all those things. And then sometimes I like to go out, since we have the great weather and ride in the fresh air and ride down the beach and ride down to Gold’s Gym and work out there and then ride back. Go ride down to my office and ride back. So I actually ride the bike pretty much in every city that I travel to. You know, it doesn’t matter if it’s Paris or London or Vienna or Melbourne… I just came from Melbourne. So I try to ride it everywhere. Because you can see the city in a different way from a bike than from a car or just walking around.”

THANK YOU