Q&A: Schwarzenegger discusses return to acting

After nearly a decade of absence from the big screen,  Los Angeles’ very own Arnold Schwarzenegger makes his return to the silver screen in South Korean director Jee-woon Kim’s action thriller “The Last Stand.” Schwarzenegger takes the role of Sheriff Ray Owens who, after leaving the LAPD, resides in the small border town of Sommerton Junction. Johnny Knoxville, playing the usual over-the-top “jackass,” is appointed  as deputy by Owens when an escaped cartel leader makes his way to Sommerton Junction.

The cast, including Schwarzenegger and Knoxville, was at the Four Seasons hotel in Beverly Hills on Jan. 5 for a press junket. Daily Bruin’s Naomi Calbucci was there to find out about Schwarzenegger and Knoxville’s experiences working with a foreign director and a cast of action and comedy veterans.

 

Daily Bruin: After being governor you decided to come back to the movies. Can you talk about that and why you decided to do this instead of something else?

Arnold Schwarzenegger: First, it’s great to be back. When I got into the governorship in 2003 I said I would do the seven years and then would be back into the movie business so it was just stepping out rather than now going back into it. It’s kind of a scary thing coming back because you don’t know if you’ll be accepted or not when you have left. There could be a whole new generation of action figures and things move very quickly. This is now my first starring role and I’m happy I chose a movie with talented people and a producer I trust in because we’ve worked together before. I felt comfortable being back because it was like riding a bike – you get back into it again.

 

DB: How was working with Jee-woon given that this was his American directorial debut?

AS: I was amazed that someone that speaks that little English can articulate exactly what he wants you to do in a scene and many times I didn’t have to wait for the translator because (Jee-woon Kim) was so animated. He himself is such a great actor that he would act out the scenes, not necessarily with the dialogue, but so we could see what he wanted us to do. When we would do stunts he would throw himself on the ground and would be rolling on the floor and bang his head on the wall and we would say “Are you ok?” and he’d say “Yeah yeah,  but I need to show you again. That was wrong.” He was a very passionate guy with his own style of shooting and telling a story, but at the same time he’s collaborative.

 

DB: There’s a lot of action in the movie as well as the physical work, but if you were to choose one memorable moment what would it be?

AS: For me it was the car chase through the cornfield, because how many times do you get a chance to do a car chase through a cornfield? You can imagine what it’s like driving fast through a road, but through a cornfield you have no idea where you’re going, if there’s a ditch coming and then you see the corvette next to you. It was very well organized but it was so much fun with the stunts and the screaming “faster, go faster” and you look and you’re going 80 mph in a cornfield. I’ve had moments where I’m in freezing water, like in my last movie, and moments like this. You know, you live 65 years and you say “Wow, I’m driving in a cornfield.”

Johnny Knoxville: I’ll go ahead and say shooting it out on the back of the bus with Arnold Schwarzenegger and feeding the bullets into the machine gun and doing an action sequence with Arnold. That was it for me. It was one of the highlights of my career in life.

 

DB: You both have done some pretty interesting things to your bodies over the years, from building muscles to destroying them. How are your bodies holding up? Does it hurt to get up in the morning and walk around?

JK: I’m feeling pretty good right now. Everything has been healed but there have been a few breaks and sprains and concussions, not lately, knock on wood, and I felt pretty good this morning. Healing good and looking good.

AS: Same here. I feel good right now, but I’ve had my share of injuries. When you lift as many tons of weights as I have there is some wear and tear and when you do stunts you have your share of injuries from getting stitched up in movies and dislocated shoulders and all that. So I’ve had a lot of surgeries and things that needed to be fixed in the body but medical technology is really advanced and I can do anything. I just came back from a ski trip with my kids and you know how they make everything into a competition, so we were racing down the mountains and I feel great. I can do all of that still.

 

DB: You’ve done mostly action films. Now that you’re back on the screen, is there anything you want to do that you haven’t done already?

AS: I think every actor looks for a challenging role and for things you have not done. Each movie has a unique twist and I’m open-minded. I look at lots of scripts. But at the same time, I’m realistic because I see things I want to do but you’ve got to be able to sell it. Movies cost a lot of money and what am I going to do, shoot it in my backyard? This business is a global economy so you have to think: does this movie sell well in Germany, in the Middle East, in Africa, in Australia? In the old days they only thought about America, but today it’s different.

Email Calbucci at [email protected].