Video:Christian Bale Terminator Salvation Interview
with Rebecca MurrayChristian Bale stars as John Connor, the leader of the Resistance, in the fourth 'Terminator' movie, 'Terminator Salvation.' At the film's US premiere, Bale talked with a group of reporters about taking on the role and heading up another franchise.
Transcript:Christian Bale Terminator Salvation Interview
Rebecca Murray from About.com Hollywood Movies at the US premiere of Terminator Salvation .
Christian Bale - 'John Connor' in Terminator Salvation
[Don't think badly of my camerawoman. There were five media outlets grouped for this interview and occasionally a head will pop into view. It happens.]How's it feel to be able to talk about the movie after all this time, after all these ups and downs?
Christian Bale: "You know, I just look forward to seeing if we've managed, you know, because you never truly know that until the audience sees it. And with this movie, more than most that I've been involved with, it's a movie that really is decided by the audience because that's what it's meant to be. It's meant to be good times. It's meant to be a thrill ride. It's meant to be like when I was 17 and I saw T2 and the excitement and the electricity in that movie theater was just fantastic. And so I'm hoping that people will appreciate it in the same way. It's one of those ones that truly, I think, people will decide if we've managed it or not."
How was it to work with practical effects rather than having lots of green screen work?
Christian Bale: "I've never had that much experience with CGI. We had to do a little bit more here, you know, some of the real huge machines you just can't make as models. But the Stan Winston guys are just hilarious in how obsessive they are and the level of perfectionism that they strive to achieve with their models. It was kind of comical at times because something that's meant to be so intimidating was actually surrounded by five guys all with these kind of puppet rods that I had to blank out and not start laughing at. But the end result is something really formidable and really iconic in movie history."
They are already talking about you being signed up for the next one. What do you know about it?
Christian Bale: "I know nothing about it. I think we're humble enough to wait until we see how people consider this one first."
Is there any trepidation for you to kind of collect these franchise characters that could tie you up for years?
Christian Bale: "No because they really don't. I never looked at it as a franchise. I look at it just as a movie that I would enjoy seeing myself. You know, I maintain an eclectic taste in movies and I get an opportunity to make very differing styles of movies. So as long as I never get stuck just doing these kinds of things… There's plenty of time to make great independent, whatever movies, completely non-commercial movies that I just personally love. So I just see it as a great, lucky opportunity that I'm even being asked to do these kinds of things. I never dreamed that that was going to happen."
You've said before that you weren't sure we needed another Terminator movie. Why do we need this one?
Christian Bale: "Hey, I question the need for any movie to be made. It always sounds a little pompous when people start talking about the importance, how important it is to get them made. But I was just kind of feeling like probably the mythology was done. If it was just something for a quick bit of cash from the owners of the rights, I wasn't interested. But I think we ended up with a script within the post-Judgment Day world which is really something quite new. And I love the mythology myself and I just really got excited by the idea to be able to recreate that and revive it. We'll see if the audience embraces it because it's all about that. A movie like this is all about the audience and the collective feeling of excitement in watching a movie like this. It's a rollercoaster ride."