Video:Anton Yelchin Terminator Salvation Interview

Transcript:Anton Yelchin Terminator Salvation Interview

Rebecca Murray from About.com Hollywood Movies at the US premiere of Terminator Salvation .

Anton Yelchin - 'Kyle Reese' in Terminator Salvation

So how close is this Kyle Reese to the Kyle Reese that Michael Biehn played?

Anton Yelchin: "Very close. I mean my whole performance was sort of structured around his. I went to Albuquerque with a breakdown of what I thought that character was, and I basically said to McG, 'Here's what I think Michael Biehn did and I think this is what should be in the script.' That's what we worked with."

And McG was open to that?

Anton Yelchin: "Oh yeah, very much. He's a very collaborative filmmaker. In a film like this where there's so much to take into consideration, the fact that he takes in everything his actors say and uses it, if he thinks it works with his vision, is really…I think it's pretty exceptional."

But you are the young guy so you can do more with the character than actually Michael Biehn could, right?

Anton Yelchin: "What I realized was the major difference between the two characters is that Michael Biehn had a military objective the whole film. And his anger and paranoia and vulnerability were all - they had a point to all of it, you know? He got angry, with the objective of protecting her. The vulnerability came out as part of the objective, if he needed to tell he something specifically. In this film he doesn't have that military objective. His one objective is survival and joining the Resistance, so sometimes he gets a little too angry. Or he is maybe a little too paranoid or heroic in the sense that he'll do something that Kyle Reese wouldn't have done because maybe as part of a military force you're taught not to do that."

And you had to do a lot of weapons training too, right?

Anton Yelchin: "Yeah."

How cool was that?

Anton Yelchin: "It was awesome. I've always loved toy guns since I was a little kid and so when they gave me that shotgun, I was all over it."

Are you good?

Anton Yelchin: "Yeah, if you see the film there's a one-handed… When I went back to Albuquerque I said, 'We have to have a one-handed shotgun cock. We have to have that.'"

And you did that?

Anton Yelchin: "Yeah. I did it off the side of a moving tow truck."

Is that your most proud moment of the film?

Anton Yelchin: "I'm pretty proud of that, yeah, because I was holding on with one hand, I cock it, and then you see me throw it down, catch it, and shoot. It's pretty cool. When you watch it pay attention. And then when you see it just freak out."

Are you ready to go back to maybe a smaller budgeted, quiet film now?

Anton Yelchin: "Yeah. I've definitely been looking for that but I always kind of look for interesting characters. That's always my goal always to find characters that have depth to them and work to be done. I was lucky with these two films to have two characters like that with a lot of work to be done. But, yes, I'm definitely looking forward to that."

Are you surprised Star Trek is actually the best reviewed film of the year?

Anton Yelchin: "No, I'm actually not surprised because I always had a lot of confidence in JJ [Abrams]. He's an incredibly smart person. I saw the movie before any of the people got to see it and I was like, 'This is a great movie,' and I'm hypercritical so…"

Do you normally watch your films?

Anton Yelchin: "Yeah, I like to see what I spent months shooting, you know? So I do watch it once or twice. I usually end up seeing it once at a screening and then if there's a premiere, I see it at the premiere."

If you're not super familiar with the Terminator mythology, are you going to understand this movie?

Anton Yelchin: "Yeah, absolutely. This movie really just plays like a great war film - a war film between this sort of surviving group of humans and the machines. And of course there are things that we put in for Terminator fans so they'll get a lot more out of it. But when you see this movie, I think you easily identify with the characters. You root for them. The effects are great. It's a beautiful-looking film and I think, yeah, definitely. Everything is explained in the film."

More on Terminator Salvation:

Terminator Salvation Movie Photos

Terminator Salvation Trailer, Cast Interviews, Credits, News and Posters