“Collateral Damage”
Schwarzenegger talks politics, movies
By Mike Szymanski
KRT Campus

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Arnold Schwarzenegger isn’t afraid to talk politics. The man who’s toyed with the idea of running for governor of California (in real life), has hunted down invisible aliens (in “Predator”), has had a baby on the big screen (“Junior”) — and has played the Terminator, for gosh sakes — isn’t really afraid of any topic.

But sitting in a hotel room full of Internet journalists in Beverly Hills, Calif., he knows that the events of the day are going to be discussed — including terrorism — and especially because he’s been directly affected now.

©Warner Bros. Pictures Francesca Neri and Arnold Schwarzenegger star in the action thriller “Collateral Damage.”

His Warner Bros. movie, “Collateral Damage” was held back the week it was going to open last September because it was simply too close to the events of Sept. 11. Schwarzenegger plays a quiet family man, a gentle fire fighter named Gordy Brewer who watches his wife and son get blown up in a downtown Los Angeles skyscraper by a terrorist.

The 54-year-old Austrian-born Schwarzenegger, father of four children, who is wearing an American flag pin on his lapel, has some pretty strong thoughts about that.
“It’s not a movie about terrorism, it’s much more a movie about collateral damage, about the innocent people, what happens, the innocent victims that get hit by that,” Schwarzenegger said.

Schwarzenegger has not been consulted by the Bush administration, nor does he have criticism for how things have been handled so far. He does believe Osama bin Laden is still alive.

“I think that the big challenge is our follow-up to that, because (Taliban leader Mohammed) Omar and bin Laden are somewhere, obviously in hiding,” said the actor, who has considered running as the Republican gubernatorial candidate in California.

“I believe very strongly they are in Pakistan, because I think that they may be playing the two sides there a little bit, and so I think they are around,” he adds. “I think they will be around probably for a while, but it’s really the question what do we do, because there’s obviously a fundamental problem in the beliefs of those who have and those who don’t have, and there’s a huge problem in Saudi Arabia.”

Wearing a black jacket, black shirt and black jeans, opening his arms dramatically to the journalists, Schwarzenegger said he worries about the sensitive timing of such a violent film, which has an R ratingcq.

“I think we have seen now several action movies since then that have done extremely well,” he said. “We have seen other movies released that have done well, and then other movies that haven’t done so well. I think that a lot of people were concerned about ‘Blackhawk Down,’ as too topical a movie too soon after, and sure enough when they opened it at the first theater, it went through the roof, and did well. I think that also after the terrorist attack we have seen the video sales and the video rentals skyrocket, especially movies that dealt with terrorism.”

Schwarzenegger’s local video stores were out of copies of “True Lies” (which he starred in) and of “Die Hard,” the Bruce Willis action film, he said.

“So it became very clear that people want to see positive movies,” Schwarzenegger said. “They want to see movies where the terrorists get their ass kicked in the end, where there’s a positive outcome of good over evil, because in real life it’s not as clear cut.”

Director Andrew Davis, whose signature work is “The Fugitive,” said he thinks it’s appropriate the film was held from being released.

“I think it’s got more resonance now, more significance now, than if it had come out either before the events of Sept. 11 or immediately thereafter,” Davis said.

“I think that people can see this film and be sort of surprised at how close some of the images and events are to what happened,” said Davis. “And if we’d waited longer, it would have seemed like we’d made this film because of those events. Now it seems like it’s just a sort of parallel story that happened to coincide with events.”

Known for his emotionless action hero roles, Schwarzenegger said now that he’s older, it’s easier to get more tearful in his parts, as he does in “Collateral Damage.”

“I’m more in touch with my emotions than 20 years ago,” the actor admitted. “I’d have to say, I don’t know when I was 30 years old if I could have related as much.”

It’s tougher too, because now he has children of his own, and also a lot more is expected of him as a performer.

And, it’s a lot tougher when you’re supposed to replace Harrison Ford, who originally was signed to the project, but dropped out. Then, Schwarzenegger’s wife, TV news journalist Maria Shriver, heard about the project and convinced him to go for it.

“My wife, when she hears someone else is attached, it becomes a very competitive thing,” Schwarzenegger laughed. “She started tracking the script down like a greyhound, and talked to me every day. We couldn’t sit down one single time that she didn’t say ‘You should read this script.’”

He trusted his wife when she raved about the script, telling him it’s “terrific,” and when the writers changed his character from a basketball coach to a firefighter, Schwarzenegger grew more interested.

So the more we talked about how they wanted to change it, the more I started falling in love with the project, and then one of my things didn’t become a reality, one of my projects that I wanted to do, and then I said, ‘Let’s shoot this in the summer,’” he said, and that’s how the project happened.

Studio execs didn’t think firefighters were heroic enough at the time and they wanted to change him into a CIA agent or something exciting, but the actor said, “I’ve done that a hundred thousand times before, and I didn’t want to do that.” Of course,

Schwarzenegger laughed at how the same execs now try to take credit for making him a fireman.

“I think it’s very clear that firefighters are heroic guys,” he said.

Ultimately, the director said that although the film was delayed, not a frame was changed after Sept. 11.

Davis has a lot of respect for his star, who not only underwent heart surgery just before production, but a had a motorcycle accident while the film was being shot.

“He’s the real Horatio Algier. He started with nothing and he married the queen of the Kennedys. And so he cares about the little guy trying to make it, even though he’s become Mister Establishment. So there’s a heart there, and a consciousness of working hard and making it, which I tried to pull out of him, and he was very responsive as an actor,” Davis said. “For example, I said, ‘Arnold, you don’t have to act tough. You are just strong and tough being who you are. You don’t have to make big facial expressions. Less is more.’ And he understood that.”

Among his co-stars are Elias Koteas, Francesca Neri, John Leguizamo and John Turturro.

“They’re very intense with their acting. They work very hard with their rehearsing and stuff like that,” Arnold said of the two Johns. “They were really the first ones on the set early in the morning, rehearsing the scene with themselves, and all that stuff, and so I had a great, great time working with them.”

Has he stopped saying his signature “Terminator” line: “I’ll be back” in movies?
As the Hollywood business entrepreneur he’s known to be, he smiles. “I have not stopped saying that. As long as it makes money, I would not stop saying it.”

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