Sam Worthington Talks Terminator, Avatar, Titans, Green Lantern
Sam Worthington in 'Terminator Salvation'
IESB have posted an excellent run down on a press interview with Sam Worthington on the Terminator Salvation promotion trail. If you didn’t already know, Worthington is the 32 year old Australian bricklayer turned actor who is about to take the world by storm with his roles in three blockbusters: Terminator Salvation, Avatar, and Clash of the Titans…and maybe a fourth in The Green Lantern.
Here’s a selection of excerpts from the interview categorized by film. For the full interview, head on over to IESB.
Terminator Salvation
Q: What was your take on your character? How did you see this guy?
Sam: To be honest, I looked at him as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. That was always stuck in my head, about this person waking up in another world and finds himself as they go on this yellow brick road and find the heart, the brain, the sensitivity, and all these characters you meet. And, he’s going to Skynet, which is Oz, to ask the question, “Why am I not fuckin’ dead?” That’s how I looked at it. That’s why I’m wearing a blue coat. Dorothy wears a blue dress. Things like that were stuck into it. Alice in Wonderland, same thing. That’s how I approached the character. I also wanted to be a robot that felt pain, not only physical, mental and emotional, but here’s a guy who wanted to die for his sins and the irony is that he wakes up and he can’t die. He’s stuck and his penance is to suffer, until he transforms and becomes a better human being.
Q: Did James Cameron say anything to you about being in Terminator?
Sam: I told him that they wanted me to do it, and I said, “Here’s my take on the character and here’s what I want to do with it,” and he told me, “Just don’t fuck it up!” That was about it. And then, he went back to filming Avatar. As Jim said, he wants to look at it, as a fan.
Avatar
Q: When you’re working on something like Avatar, is there a lot of physical precision involved?
Sam: Kind of. You’re never dictated by the technology with Jim. Jim is paramount to the actors. Everyone thinks that he’s technology driven, but he’s the best fuckin’ acting director I’ve ever worked with. He picks up on subtleties and details that you wouldn’t believe. So, he’s employed me to come in and do my job, and then we use the technology and I work with him. It’s give and take. Jim isn’t a dictator. He wants it fuckin’ high, but so do I. I’m not there to get pushed around. I’m there to work with the man. And, that’s why I got the job. I don’t get pushed around. I’ve done 10 years [of acting] in Australia. I didn’t do that for nothin’. We worked together. It’s a privilege to work with directors who like pushing the boundaries and taking risks, like McG. He’s taken a hell of a risk on this movie, with his career. That’s what I like to be a part of.
Q: There’s probably never been a movie like Avatar, where nobody has seen a scene of it and there’s no trailer, but people are expecting it to be the second coming. Have you seen any of it?
Sam: Yeah. I watched it recently.
Q: Does it live up to the hype?
Sam: It’s amazing! Jim said, “The hype is gonna kill it.” Jim is not nervous. He doesn’t get nervous. It’s not the be all and end all. Hopefully, what this does is open up a world of the possibilities of what motion capture can do and the possibilities of what this 3-D technology can achieve. Hopefully, it starts that kind of revolution, and I think it will.
Clash of the Titans
Q: You’re doing another big fantasy project right now with Clash of the Titans, right?
Sam: We’re filming it, at the moment.
Q: How will it differ from the original?
Sam: We’ve been filming it for two weeks now and I’m more bruised and battered than I was on Terminator. We’ve taken on Medusa, we’ve taken on the witches, and then we just kill everything else. It’s a bit more brutal. There’s no togas, or there’s very little togas. I said, “I’m not wearing a toga. Bugger that!” You can’t look manly in a toga, I’m sorry. I couldn’t do it. Louis is a very good action director, so it’s going to be exciting and big, and my job is to bring the heart.
The Green Lantern
Q: Were you ever approached for The Green Lantern?
Sam: I think they’ve been talking to people. I’ve been talking to (director) Martin Campbell about it. It’s one of those things where they’re still doing the script. I said, “Give me a script. Let me have a look at it.” I like Martin a lot. I met him on the Bond stuff, and I like his work, but the second step is, “Is it a movie that I’d go and see?”
There’s more in the full interview at IESB.
Terminator Salvation opens in theaters:
USA – May 21
Canada – May 22
UK – June 3
Australia – June 4
Avatar hits theaters:
Australia – December 17
USA & UK – December 18
Clash of the Titans is expected to hit theaters March 26, 2010.
Warner hopes to release The Green Lantern in December 2010.
