Lena Headey, the “300” beauty who stars as the titular mother of the future savior of mankind, and executive producer James Middleton, who also worked on the “Terminator” films, dished about the show’s hot females, rumors of the movie franchise being resurrected for another trilogy and, of course, Arnold.
Lena, how familiar were you with the franchise before you started filming this show?
Lena Headey: I have to be honest…I saw the first “Terminator” movie when I was a teenager, and at that time of my life, I wasn’t deeply interested in things like that. I was more worried about chasing boys, so I was slightly distracted. [Laughs] I revisited it, and also “T2,” which I absolutely love—I think it’s the most relevant to the show, and I find it actually very inspirational.
How difficult is it to stretch out the action of the “Terminator” franchise over a weekly TV series?
James Middleton: Well, one of the things we felt we had by doing a television show based on the “Terminator” franchise, an opportunity to explore Sarah Connor’s character, and the problems this mother would encounter raising a 15-year old son—trying to teach him to be a good man, while being in extreme danger. The other thing the show allows us to do is change the narrative dynamic. The movies are a chase dynamic, and in our show, Sarah Connor is on the attack. She is the one that is trying to root out Skynet, this pernicious, evil force from the future. The difference is she is proactive.
Why the focus on Sarah?
JM: I always looked at doing “Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles” as a great opportunity to bring back a character who I loved in the mythology: Sarah Connor. In the first two movies, she was the heart and soul. I worked on “Terminator 3,” and it was a very big financial success, however, I missed Sarah.
What about people who never got into the “Terminator” movies—are they gonna be totally lost?
JM: I think most people do know about “The Terminator” lore, if only because of Arnold Schwarzenegger. [But] we do go to great lengths to explain the back-story of our terminator mythology as the series progresses.
Speaking of Arnold…has he weighed in on the show at all?
JM: No, he hasn’t really weighed in. As governor, he’s incredibly occupied. Arnold has really made a turn in his life to politics…
LH: It’s a natural progression.
JM: Lena will one day be president of the United States. [Laughs]
Would you like a cameo from Arnold?
JM: Yes, of course we would love that. Arnold is an icon of the franchise, and an amazing personality, but it just has not been feasible.
With Sarah and also Cameron, the female terminator, the show is decidedly more female—was that a conscious decision?
JM: Sarah was always the emotion and the depth, and I felt a television show would be the perfect place to really get into what her history is. Yes, it was absolutely a conscious choice. It comes from the idea—and this is from Jim Cameron’s vision of the mythology—that the terminators are actually infiltrators. And if that is the case, then what better infiltrator than a beautiful, petite teenaged girl.
The show is funny too—it made me laugh several time. I hope that doesn’t insult you…
JM: No, that’s good. We want laughter, humor and sometimes dark humor to punctuate the tension of the show.
LH: As long as you weren’t laughing at the emotional scenes. [Laughs]
So, is it easier to get away with robot violence than human violence?
JM: Well, here’s the thing: In the series, you start to have an emotional connection to Cameron. And certainly the characters she interacts with, Sarah and John Connor, have an emotional connection to her. When she gets into a fight—a terminator fight, or a gunfight—I think we are worried about her in a way that we would not be worried about a robot. So there is an emotional connection. [But] if you have two terminators fighting, the physics of it are going to be a lot more explosive, so that’s the fun part about having those kinds of sequences.
Lena, how tricky is it for you to balance the action elements and the emotional elements?
LH: Well A, it’s my job, so I love it. There’s an enjoyment from being challenged in an exciting way, and I also think the physicality of someone like Sarah feeds into the emotional side of everything, too. It helps all that—they go together really nicely. At the end of the day, I’m usually quite tired though.
Have you had any close calls or injuries on the set, with a role as physical as this?
LH: Yes, there seems to be a sort of curse. Every punchable surface that is supposed to break, never does. So you get encouraged to really hit it, and every single time it never breaks, and I never learn. [Laughs]
How has the strike affected you all and the show?
JM: We have eight episodes completed. With our pilot, that will give us nine total shows. The writers’ strike has absolutely impacted us, because we were not able to finish the last four episodes of our order from FOX. But we do feel the show is strong enough that we will get a second season order, and we will be back with Josh [Friedman] and our writing staff.
James, can you give us an update on “T4”? How will it build off “T3”? What casting can you confirm? When do you start shooting? And when will it take place?
JM: Christian Bale is in the picture, McG is the director, it will shoot in Budapest and we hope to be in production on April 21, 2008. It is after Judgment Day, and it shows the formation of the resistance.
The two-night premiere of “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” airs Sunday, Jan. 13 at 8 p.m./7c and Monday, Jan. 14 at 9 p.m./8c on Fox.
