Anton Yelchin Interview - On the Set of 'Terminator Salvation'
Behind the Scenes with the New Kyle Reese: Anton Yelchin
By Rebecca Murray, About.com

Warner Bros Pictures invited a handful of online journalists to the Albuquerque, New Mexico, set of the fourth Terminator film and it was like entering a whole other universe. You've seen the trailers...just imagine what it was like actually on the set of Terminator Salvation. Talk about your surreal experiences. Seeing Terminators lined up in various states of completion and watching fire spurt from the floor as Christian Bale battles a T800 is among the most unforgettable movie moments I'm likely to ever experience.
Set in post-apocalyptic 2018, Bale takes on the role of John Connor, the center figure in Terminator mythology in Terminator Salvation. Anton Yelchin (Alpha Dog, Star Trek) plays another lead Terminator character: Kyle Reese. Terminator Salvation picks up Reese's story as a teenager, a pivotal time in the life of the man who will father the leader of the resistance.

Yelchin is a long-time fan of the first two Terminator movies and while Bale and director McG were setting up a scene, Yelchin took time out to answer some questions about the challenges of playing such an important figure in the Terminator series.

Anton Yelchin Interview

How difficult is it for you to play this character?
Anton Yelchin: "Well I think it’s not so much hard, it’s just a really great challenge because Kyle Reese is a wonderful character. He’s really, really a complex character and I think playing him when he’s younger allows you the ability to dig into what he was in the first one and say, 'Look, I'm going to take him apart and then sort of show you how he got to that point,' you know? And so it was like I would watch the first one and just look at every scene and see what I could take from it and then bring it to this one. And if scenes needed to be adjusted to that, we’d adjust them. And it’s just really interesting to say, 'All right, well he’s so battle-hardened and tough in that one, and then when he has the picture he’s so madly in love with her and then for the first time you see him so open. So how do I show you the openness that is in the guy that has the picture? Why is he so in love with her from just a picture? How can I show you that as a kid, how can I show you him becoming battle-hardened?' And it’s just great. It’s a challenge and it’s a wonderful challenge for an actor. Like it’s so much fun and there's a wealth of material in this script. But then there's also this whole other material to dig into and use, so it’s been great."

You had a similar challenge in Star Trek where you're also playing a character who’s been defined before. When you approach it do you always have to start with the character and not what's been done before? You still have to bring something to it that's yours.

Anton Yelchin: "Right, of course, of course. I started watching the first Star Trek, like I looked at all the old shows and the old movies and the same here, I would look at the movie and watch it and say, 'This is who this guy is.' You know what I mean? And yes, I'm going to bring something in my own to it. I'm interpreting what I think he is, and how I see how he became that. So, I'm always interpreting it. But I do look at the old movie because there's so much there. Before you can get to this script, I have to know who he is and who he was and who everyone wants to see, and then bring that to this. You know, make sure that that's there and make sure that people can see what I did but also see, 'Hey yes, that is Kyle Reese. That's not just anybody, that's Kyle Reese.' And Kyle Reese is in the first one, so he's defined in the first one."

Can you talk about getting ready physically to take on the role?

Anton Yelchin: "Well, truthfully it’s kind of like all the action sequences and all that - it’s like a big day-long workout because you're like jumping around stuff 30, 40, 50, 60 times. Every setup, you do however many different takes, then just go to a different thing, but you're still doing it. I don't know, it’s weird though. There wasn’t so much prep for that. I guess I'm relatively in shape. I don’t want to say I'm ripped or whatever. I'm relatively in shape. I can do that stuff, but it’s more of just incredible fights like being a little kid, you know? It’s like what I would do when I was three, pretending to be Schwarzenegger in T2 because that was like my… Well, it was really big when I was a little kid because it came out in like ’92. I probably started watching it when I was about five, around ’94 or something. So it’s like being a kid, you run around with guns and you shoot them and you pretend someone’s trying to kill you. It’s great."

What's the most shocking thing that we don’t know about Kyle Reese?

Anton Yelchin: "What's the most shocking thing that you don’t know about Kyle Reese? I don't know. I mean I know I mentioned this before and I don’t know if you know it, but the way I feel about the first film is you see a lot of potential for like a really complex character. But the magic of the first film is that it’s really layered and you still are having so much fun the entire time. So for me it was like taking, like I said, that moment with the picture: 'Do you know where that comes from? How do you know Kyle Reese is so sensitive about that one thing?' And I think in this movie we get to explore that and that's when people are going to say, 'Oh look, yes Kyle Reese grew up to be a badass, grew up to be a guy that could take on any terminator, but look, as a kid he also was a badass.' But then there are parts of him... He grew up without a family, like all of these things that I think are really interesting to look at. I look at every character as a human being. You know, it’s not Kyle Reese the really cool guy from Terminator, it’s Kyle Reese the human being that has to go through all these things."

You've done a lot of indie films and now the last two projects have been large studio movies. Can you talk a little bit about how your career has shifted over the last few years?
Anton Yelchin: "I mean I'm really lucky to be a part of this. I think it’s really got great characters, first and foremost, and then second of all they're great projects. But I sort of just approach them the same way. I study every character and it doesn’t matter that it’s Chekov or that it’s Kyle Reese, that it’s a huge blockbuster or it’s a tiny movie. You approach the character study and everything the same way. And in addition to that, with a movie like this you just get to have a blast."

How do you deal with the extra pressure of bringing a character like this to life, who’s been played before and who everybody knows? Isn’t there extra pressure on you?

Anton Yelchin: "Yes. I mean I guess there is, but I guess to do a good job you have to block it out. You just sort of have to be like, 'I have to do a good job regardless.' I have to do a great job every time whether there's no pressure or a lot of pressure, so I treat it the same way."

What has been the most challenging scene or action set piece you've done so far?

Anton Yelchin: "Well you guys saw that video and there was that truck, and the truck we shot for like five days, I think. At one point I fell off of it. I was like hanging. It was moving and I fell off and I had a harness and I was just like hanging upside-down, and like the road, my hands [were] hitting the pavement. And that wasn’t challenging so much as it scared the sh-t out of me. I got up and I was, 'I'm okay. I'm all right. I'm Kyle Reese.'"

Did everyone freak out around you?

Anton Yelchin: "Yes. I mean people freaked out until they saw I was okay because I wasn’t like, 'Oh my god, I'm dying,' you know? I just fell, got back up and it hurt like a bitch and then I was fine."

Are you doing a lot of your own stunts?

Anton Yelchin: "Yes. I mean there's some stuff that... The stunt guys were incredible. Logan who does me and Adam who does Sam [Worthington], and it's really, really incredible what they do. I've done some of them - like I was on the truck when it was moving. But I don’t want to take credit for what I didn’t do because I have so much respect for those guys. I think they're incredible, incredible at what they do. And Logan Holladay was my stunt guy and he's my age. He's 19 and he’s just like an incredible dude that just does all this stuff. It’s really amazing. So I don't want to take any credit away from them that they justly deserve because it's incredible what they do."

Terminator and Star Trek are both giant iconic science fiction franchises. Are you a science fiction fan in general or a genre fan in general, or is it more you’re drawn to the role?

Anton Yelchin: "It’s more the characters. With Terminator though, I was a huge fan of it. Like I said, it came out at sort of the perfect time for me to be obsessed with it. I was a little kid. And T1 came out before I was born, but then I watched T1 after T2, and so Terminator I love. I had all the Terminators, I had the action figures, and so I was a huge fan of Terminator." (source:movies.about.com)