How did you meet James Cameron ?

I saw THE TERMINATOR when I was studying film at the USC Cinema School (George Lucas' alma mater). There was a class that brought a new film and its filmmaker to the class each week, and Jim brought in TERMINATOR. I was very impressed with both the film and the filmmaker's style, and when I graduated two years later, I sought out an entry-level job with Jim and then-wife Gale Anne Hurd. I didn't really get through to anyone at the time. That summer (1986), ALIENS opened. I saw it twice on opening day, and that night, a friend of mine who knew my interest in visual effects and mechanical gadgets challenged me to build a model of the Power-Loader, the
big yellow walking forklift seen in the film, in time for my friend's Halloween party. I had three months to do it and had no other reference than watching the film and reading Starlog Magazine. I ended up building a wearable, 3/4-scale motorized suit out of the usual fan materials (styrofoam, wood, foamcore, plastic pipe, etc.) that was 2.5m tall with a 3m arm span. Needless to say, I won the wager with my friend.

While I was building this thing for fun in my parents' garage, some friends who were helping me suggested that I try to get Jim Cameron's attention with this Power-Loader somehow. On 31 October, the day of my friend's party, I called Jim and Gale's production offices at Twentieth Century Fox Studios (they remembered me from my constantly calling about a entry-level job) and told them that I had something I wanted to show them. The receptionist was suspicious, of course, but when I told them that it was a Power-Loader costume I made for Halloween, they paused, then told me to bring it by their offices. I guess it seemed so surprising that they just
had to see it for themselves. I had to rent a pickup truck to haul it to the studio, which was 30km away from my parents' house! When I finally made it to the studio, I was late and Jim had already left, but Gale Anne Hurd came out and said "This is the best walking resume I've ever seen." She then loaned me Ripley's jumpsuit and Reebok shoes from the film so I could complete my outfit for my friend's party!.

Two weeks later, Jim himself called me at my parents' house and said he had heard from Gale about the costume and wanted to see it. He actually drove down to my parents' house, and we hit it off immediately, when he found out
that I was a science fistion and effects buff as well as heavily into research and reading/writing. Two weeks after that, he asked me to work for him as his research assistant on a new script he was writing, THE ABYSS. I started working with him in December of 1986 and stayed eight years; when I finally left in 1994, I was the head of Lightstorm's Production department and had gotten an amazing education in filmmaking, and hopefully contributed a few things along the way, including both the ABYSS and T2 Special Editions and their laserdiscs.

THE ABYSS :

The Abyss is said to be the toughest shoot in the History. Do you think so ?

It was certainly a difficult shoot in that no one had ever tried to make a film with actors underwater in that manner. Every shoot is a challenge by virtue of its own unique requirements, but this one tested the limits of everyone. I think a lot of peopleworking on it expected that since it was an "A" picture with a major studio budget, it would be no harder than any other studio film; what they quickly found out was that it really had to be treated as a low-budget picture --everyone really had to work harder than they ever did before-- because the budget was in fact extremely low compared to what we were trying to achieve.

What were your problems with this shoot ?

To be honest, this was the first full-on feature film I had actually been an integral part of from start to finish, so I just thought ALL movies were like this. It was actually only after I left in 1994 and started working on other people's films as well that I realized that only JIM'S films were like this: both extremely demanding and at the same time very rewarding in that you can really believe in the vision of what you are making. My biggest problem was being taken seriously by anyone else besides Jim. He really believed in me and gave me a lot of responsibility, but here was this 23-year-old kid that Jim had entrusted to help supervise and guide and be a resource to all of these seasoned crew members from all different areas of filmmaking.

Why did the scene with the Tsunamis was cut ?

There was an enormous pressure to make a summer release date and to cut down the length of the film, and the scene was both the most liked and the most hated sequence for the audiences in the previews. I have some of my
own theories, and I went into detail about them in the ABYSS Special Edition laserdisc supplement. You should really check it out if you haven't already.

You wrote up all the technical story points in The Abyss. What was the problems with the technical side of the story ?

There weren't really any problems per se; I was in charge of doing all of the research regarding marine salvage operation, navy procedure, oil drilling technology, underwater habitats and fluid breathing science, so it
was one of my jobs to be a resource to Jim and the production on how this stuff should be portrayed realistically in the movie. Jim and I are both sticklers for realistic detail, and we also had a lot of specialized consultants on the film, since in a lot of cases we were using the actual technology we were portraying. Again, you can read the details of all of my research in the ABYSS Special Edition laserdisc supplement.

Making the special effects for The Abyss, did you have to dive into the tank where it was filmed ?

Yes. The tank was so deep (65 feet) that I received my PADI open-water scuba certifiaction in the tank. And we actually had a series of tanks, ranging from the big "A tank" which held 7.5 million gallons of water to the smaller "B tank" which held 2.2 million gallons, along with several other smaller tanks. I even shot inserts in Gale Hurd's swimming pool!

Do you have a theory on the relative flop of Abyss ?

The film came out late in the summer of BATMAN, and had been preceded by several other underwater action films (LEVIATHAN, DEEPSTAR SIX). I also think that after ALIENS, people were expecting a horror action film from
Jim rather than a more CLOSE ENCOUNTERS-style picture, so they were disappointed by that false expectation. Finally, I think the film was walking a thin line between an action film and a wondrous alien encounter
film, and a lot of people felt the wonder emphasis of the ending came out of nowhere. Again, check out my thoughts in the ABYSS Special Edition laserdisc supplement.

TERMINATOR 2 :

What were James Cameron's challenges for T2 ?

Primarily to create a photorealistic villian using a technology that had never been used so extensively for this purpose. Digital morphing was in its infancy at this point and had been used to good but limited effect in WILLOW by ILM, but never with such a realistic and cool flair. Narratively, it was about how you can take the bad guy from the first film and turn him into a good guy while still getting all of the thrills of him doing what he does, and upping the ante with an amazing new bad guy.

How can you explain that there were no problems with this shoot comparing to The Abyss ?
Wasn't it more difficult with this $100.000.000 cost ?

The cost makes it both easier and more difficult, because the requirements are different. THE ABYSS was primarily shot in a single location, while T2 was shot all over California, from the desert to the middle of cities. When you shoot in Los Angeles, you are also paying more for the union labor, but you're ostensibly getting better talent as well (some would disagree with that statement, though). Working with a major actor like Arnold also has its own considerations and additional costs. I personally don't feel it was any less difficult than THE ABYSS, but clearly there wasn't the problem of trying to shoot underwater!

James Cameron is said to get crazy when somebody tells him that he cannot do something.
Do you have examples ?

Jim can pretty much do the job of anyone on the set himself, and really knows what's doable and what's not for every part of the filmmaking process, so it's very difficult to try to tell him something's not possible. The truth of the matter is, that he would never ask someone to do something that he himself couldn't or wouldn't do; but since he can do almost anything and more importantly can think beyond the lines about how to do things, he doesn't like to take "no" for an answer. To get his vision across, he often has to ask, then demand that people be as clever, smart and industrious as he himself is, and that's difficult for a lot of people. He respects people's jobs up to the point where I think he feels that people aren't respecting their own job by not being all they can be to the work. The most aggravating thing about Jim is that he's almost always right when he says something can be done, but it requires a lot more out of some people than their willing to give. He usually doesn't go crazy ; people just think he does because they haven't thought things through as much as he has. I really don't have any examples, mostly because I, like
Jim, like to spend my time thinking about how things CAN be done, rather than why they CAN'T be done.

The scene when the helicopter goes under the bridge is really fantastic. Wasn't it dangerous to shoot it under a bridge ?

Of course it was challenging and dangerous, but it would have been a lot more dangerous if we didn't have ace pilot Chuck Tamburro at the controls of the helicopter. Jim asked Chuck if it was possible and Chuck took the
responsibility to say yes or no; after calculating some distances and doing a slow pass, he decided that it was possible to do it safely. Because Jim's films have so much action and stuntwork in them, he is VERY
scrupulous about actor and crew safety, despite what some people say.

What was the more difficult scene to shoot ? I think it it the one with the T1000 in the truck chasing John Connor ? Is that right ?

Again, it was challenging, but I don't think it was necessarily any harder than the other scenes. I think the Steel Mill sequences with the flipping tanker were equally challenging.

What was the "tricks" used on the set for the T1000 that did not need CGI ?

A lot of people don't know it, but there was only five minutes of computer-generated effects in the whole movie! The rest was done seamlessly with a lot of prosthetics created by Stan Winston Studios. With a few notable exceptions, all of the bullet hits and hook and blade arms on the T-1000 were done as live action, and in the big fight between Arnold and the chrome T-1000 in the steel mill, we had a stuntman in a silver mylar suit in some shots. Check out thr T2 Special Edition laserdisc supplement for all the details.

There is one scene that i cannot tell how it was done in T2. This is the scene when the T1000 is driving the Nitrogen Truck and the Terminator jump of it before it crashes into the factory. Did you really do it ?

The actual jump shot where Terminator jumps off and flies past camera as the tanker crashes into the doorway was a miniature puppet shot done by Fantasy II Film Effects.

On the Special Edition, why did James Cameron decide to change the end of T2 ? Did he wanted to conclude his story with an happy end or making impossible a sequel ?

The "Future Coda" ending with Old Sarah was in fact the original ending of the film as written; I think Jim felt it was an interesting way to end it, negating the whole dark future entirely, closing the time loop. It didn't test well for a number of reasons, so it was omitted in favor of the current ending. Please note that the Old Sarah ending is NOT part of the Special Edition version of the film, but is included in the laserdisc supplement as an omitted scene.

Some rumors say that James Cameron is working on Terminator 3. What do you know about it ?
Will you be involved in this project ? Do you have any idea of what it could be ?

Anything is possible. I don't know any details, but I hope that if there is a T3, that I will have the opportunity to be a part of it.

TRUE LIES :

The scene that begins with a fight into the toilets is my favourite, and to me it is one of the greatest action scenes. What was the problems of shooting with a horse ? Did James Cameron really put the horse in the
elevators ?

The real horse got into and out of the elevators for the beginning and end of the sequence, but for all of the moving elevator shots, it was a fake horse with someone inside to make it move. Horses are pretty claustrophobic, especially in very confined and MOVING spaces.

Concerning the beginning in the toilets, the stroboscopic blue light is very important in this scene for the action. How did Jim decide to use it in this scene ? Do you know why he likes to use it in his films ?

What can I say? He likes strobing lights because I think it adds dynamism to the scenes. It makes it both more challenging and easier to edit the scenes, because it gives the sequence a rhythm to work with, but it also
means that you have to match the lighting between shots more carefully.

Why did James Cameron wanted to use Harrier Jets in this film ?

He thinks Harrier jets are cool. And I think he always wanted to do a scene with a Harrier hovering outside a highrise.

As director of the marketing, why did you chose this tagline fo True Lies "When he said I do, he didn't say what he did" ? Did you want to "sell" the movie as a comedy or an action film ? What does James Cameron
think about it ?

Actually, the tagline was chosen by the studio. It was definitely designed to sell the film as an action-comedy, because that was the intention of the film. Remember, this was a retooling and Americanization of the French
comedy LA TOTALE...

How was the striptease scene seen in the USA ?

With male eyes wide open. Seriously, I think some people felt it was demeaning for Harry to set his wife up like that, but they were more upset with the earlier interrogation scene. Was Harry being cruel to his wife?
You decide.