Our thanks to Latino Review for taking it all down...
Is this the second stage of surreal for you? You've been working on these big productions for probably over a year now.
Worthington: I did 'Avatar' and I started that in 2006 and having been working nonstop since that.
And now people know who you are. Is that an adjustment?
Worthington: That's the next part of your job. You know it's coming so you do it, to sell the movie that you spent four months toiling on. McG has spent the last year toiling on it. Hopefully we can sell it correctly and people will go and see it.
Were you a fan of this franchise?
Worthington: I kind of reacquainted myself with it, obviously before we shot. I would've been about fourteen or fifteen when the second one came out. I remember the liquid man and things like that because it was pretty revolutionary. Seeing them again you realized just how great Jimmy [Cameron] is as a storytelling.
Anton [Yelchin] was talking about the fighting scenes and stunt scenes...
Worthington: That he was doing? [laughs]
He was saying that there were quite a few mishaps and injuries.
Worthington: Well, you get beaten up, man. It's 'Terminator'. It's not [frick]ing 'Pride and Prejudice' is it? You know what you're stepping into. You take a few hits, a few knocks. I think just putting an actor in those situations the audience is seeing their character, getting blown up, running through mine fields and getting shot at. I think it draws them in a bit more. We're not busting them out and going, 'That's a stuntman.' I think it keeps them involved in the story a little bit. I think we all tried to do as much as we could before the insurance caught on.
It's amazing to see not a lot of blue and green screen.
Worthington: Yeah. McG is very smart. Instead of looking at a tennis ball, John Rosengrant, a guy at Stan Winston's, would build an actual robot so there was a point of reference. I think in this day and age that's a smart thing to do with a lot of blue screen and green screen technology. Audiences have tuned in if you're like that, looking at one thing. You look at other things. It's good to have a point to look at.
Isn't 'Avatar' almost all that?
Worthington: Yeah, but Jim is very clever in the sense that he tried to make it as real as possible. So even though you're on a big gray soundstage, for want of a better word, with nothing there he will try to give you as much as possible to make the terrain and the place real. So there would be plants to walk through. If there's an explosion he'll throw shit at you, things like that. Acting is reacting so you can't just react to nothing. That's too hard a task to ask any actor. So you always need something real and tangible.
Did he talk to you about being in 'Terminator'?
Worthington: I told him, 'Look, they want me to do it. Here's my take on the character and what I want to do with it.' I think he told me just don't [frick] it up and that was about it and we went back to shooting 'Avatar'. Jim, as he said, he wants to look at it as a fan.
You and Moon Bloodgood had some tender scenes. Did you work on that beforehand?
Worthington: Like any scene, you dive in on the day and you kind of have an idea what you want to do and you see where it goes. But we did talk about things, obviously. In making any movie it's about exploration and figuring it out and a bit of friction. You get a bit of friction and you can produce a pearl and some of those scenes I think were like that.
How was it playing it opposite Christian Bale?
Worthington: I find Christian extremely passionate and dedicated. People call him intense and I hate that [frick]ing word now. I hate it. He turns up, does his job and it's all about the story and the character. To work with a guy like that is an absolute privilege.
What was your take on this character?
Worthington: To be honest with you I looked at him like Dorothy in 'The Wizard of Oz'. That was always stuck in my head, this person waking up in another world and tries to find himself as he goes on this yellow brick road. They find the heart, the brain, the sensitivity from the Tin Man. There are all these characters that you meet along the way and you get into Skynet which is Oz to ask the question. 'What the [frick] am I going to do?' That's how I look at it. That's why I'm wearing a blue coat. Dorothy wears a blue dress. There are things like that I got stuck into. 'Alice in Wonderland' the same thing. So that's how I focused on the character. I also wanted to be a robot that felt pain, not only physical, mental and emotional, but here's a guy that wanted to die for his sins. The irony is that he wakes up and he can't die. So he's stuck and his penance is to suffer until he transforms and becomes a better human being.
What kind of back story were you given for him? And what kind of back story did you give yourself?
Worthington: We all came up with our own back story, to be honest. And the answer is that I killed a brother and two cops. That was McG's idea. I had my own back story. To be honest, I didn't want to ever know what he did. It's personal. I think we ADR'd that line because audiences were coming back and going, 'What did he do? What did he do?' So we put it in, but I personally wanted you to never know. The guy has obviously done something wrong because he's on death row. But if you say that he's a pedophile or you say that he's psychopath or you say that he accidentally killed someone you already have a preconception of him and I didn't want that. As it stands I think it's okay though. It's still ambiguous. Did he kill the brother?
What was McG's reaction to your Dorothy analogy?
Worthington: He thinks I'm as mad as a hatter. He's a good director though. He lets you come in and do your job and gives you little subtle hints along the way so that you're on the right path. That's what any good director does. They don't treat you like a monkey or a puppet. They employ you to bring in whatever you can bring in. My job is to bring in as much as I can and then he goes and puts it together. That's my job.
I presume there's a lot of physical precision involved in making something like 'Avatar'.
Worthington: Kind of in the sense that you're dictated…you're never dictated by the technology with Jim. He's paramount to the actors. Everyone thinks that he's technology driven, but he's the best [frick]ing acting director I've ever worked with. He picks up on subtleties and details like you wouldn't believe. So he's employed me to come in and do my job and then we work and use the technology and I work with him. It's give and take. Jim isn't a dictator. He wants it done [frick]ing 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 came in and said, 'Look, I've done ten years in Australia. I didn't do that for nothing.' We work together. It's a privilege to work with directors who like pushing the boundaries, like taking risks like McG who's taking a hell of a risk on this movie with regards to his own career. That's what I want, to be a part of that.
How did you get into acting?
Worthington: I was a bricklayer. I built houses. I never wanted to act. I was nineteen and I met a young girl who auditioned for the Premiere Drama School. I auditioned with her out of moral support, to cheer her along. I got in. She didn't.
How did that relationship work out?
Worthington: She dumped me a week later. One scene, eye to eye. I didn't know what wings on a stage was. I thought Chekhov was on the Starship Enterprise. So I was a sponge that took everything in. Then you finish your sentence after three years, they release you for good behavior if you're lucky and then you go and work and you learn how to act. That's basically it. I'm still an infant in this, but after ten years, I always thought that you do as much as you can in your own country so that you can sit in a room with Jim or McG and offer them something. That's my apprenticeship. You don't build a house and then go, 'Hey, can I do the [frick]ing Twin Towers project?' No one is going to give you the job. So my belief was that you do as much as you can. I looked at other actors in Australia who had done the same thing.
You've also got 'Clash of the Titans' coming out.
Worthington: Yeah. Filming it at the moment.
Can you talk about what attracted you to that role?
Worthington: Who wouldn't want to run around in a dress and kill the Kraken. That's the appeal. I read the script and was jumping around the bed with a ruler. My girlfriend was looking at me like I was nuts. She said, 'This is the one you want to do, isn't it?' I said, 'It's deep. Trust me.' I had a take on that I gave Louis [Leterrier] and the studio and they're mad enough to let me loose and see if it can work.
How do you think it'll differ from the original?
Worthington: Well, we've been filming it for two weeks now. I'm more bruised and battered than I was on 'Terminator'. We took on Medusa. We took on the witches. I've got that take on the scorpions and then we just kill everything else. It's a bit more brutal. There are no togas or there are very little togas. Like I said, 'I'm not wearing a toga. Bugger that.' You can't put me in a toga. I'm sorry. I can't do it. We're just making 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.
How different is your character compared to Harry Hamlin's?
Worthington: They're exactly the same, man [laughs]. It's hard for me to discuss that because I'm in the middle of that. Some of that I can tell you when we go and promote the movie and whether it worked or not. I'm in the middle of discovering whether the take is going to work.
Do you live in L.A. now?
Worthington: I go where the work is.
So you don't have a home back in Australia?
Worthington: I've got two bags. I've got a bag of books and a bag clothes because I sold everything before I went and did 'Avatar' and for the last four years I've been going back to back to back on jobs. So at the moment I'm living in a hotel up the road with me mates.
What's in the book bag?
Worthington: Just a lot of books that kind of inspire me that I've read over the years like 'Cat in the Hat'.
What was the most difficult stunt you did on this?
Worthington: Being strung up wasn't a very good day but that helps the scene because you don't want to be strung up and neither does the character. So that helps. Jumping off when the truck blows off, I think, was difficult. You're doing things that a stuntman can do. I'm not a trained stuntman, but I'll give anything a go. Some of the wire stuff is a little bit more difficult than it looks.
What was your reaction when you saw the movies cut together?
Worthington: I think it's fast and I think it's the movie that McG told me that he wanted to make and that's good. I'm excited. But it's hard for me to be too objective because you're in it. I know what's coming next.
Did you guys have any time to hangout off set at all or blow some team off in Albuquerque?
Worthington: There's not much to do in Albuquerque. It's green chili and weaving. That's about it. That's what we did. The hours were long so you just worked. I do an extraordinary job and so I try to live an ordinary life. I go home and wash and cook. It's nothing. Watch TV.
Have you seen any of 'Avatar'?
Worthington: Yeah. I watched it recently.
Does it live up to the hype?
Worthington: It's amazing. Jim said that the hype is going to kill it. He's not nervous. Jim doesn't get nervous, but it's not the end all and be all. Hopefully what this does is open up a world to the possibilities of what motion capture can do and the possibilities of what this 3D technology can achieve. Hopefully it starts that kind of revolution and I think it will.
When you choose a project do you take into account the expectations of a film?
Worthington: I pick because of the director because you're working with them. My job is to facilitate his vision and if I pick the movie then the second thing is would I go and see the movie. There's no point in doing something for four months or thirteen months that you wouldn’t go and see. That sounds ridiculous.
So you're fine with all the hype that comes along with it?
Worthington: That's just a part of the fun, isn't it?
You're ready for TMZ to be tracking you down?
Worthington: We'll find out, won't we? I mean, my mates are laughing their heads off. They're sick of seeing my head. That's the thing, if this happened back when I was twenty two it could be a bit overwhelming. I'm thirty two. I kind of know who I am and I'm just going to enjoy the ride. As long as it doesn't affect my work and I keep producing work of a certain quality that keeps me in the game then I'm okay. As soon as it starts affecting what I can achieve or that I feel I've got nothing to offer I'll go back to bricklaying.
Were you ever approached at all for 'Green Lantern'?
Worthington: I think they've been talking to people. I've been talking to Martin [Campbell] about it. It's one of those things though, they're still working on the script. 'Give me a script and I'll have a look at it.' I like Martin a lot. I met him on the 'Bond' stuff. So I like his work. Now the second step is if it's a movie that I would go and see.