Coming out this week from Paramount Pictures is Terminator: Dark Fate, directed by Tim Miller (Deadpool).
A sequel to The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day, the new film will ignore all the other movies in the franchise and picks up decades later as a new type of Terminator is sent back to terminate a new target. This new group of heroes will cross paths with Sarah Connor and even a Terminator who will team up with them to make their own fate.
Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger return in their iconic roles as Sarah Connor and T-800 in Dark Fate with James Cameron, also returning as a producer and co-writer. They’re joined by Mackenzie Davis (Blade Runner 2049), Natalia Reyes (Birds of Passage), Gabriel Luna (Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) and Diego Boneta in the film with Tim Miller (Deadpool) behind the camera.
More than two decades have passed since Sarah Connor prevented Judgment Day, changed the future, and re-wrote the fate of the human race. Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes) is living a simple life in Mexico City with her brother (Diego Boneta) and father when a highly advanced and deadly new Terminator – a Rev-9 (Gabriel Luna) – travels back through time to hunt and kill her. Dani’s survival depends on her joining forces with two warriors: Grace (Mackenzie Davis), an enhanced super-soldier from the future, and a battle-hardened Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton). As the Rev-9 ruthlessly destroys everything and everyone in its path on the hunt for Dani, the three are led to a T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) from Sarah’s past that may be their last best hope.
This is a big role for Luna, who is best known for playing Robbie Reyes/Ghost Rider on Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD. Luna also starred on the El Rey Network series Matador, and on season 2 of HBO’s True Detective. His film credits include the thriller Transpecos, the horror-comedy Gravy and the biographical drama Freeheld with Julianne Moore and Steve Carell.
Blackfilm.com spoke exclusively with Luna about joining this franchise that includes the three stars that started it all, Hamilton, Schwarzenegger and Cameron.
What went into saying yes to this role? Did you audition for it or did they come to you?
Gabriel Luna: I auditioned. I was called in almost two years ago now if you can believe it, pretty nuts. But I was called in to go see Mindy Marin, the wonderful casting director, and that seems to have gone because they called me back to with Tim and this is in December 2017. I met Tim. I loved him immediately. I love Deadpool. I think it’s one of the greatest love stories of all time. I just think to be just a cool dude.. I love the effects. I love directors that come from the visual effects world, people who are animators, people who work in the world of the impossible.
So yes, I did that. Then of course, I met with the stunt team. I did a stunt assessment. This is all over the course about four months. I met the producers and went in for my screen test for Jim. who wasn’t there personally. He was New Zealand making three avatar sequels. I got all that done and finally got the word. I guess it was April because we shipped out in May. It was it was definitely a long, long process, and a lot of flaming hoops but I’m so thankful I made it to the end.
When did you start to get in shape for the role?
Gabriel Luna: The moment I was going in for the very first audition. I didn’t have a job yet. But I decided that to behave and to train as if I did, and I started to put on a little muscle mass but it wasn’t until I really started training with the trainer they provided me and the nutritionist that I was able to see the gains and to see my body change. It was really interesting because Josephine was my first trainer and she comes from a bit of a CrossFit background in power lifting. So she helped me shed a lot of body weight and to start to strengthen my skeletal muscles and build lean muscle. Then in Madrid, I had a trainer named Rafa and he was also a bit of a CrossFit guy, but as a male, he also was a bit of a heavier lifter, so he started to get my body lifting heavier weights. Then of course, in Budapest, I had Adam he comes from a bodybuilding background.
He’s a disciple of Arnold and he worships Arnold as all bodybuilders probably do. He has this amazing facility where I was able to train and get started growing like a weed. I was eating so much food and lifting heavy heavy, and I put on about 15 pounds overall in the end. Then of course, Arnold Schwarzenegger arrived sometime in July of 2018 and he started the ultimate motivation because I’m there training my ass off because I look across the gym and there is Arnold looking at me and says, ‘Let’s throw another 5 (pounds) on this and let’s get it up.”
Can you talk about the film has Latinos at the front and center of the storyline?
Gabriel Luna: Actually, let us not forget the young boy at the end of the first Terminator, who translates for her when the old man tells her that a storm is coming. Meteor storm storms coming. In the second film, she goes down to Mexico to regroup before they come back to destroy Skynet and there’s some Mexican actors. They’re never as in depth as our film. So it is very awesome to see. I love that we’re not trying to force it on anyone. We’re not trying to pander. It’s just it’s just a natural element to the story. In the Terminator films, Sarah has a connection to Mexico.
Can you talk about working with Linda and Arnold, the two faces of the franchise?
Gabriel Luna: Sarah Connor is the story. Always has been. That was the glue that held everything together. That’s Jim’s muse and he brought her back. He convinced her to come back and she was happy to come back. It took a little convincing but once she felt that a lot of time has passed and a lot more story to tell she was so happy to come back. I remember a few years ago being here in LA and just hearing that that she was going to be in the movie. I’m a fan of the Terminator franchise. I was like, “Holy shit, man, I can’t wait to see this movie!” Years later, to be suddenly in it was certainly a pleasant surprise.
We all work so hard for them. We all want to make them proud. We all want to make a picture that sits at the table with the original terminators and also really honors the story of Sarah Connor and Arnold included. I think because we were all following her and aligning that goal, that we recreated something that’s fun, that’s dangerous that that feels like a Terminator movie and, and so far, it seems that people are enjoying themselves and that’s all I’ve ever asked. I just want them to have fun and enjoy watching the great Linda Hamilton reprise her role.
Was it little difficult for you to do when you’re when you’re playing a character not display any emotion whatsoever?
Gabriel Luna: It was and it wasn’t. I’m a big advocate of less is more. Try to try to keep your body engaged. Try to keep your body energized even in stillness. I think that any explosion or explosive movement is only as interesting as the stillness that sandwiches it. I’ve always an actor that tries to do tries to do as little as possible and be effective but at the same time I I try to do certain things to train my body, my face to not waste movement. No little tics in your face. No little shift in your weight, everything is moving, everything is forward, everything is attack mode, everything is just you knifing through the world. That was my general framework to work from in trying to build fiscal vocabulary. To be me, to be who I am as an actor. To be dynamite when I have to be.
How was working with Natalia? This is her big role in the Hollywood world.
Gabriel Luna: She’s quite well known in the Latin American world. I think she just did her celebration of like a million Instagram followers or something the other day we’re on the press tour. She went and bought some Chinese fireworks and had a little bit of a mini celebration. But she’s just wonderful. She’s a firecracker. She’s small but strong she says and and I really enjoyed working with her. In our off time we had so much fun hanging out. I would just look at her with daggers demise all day even even in between setups even when we’re off camera, cold eyes all day long. She said sometimes she should be eating her meal because we had these pre packaged meals. We’re all like starving ourselves eating these very nutritious, honest meal plan during lunch. It was all in a day’s work and we would be thick as thieves, all of us. We were a very close cast.
What’s next for you after this?
Gabriel Luna: There was an original plan that suddenly changed. So now my schedule is a open. There’s definitely a few opportunities on the table so I will try to weigh them and make the right choice.
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