Interview: Lena Headey (Sarah Connor) and James Middleton Speak! – January 2008
By Terminatorsite.com
Source: Terminatorsite.com

“Sarah Connor” Lena Headey as well as Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles executive producer James Middleton spoke with the press today, and we have highlights of what they had to say here at TerminatorSite!

Inside, they talk about connections to the movie series, what the strike may mean for Season 1, an animated Terminator project, and much more. So what are you waiting for? Let’s get started!

A popular question that Ms. Headey received (perhaps too often) is about her the inevitable comparison associated with taking on such an iconic role that was created in the first two Terminator films by Linda Hamilton. “I take from the movies, what is undeniable: Which is her strength, and an instinct, and just an absolute sense of wrong and right that’s ingrained in her. And then on top of that, you throw in the unusual circumstance she’s in. So I think it’s a very potent mix of emotion and depth. Also, I get to be more emotional; you see more of her relationship with John and other human beings, so different in that way. We just come in a different physical wrapping.”

“Hopefully people will embrace what I bring to Sarah and kind of see it with fresh eyes,” she continues. Headey is also enthusiastic to see her character’s growth. “I think [there are] ongoing layers of evolution,” Headey says. “I think her relationship with John is reaching new depths. She’s learning to be a mother, she’s learning what it is to live like this. It’s now a complete realization of what’s going on.”

The film Terminator 3 revealed a different fate for Sarah Connor; one where she passed away prior to the movie’s start. James Middleton talks about how mortality affects Sarah. Sarah is always concerned about her mortality, from the standpoint that she worries [that] if she dies, will her work be done? In terms of our show, the premise of our pilot establishes that we really move away from Terminator 3. We create a whole new timeline; a different future, really… a new fate for Sarah. So the series is really going to be informed more by Terminator 2: Judgement Day than by Terminator 3.”

Middleton was involved as a producer on Terminator 3, and was asked if it affected him to take on a new project that deviated from the film. “No it didn’t, because I was so interested in bringing Sarah Connor back. That was really the priority for me. And to make her character relevant to a new audience in 2008. So, while I enjoyed working on Terminator 3 and it was a worldwide commercial success and it was a lot of fun, I completely embraced the idea that through something established in the mythology, time travel, we could create an entirely new storyline and timeline for Sarah Connor herself.”

Middleton is also a producer on the Terminator 4 film which is planned for 2009, and was asked if the Sarah Connor Chronicles and the movie will affect one another. “I think that they will, naturally, cross promote each other,” he says, “but in terms of narrative timelines, what we’ve done with the television show is create an entirely new timeline. So we will be following Sarah’s journey through a different timeline. It’s a completely new expression of the franchise in that way, by Josh Friedman.”

“I think that, having seen all of the episodes of the show, that it is a completely involving narrative on its own, and I think that people will appreciate both what’s happening in the Sarah Connor Chronicles and what would happen in Terminator 4,” he continues.

Regarding the upcoming film, Middleton reveals that Terminator 4 is slated to begin production in late April, with McG directing, and Christian Bale starring. He also has another Terminator-related project in the works. “I’m also working on an animation project called Termination, which will utilize anime and anime auteurs to do individual segments inspired by the Terminator franchise,” he reveals.

When asked about comparisons to The Animatrix, Middleton revealed that this project will have a much more international flair. “This idea of Judgement Day is not something that would just affect Los Angeles; it would affect the world, and so we’ll have European animators as well as Japanese anime masters.”

Shifting the focus back to Sarah Connor, Middleton addressed the school-shooting scene from the series pilot that had to undergo revision after the Virginia Tech incident last year. “We all were horrified by Virginia Teach, and we did make adjustments in the pilot, to reflect the sensitivities people had about it, and since then there have been other school shootings that we are sensitive to as well. But one must remember that the premise of our show is of Terminators, and others from the future coming to kill a child, and that may happen in public places. One thing that we do in this show, which may not happen in other action shows, is that our show really values human life, and this is something that Sarah, as a character, is very conscious of as the series progresses about who must die, and how to prevent that in her war against SkyNet,” he says.

Middleton talked about some of those themes, especially involving technology. “The themes of Terminator are just as relevant today as they were when T2 came out. Technology in terms of robotics is increasing at an astonishing rate. People are working on artificial intelligence in many different quarters, and so at the same time I think people feel sort of powerless over this technology and don’t understand it, and there’s a natural paranoia that comes with that, and I think that that makes our show really relevant, if not moreso, than when T2 was released,” Middleton says. “So, that part is something that we bring with us, and the other thing is the theme from the movies that a small person; let’s say Sarah Connor, a former waitress, can have an amazing impact on the future. I think everybody wants to believe that there’s a calling for them, that they can have a positive impact, and that their existence means something. I think that that is also very relevant to new audiences. In terms of the show itself, what that provides us is the ability to deal more with Sarah Connor’s character than you could in a movie, and it also allows us to have that character more proactive instead of just being chased. Sarah is basically proactive and on the hunt, and investigating this mysterious and very tense world.”

“Our audience has always identified with this character that has an enormous task thrust upon her, that is very much like us,” Middleton continues. “She starts out as a waitress; her beginnings are not auspicious, but because of the calling that she is given, she rises to the occasion, and transforms into an amazing heroine, and I think that that’s something that we’d all like to believe could happen to each of us, that if such a calling were thrust upon us, we could be strong enough and rise to the occasion,” Middleton says.

“With that, I’ve always loved Sarah Connor’s intensity. The fact that while fighting very viciously against her foes, you absolutely see in her face the stakes, and her fear, and her anxiety. I think that that’s very interesting, and it’s a fantastic character created by Jim Cameron, and I wanted to really explore her. Lena has absolutely just knocked it out of the park in terms of taking this character and making it her own.”

One thing even Sarah Connor was not able to triumph over was the current Hollywood writers’ strike, which has most likely left The Sarah Connor Chronicles with a shortened season of only nine episodes. “I view the writers’ strike as a very disappointing thing. I believe that with our show, we have a viable first season. We have nine total shows, but Lena and I both very much miss the man who developed this show for television, Josh Friedman, who I’ve come to think of as a bit of a genius and a poet, and I miss working with him and I hope to work with him again. If there were not a writers’ strike, I think our show would be just as successful,” Middleton says. However, he is not sure what would happen if the strike came to an end in the coming weeks, regarding whether or not they could finish out the rest of their order. “I just don’t know. I hope we could,” he says. “I have a feeling that the nine shows that we have may be our first season. It takes about five weeks to get a show up and running. We would have to get the writers back into the writer room. They know what they have to do, but still, it takes time. Our show is very involved in terms of CGI, and practical special effects, and costumes and sets, so the preparation time is critical. I don’t think that there’s a scenario where we could have those last four episodes of our order to be running continuously with this season.”

“It really would be up to FOX,” Middleton says, revealing that the show’s ninth episode does end with a “tremendous” cliffhanger.

Middleton also commented on the fan base and online interaction already seen with the show. “There are some fantastic fan sites that have popped up, alongside the web sites that FOX has created, and we really believe that the Internet content is really an extension of the show, and helps viewers and fans invest themselves even more into the actual episodes,” he says.

“As the series progresses, there are going to be many references and echoes to the first two movies, and real fans will be able to pick up on those references,” he reveals. “We’re very influenced by certain themes and lines and characters from the first two movies, and those things will eventually appear in our series or be referenced. At the same time, we don’t want to be slavish to the first two movies, and we can’t, really. We have to expand the universe. So, we’re going to create surprises that have nothing to do, really, with the first two movies.” When asked if a famous face from the films, such as Robert Patrick, would show on the series, Middleton reveals that there are no immediate plans. “We’re just going to leave that to the future,” he reveals, “but Robert Patrick is a fantastic actor, and you never know.”

One creative talent from Terminators past that will likely not be returning is James Cameron, the talented director of the first two films. “Jim Cameron has not been involved in the franchise since about 1998, when the franchise was sold to C-2 Pictures, but, you know, he’s obviously an inspiration to us every day,” Middleton reveals. “David Nutter, I think, put it really well when we were working on the pilot. Whenever there was an empty chair, he would say ‘That’s Jim Cameron’s chair.’ So, we acknowledge that what we’re working on is created by a master filmmaker, and so going to the question of why television for Sarah Connor? The first thing is, is that I knew that Sarah would not appear in any future movies, and I really desperately wanted to bring that character back. The original drafts of T3 included Sarah, and that was not able to happen, but when I look back on it, I feel actually that that was a blessing, because that allowed us to get to this point where we had a series where we could have Lena Headey play Sarah.”

“No, there hasn’t been any talk [of getting Cameron to guest-direct an episode],” Middleton says. “He’s just not involved in that way. I think that, knowing our schedules and our television budget, that it probably wouldn’t interest him to do that. He’s really kind of moved to a much grander scale, with the likes of Titanic and Avatar.”

Lena Headey reveals that every script has some surprises. “There’s tons of stuff that you don’t see coming, and you would never, ever think of. It’s really exciting. All of us have very, very unexpected points in each script. It’s really very cool,” she reveals. One new relationship in the series is the one between Sarah and Cameron, the “protector” sent to take care of Sarah and John. “The interaction between Sarah and Cameron, the protector/machine, is very complicated, because Sarah has a well-earned fear of machines, yet she must keep this machine close to her in order to protect her own son,” Middleton reveals. “There’s a wariness that Sarah has for Cameron, but as the series goes on, it’s impossible for either Sarah or John not to become somewhat emotionally attached to Cameron as a being. So it’s a very interesting thing, watching Sarah deal with what is really her worst nightmare, and having to embrace it every day.”

Middleton was not very forthcoming with upcoming episode information, instead hoping fans and press would discover the show’s surprises for themselves. “I just want it to be a surprise for you and for everybody that’s going to watch this,” he says. He did, reveal, that episodes of the show will have a self-contained nature for new viewers, while at the same time maintaining a continuing arc. “There’s a balance that we have to strike,” he says. “Each episode that we have has a closed ending, but there are naturally serialized elements to it as the show progresses. I think it’s the right balance. I don’t think that, having seen all of the episodes now and having worked on them in post production – I don’t think that there’s anybody that would come in to a particular episode and not be able to figure out what’s going on.”

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles premieres Sunday, January 13 and Monday, January 14 on FOX.