Related Sections: Interviews Movies News Top Stories
Hate Terminator Salvation? Sam Worthington hears you
Sam Worthington told reporters that he takes to heart criticism of his last film, McG's Terminator Salvation, and that it'll help him make better movies in the future.
"Terminator? It was dark," Worthington told a group of reporters in London last Friday, agreeing with some of the critical responses to the movie. "There is no humor. That's what we set out to do. It's kind of humbling, the way that they describe your performance against [star] Christian's [Bale], but we have no control over that. We just have to do the best character that we can do at that time."
Worthington added that he even agreed with some of the nitpicks about the movie, such as: How does a giant robot sneak up on an abandoned gas station without making a sound?
"I can nitpick with the best of them, man, and kind of go down the list of things I saw on IMDB where they found holes in it, and go, 'You are f--king right,'" he said. "If there was a big 10-ton robot coming outside that gas station, surely we would f--king hear it. And I missed that. So I'm going to be a bit better when I'm looking through my f--king scripts. So it raises my game a bit, because now I feel like an idiot for not saying it to McG, you know?"
In a bit of a surprise, Worthington said he reads all of the critical comments people make about his performances and takes many of them seriously.
"It's pressure to do my job correctly, more than anything," Worthington said. "You know, I've got here because all the movies I've done in Australia gave me a good apprenticeship to be able to come into the big game or the big league. ... I've just [got] to keep the pressure on myself. ... I'm a nerd at heart, in the sense of I read what people say, because they're my audience. And if you don't know how you're coming across, in my opinion, I think you're cutting yourself off a bit."
Worthington compared his job to that of a professional athlete. "If the fans are booing you, you know you're going to play better," he said. "So we don't necessarily have the bounce of a theater, but we have the critics online, we have our critics in the newspaper, so I do take it all onboard in order to kind of go, 'Well, you know, they're the ones paying 12 bucks. I've got to kind of just step up my game, or Sam Worthington has to change this.' Or I will [say], 'F--k it, I'll change that or back up the criticism that I get thrown out.' 'Why did you do this?' Well I can now back up everything. Because that, to me, that helps my profession and links what I believe is, you know, what my job is. To entertain people. That's what my job is."
Worthington will next be seen in James Cameron's Avatar, which opens Dec. 18.
By S.W. at 1:07 AM ON 08/25/09
Sam? If you're reading this, I'd just like you to know that my respect and admiration for you just went up a couple hundred notches.
By Gill Avila at 2:02 AM ON 08/25/09
I just read 2 days ago that the company that produced Terminator: Salvation just filed for bankruptcy. I hope that isn't the start of a jinx.
By Horrid at 2:53 AM ON 08/25/09
Hey Sam ... you swear allot & your dodgy Yank euphemisms don't help. Take that 'onboard'!
By Ray at 3:13 AM ON 08/25/09
i still personally liked T:S alot to be honest
By Tarrax at 3:59 AM ON 08/25/09
Hey Horrid...your dodgy spelling doesn't help a lot either.
Sam, thanks for being honest & for caring what your audience thinks. :)
By fistoflegend at 5:36 AM ON 08/25/09
Nice to hear that he listens to what his fan base has to say. I think some of the actors and directors do forget that we are the ones buying tickets to theatres and purchasing dvd's of the films. Maybe the next one will be betterm,but I didn't hate this one.
By REDante at 5:53 AM ON 08/25/09
Although I know there are those who didnt like it, I hope he also hears from the people that do like it. I personally love this film because you can totally watch T1 and T2 and skip T3 and watch this, which is all I wanted, thanks to this movie, now I truly do have a trilogy that may be isnt perfect but its now better then it was with the last movie.
If they dont make they dont make anymore I can be happy with this. I finally got what Ive wanted since I first saw T1 and T2, the whole movie in the future instead of in the past.
By 3456 at 8:43 AM ON 08/25/09
I believe that the franchise is now...."Terminated". They are beating
a dead horse...DEADER
By K'Rik at 9:23 AM ON 08/25/09
I personally didn't have many problems with T:S. Wish it was more of a crossover between T:TSCC but you can't have everything.
Sam, I would go see you in any movie.
By Andrew at 12:16 PM ON 08/25/09
You can't please everyone of the fans. If you try, you will go insane. The hardcore fans have nothing else to do put sit in their Star Trek pj's and hug their wookie blowup doll and complain about every little thing that happens in the movie. Just for once I would like people to watch a movie and try and enjoy it. So, if you are reading this, yes it is a good idea to try and improve for your audience, but don't take everything to heart. Do the best you can, and if they don't like it "SCREW EM!"
By Mehr at 12:38 PM ON 08/25/09
Terminator Salvation rocked! It was the best film I had seen in ages right up until GI Joe!
By Kyle Nin at 12:41 PM ON 08/25/09
Hate it? I thought it was the best movie this year. I'm still waiting for something better.
By ray e at 1:01 PM ON 08/25/09
@kyle
i agree one of the top films so far for action not a let down
By starkiller at 1:08 PM ON 08/25/09
It isn't favorite movie but I liked Terminator Salvation. However, it made me miss the Sarah Connor Chronicles even more.
By Richqb at 1:32 PM ON 08/25/09
Minor plot holes were not my problem with Salvation. My issue was how much the ending blew the proverbial goat. No fault of Worthington's, of course.
By Kryche at 1:53 PM ON 08/25/09
T:S was completely and utterly forgettable. Absolutely the worst kind of movie to go to a theater and watch. I'd rather see a really crappy movie that I can make fun of and laugh at than something I feel nothing at all for.
To dark? IMO it wasn't nearly dark enough. In the original, you had a very dark post apocalyptic world, T:S's world was way to bright and no where near as apocalyptic feeling as the original.
Plus the Terminator TV show (RIP) put this movie to shame. If they do make another, I hope they get a new director, new writer, and keep John Conner off-screen (IE: no Christian Bale). Truth is though, I hope the entire franchise gets rebooted.
By Mac at 2:18 PM ON 08/25/09
Christian Bale is a hack.
Sam Worthington has the potential to take over for Arnold. He just needs a more rational story. I want to see him in more films.
By treav at 2:56 PM ON 08/25/09
Remember in past terminator films and in t.v. show where they show the future and it's dark (night time). I wonder If I had to do with the fact that Skynet send well over a 1,000 nuclear warheads all across the world.
*Spoiler Below Kind of*
Also cool parts in T.S. movie t-800 at the end and leaders of resistance on a submarine. John Conner needs to be tougher in a serious doesn't say much snake plissken kind of way..... Horrible way to kill off Michael Ironside in T.S. movie. He should've died in a duel with John Conner.I want laser guns in next terminator movie.
By panixon at 3:16 PM ON 08/25/09
I liked the entire movie...except the ending that was just stupid....but i fell in love with sam .
By Ray E at 3:50 PM ON 08/25/09
i watched every sarah connor tv series episode if you seperate it from the movies it is a OK show but honestly john connor should NOT ever be that much of a wuss/emotional/in love with bot girl [SKYNET is his enemy!! why tease him loving a skynet made bot so odd maybe they were just trying to take some from bsg ie. Helo and Athena or something]
also in season 2 it had weird plots like sarah connor being obsessed over 3 dots, the fact the t-1001 would be bad one episode and good at the end of the series [series writers admitted they had no idea where to go with weaver when she joined the show]
a 32 episode series is def going to have more character development than a under 2 hour movie
T:S was built on the hybrid marcus's story john being a strong tough guy and saving kyle reese
T1=save sarah
T2=save john
T4=save kyle
By Alikhat at 4:01 PM ON 08/25/09
Terminator Salvation was a preposterously horrible movie, but the fault was not with Sam Worthington - or any of the actors, for that matter. The script was abysmal; just laughably stupid and for all the explosions and knees-bent-running-around, ploddingly dull. There was was just no coming back from that. I look forward to seeing him in other, better projects.
By ray e at 4:02 PM ON 08/25/09
to be honest a lot of people only watched that show because they thought that Summer Glau was "so cute"
when you see people on forums saying see was a better terminator than arnold, thats insane since she really just tryed to emulate him [unsuccessful]
The T-X was much hotter than Cameron anyway, although T3 seems to be the most hated of anything terminator so far i thought it was decent
By Melora at 11:20 PM ON 08/25/09
Is this guy capable of stringing a sentence together without swearing? A**hole.
By Tarc at 12:04 AM ON 08/26/09
T:S was a plain old BAD movie. The script was bad, the look was bad, and Bale didn't work for me at all. Honestly, the whole franchise is done foe me; there is no tension because of the incessant use of the 'reboot button' of time travel. If John Conner died, would anyone care? For the next film, someone would just send a different machine to change something else just before he died. It's lazy, stupid writing that makes dull, dreary uninteresting films. And it's too bad because Worthington was the best part of the the movie. It's good to hear that his hindsight is 20/20 and that he learns - not many actors do.
By Alhazred at 1:48 AM ON 08/26/09
Mehr are U being sarcastic?
By REDante at 4:40 AM ON 08/26/09
I know theres plenty of people who just couldnt be happy with the movie, I can accept that, people hate it and they letting everyone know. I just hope people can accept that there are just as many people who do like it, depsite not being as huge as transformers 2 moneywise (and we all know how much people tore that up)
I got what I wanted, a scifi future movie about fighting against machines, they dont make those kind of movies often, in fact they usually only make that for very low budget dvd movies.
So to the people who hated this movie, dont worry they probably wont make another, one company filed for bankruptcy despite it making $370 million worldwide plus probably an extra 30 million when it comes out on dvd.
To those who enjoy the movie like me, yep enjoy this one, cause lets see hollywood make anymore movies about apocylaptic future war movies against machines. Oh well guess we can get that with Japanese anime.
By Red Mask at 4:53 AM ON 08/26/09
The problem for me wasn't the acting. It was the content. Many parts of the film weren't very original nor captivating enough. But I don't have any problem with acting.
By Aaron at 6:29 AM ON 08/26/09
Don't dig the man for swearing. Have you ever spoken to an actor in person? They're not the 'oh phooey' people you see smiling on E, they curse like everyone else.
Good old Sam is keeping the Aussie tradition up of being honest, well past the point when you should stop in Hollywood.
By FairMan at 12:58 PM ON 08/26/09
I liked terminator Salvation -- a lot. It was a big story, well-acted, and just cool. I have nothing personal against Christian Bale. It amazed me how people projected their disdain for him onto the movie. There are plenty of actors I don't agree with. Angelina Jolie's father, who for some reason I can't name right now, is a pure d*ck, personally and politically. But that wouldn't make me trash a good movie of his.
Powder and Joyride were fantastic movies made by a sex offender. I knocked the guy, not the movies.
By Kryche at 2:47 PM ON 08/26/09
I don't mind Christian Bale as an actor, I have liked several of the movies he has been in, and think he makes a great Batman.
I just thought he did a terrible job as John Conner, and it's his fault that the Conner role is as big as it is in T:S, because he came in and threw his weight around wanting his part in the movie to be bigger so he'd get more screen time.
The role would have been better suited for an actor who portrayed the role a bit more low key. Or better yet, if he was left off screen all together.
Plus the movie simply wasn't post apocalyptic enough. It felt more like a rollercoaster ride at a theme park than a truly apocalyptic world where robots have killed off most of humanity and are hunting down whats left.
Just my opinion, but after the original Terminator set the stage, and the nuBSG, and the Sarah Connor Chronicles carried on the torch, I was just expecting more from a post apocalyptic robot's vs humans movie. But it seems as if the best writers in Hollywood have all went to TV these days.
By gobsmacked at 5:35 PM ON 08/26/09
Sam, love the fact that you care what the audience thinks. Hate the swearing.
By Anthony at 7:45 PM ON 08/26/09
Sam was just fine and so was Bale and Anton..even Moon was good for what little she got to do. But the script was bad , seriously. The action was good and the effects were nice. The Terminators looked great and even Arnie's CGI look was passable. But the story stunk and the ending stunk. There will be a sequel though , I just hope they get a good script first.
By wender at 7:51 AM ON 08/27/09
NEWS TIP: SAM WORTHINGTON TO PLAY AUSTRALIAN WAR SURGEON CRAIG JURISEVIC IN NEW FEATURE FILM.
Film covers surgeon's time during Kosovo War; fighting with Kosovo Liberation Army against Milosevic's forces.
Producer E. Orner. Director and studio yet to be announced.
By ilda at 9:42 PM ON 01/01/10
hey you Horrid hey what envy of yours that Sam is fuking hotter that you .you can´t even reached his heels I feel sorry for you and you know what his got girls to defend him and fans and you got nothing he has million of young girls behind Im only fifteen baby so
By ilda at 9:50 PM ON 01/01/10
hey baby you are so hot why say that about your movie I love it now I know Im a stupid girl fifteen years old but I know what is good and I LOVE TO WATCH MOVIES PLEASE DONT SAY THAT ABOUT YOUR FILMING I MADE A SCRIPT THAT CAN BE A IDEA FOR TERMINATOR 5 AND YOU ARE ON IT NOW Im just trying to find a website I can trust to send it to McG I love you with lots of love favorite actor is you not Ben Affleck anymore now its you Sam Worthington!!!!!!
By cInThIa at 10:54 AM ON 01/02/10
your movie is awsome and I loved it its not to pressure you and you acted wow !!!!! and I would like someday to talk to you by messenger and I expect to see more aaawsome movies like these
Visit mobile.syfy.com/wire on your mobile device.
cInThIa:
your movie is awsome and I loved it its not to pressure you and you acted wow !!!!! and I would like someday to tal...More »