Anton Yelchin: "I mean I'm really lucky to be a part of this. I think it’s really got great characters, first and foremost, and then second of all they're great projects. But I sort of just approach them the same way. I study every character and it doesn’t matter that it’s Chekov or that it’s Kyle Reese, that it’s a huge blockbuster or it’s a tiny movie. You approach the character study and everything the same way. And in addition to that, with a movie like this you just get to have a blast."
How do you deal with the extra pressure of bringing a character like this to life, who’s been played before and who everybody knows? Isn’t there extra pressure on you?
Anton Yelchin: "Yes. I mean I guess there is, but I guess to do a good job you have to block it out. You just sort of have to be like, 'I have to do a good job regardless.' I have to do a great job every time whether there's no pressure or a lot of pressure, so I treat it the same way."
What has been the most challenging scene or action set piece you've done so far?
Anton Yelchin: "Well you guys saw that video and there was that truck, and the truck we shot for like five days, I think. At one point I fell off of it. I was like hanging. It was moving and I fell off and I had a harness and I was just like hanging upside-down, and like the road, my hands [were] hitting the pavement. And that wasn’t challenging so much as it scared the sh-t out of me. I got up and I was, 'I'm okay. I'm all right. I'm Kyle Reese.'"
Did everyone freak out around you?
Anton Yelchin: "Yes. I mean people freaked out until they saw I was okay because I wasn’t like, 'Oh my god, I'm dying,' you know? I just fell, got back up and it hurt like a bitch and then I was fine."
Are you doing a lot of your own stunts?
Anton Yelchin: "Yes. I mean there's some stuff that... The stunt guys were incredible. Logan who does me and Adam who does Sam [Worthington], and it's really, really incredible what they do. I've done some of them - like I was on the truck when it was moving. But I don’t want to take credit for what I didn’t do because I have so much respect for those guys. I think they're incredible, incredible at what they do. And Logan Holladay was my stunt guy and he's my age. He's 19 and he’s just like an incredible dude that just does all this stuff. It’s really amazing. So I don't want to take any credit away from them that they justly deserve because it's incredible what they do."
Terminator and Star Trek are both giant iconic science fiction franchises. Are you a science fiction fan in general or a genre fan in general, or is it more you’re drawn to the role?
Anton Yelchin: "It’s more the characters. With Terminator though, I was a huge fan of it. Like I said, it came out at sort of the perfect time for me to be obsessed with it. I was a little kid. And T1 came out before I was born, but then I watched T1 after T2, and so Terminator I love. I had all the Terminators, I had the action figures, and so I was a huge fan of Terminator."
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Terminator Salvation hits theaters on May 21, 2009 and is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and language.
