Hey fellow RPFers,
I gotta tell you about my new Terminator friend, whom I met at a recent gala ball. It takes a lot to impress me, but this guy did it. Holy frak! He's actually much bigger than Arnold, at 6' 5", 250 pounds...but that just enhances the larger-than-life presence that we expect of the Terminator, which I could greatly appreciate even though I was looking down on him. His bone structure is not identical to Arnold's, but it is so very similar, especially in the brow ridge and much of the jawline. It's uncanny.
When I first met him (he had the sunglasses on, not the exposed endo-face) he was standing with the woman who had invited me to the event, but whom I had never met in person. So naturally, I needed to give my full attention to greeting her, even though I was distracted by him--wanting to check him and his costume out. Within a half minute, she introduced me to him, to which he simply said, "Hello.". No smile, no emotion,...but what he did have was a perfect Arnold voice. I said hello and nodded (I'm not in costume at this point), and returned my attention to our host. She went on chatting about this and that for another half minute, but I was even more distracted now, having heard him speak...even though it was only one word. So I finally just took a step back, looked him up and down, and said, "You look amazing. And your voice--you're from Austria, aren't you?!". I knew he was. He had to be. Or from Germany. The point being, in order to sound that dead-on, he had to be fluent in German. The Terminator never cracked a smile, but simply said, "Affirmative.".
So our host showed us to our dressing room, and the Terminator and I began chatting. I was complimenting his costume, which finally got him animated. He started telling me, very enthusiastically with big hand gestures, how he made the whole thing himself. "Yes, I sculpted the endoskeleton chest-piece, and then I molded it, and then I put the various paints on it, and it turned out super-fahntahstic!!". Man, I started cracking up, and I said, "Hey, wait a minute...are you in character right now?? Because I feel like Arnold Schwarzenegger is describing to me how he made this costume! He said, "No, this is just how I talk.". Oh my God, it was a frakking riot!
Anyway, we've become good friends, and he had me over for dinner where his wife...yes, her name is Maria! lol no joke!...cooked for us. I especially liked it when he would call her by name, "Ahh Maria. Get us more beer. Yess.". I'm telling you, it feels like you're hanging out with Arnold. It's strange, in a cool way, of course. And when he's in costume, you kinda feel like you have your very own Terminator! lol
In fact, at the gala he almost got as much attention as I did. Almost.
I have added this guy to my very short list of performers who are so good at what they do, with such great costumes, that they bring out the little kid in me. (Others on the list are some fellow RPFers: Cenobyte as Vader, Jack Bauer as Vader, and TK409 as 3PO.) I'm certainly no Terminator costume expert, as some of you may be, but he looked dead on to my eye. Oh, speaking of eyes, that's the only area with room for improvement on him as far as I could tell--that he needs to slide up that endo-eye prosthetic on his face to even it out horizontally with his living tissue eye. But the great thing about this guy is he's constantly looking for ways to improve his costume and performance. He's got some things in progress that are gonna be very very cool additions to the costume/make-up presentation!
And you know what, I don't want to be lost in all this praise about his costume, voice, etc., that he, the man, happens to be a very cool dude, with a great sense of humor, and a terrific family.
Here are some more photos from the gala.
The Wook
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