Interview of the week: Schwarzenegger

NEW YORK, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Being an action star who routinely saves the world on the big screen didn't make it any easier for Arnold Schwarzenegger to talk to his kids about last year's horrific terrorist attacks on America.

"I think that one of the things I learned was to turn off the television set right away," explained the 54-year-old hero of the blockbusters "Terminator 2," "End of Days" and "True Lies."

"Because what's amazing about kids is that they don't see the difference between a replay and reality. Because my kids asked me on the way to school that morning, 'Daddy, there's 20 or 30 buildings that the planes have run into.' They thought seeing it again and again on television, that there's more buildings like that. So, since they were confused about that, my wife [TV reporter Maria Shriver] and I decided just to turn off the TV and also to talk to them about it and explain it to them. You know, what it all means and the dangers that are involved and all that and try to be as comforting as possible," he said.

Just prior to the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, Schwarzenegger was preparing to promote "Collateral Damage," his new terrorist-themed action flick. The star said it wasn't long before he and Warner Brothers, the studio that produced the movie, decided to postpone indefinitely its release due to the film's subject. The film has been re-scheduled for release later this month.

"My wife got a phone call about 10 minutes to seven," he recalled, "and the NBC Bureau said: 'Turn on the TV. There's been an accident. A plane has crashed into one of the Trade Towers in New York.' So, we turned on the news and then basically watched the whole thing. You know, how the second plane went in, and then everyone started realizing it was not an accident. And blah, blah, blah, all those things. Because Maria had to go out to the airport to start talking to various different people who were waiting for the passengers who were supposed to come from Boston to Los Angeles, that now are in the Twin Towers.

He continued: "I wasn't even thinking about the movie at that point because all I was thinking about was what I had just seen. You know, I was in shock. So, then I said, 'Let me call Warner Brothers...' And they said, 'We want to set up a meeting to talk about pulling the movie.' So, we were all in sync on that one."

In the film, Schwarzenegger plays a Los Angeles firefighter whose family is killed by a terrorist's bomb. Asked if he thought people become firefighters because they seek glory, Schwarzenegger emphatically disagreed, stating: "I don't think any of the firefighters were trying to be heroes. I don't think that's what those guys do. I think firefighters only think about one thing and that is, 'How can I save someone's life?' And that's what that was all about, is walking 80 stories with all that crap on."

Scwarzenegger said he was a bit reluctant to get involved with "Collateral Damage," not because he didn't like the part, but because he heard that the studio was also courting Harrison Ford to play it.

"I wasn't involved from the beginning," he recalled. "It was Harrison Ford who was asked to do the movie. And while that was going on and he was trying to sort out his life, my wife got the script. And she then read it and was very persistent about pursuing the script and pursuing for me to do the movie."

Shwarzenegger emphasized that he didn't want to interfere with what he called "the Harrison Ford situation," explaining, "because if you start interfering with something like that, it looks like you're trying to take somebody else's job away."

"That happened to me one time with Bruce Willis," the actor confided. "It was 'Batman and Robin.' You know, where he was apparently promised the part [of Mr. Freeze] or something like that and I didn't interfere. But [director Joel] Schumacher came to me to ask me if I wanted to do the movie... and I said: 'Yeah. Okay. Let's do it.' But the agents were talking to Bruce at the same time. Not that they had a deal with him or anything, but it was an uncomfortable situation that I don't like to happen. So I said, 'Let Harrison Ford be finished with his negotiations.'" Once Ford took himself out of the running, the Austrian native said he grabbed the part.

Before filming on the movie began, Schwarzenegger said he trained with Los Angeles firefighters, noting they were the ones who taught him how to dress in his gear, put an oxygen tank and mask on, and then carry hundreds of pounds of equipment up stairs and ladders. He said he was eager to learn how firefighters do all that so that he could make the movie look as real as possible.

The role was a physical one for Schwarzenegger, a former championship body builder, who insisted he still works out all the time, despite his recent recovery from heart surgery, to repair a congenital defect, and from serious injuries suffered in a motorcycle accident.

"Ribs!" the tough-guy groaned. "That's worse than heart surgery. You never want to have broken ribs because it's like every time you inhale, you feel a tremendous amount of pain. You can't get up by yourself. And you can't use your abdominals to sit because it contracts the ribs, and that means pain again. And when you cough, you think you're gonna die... And I was very upset by the fact that my whole Christmas ski vacation was destroyed because of it. My family went skiing every day, and my kids called home every day at three o'clock every day telling me, it was so beautiful up there: 'Daddy! There were no clouds, and the snow was in perfect condition and all this stuff.' So, that was misery. But the good thing was that the accident was two miles away from the house. So, my wife was right there, literally, within minutes, making sure that my life insurance was paid up!"

"Collateral Damage" opens Feb. 8. Schwarzenegger will then be back in sequels to "The Terminator" and "True Lies."