wow...talk about dedicated
Arnold Schwarzenegger, who stars in the upcoming sequel film Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, told SCI FI Wire that he put up $1.4 million of his own salary to shoot part of a massive chase involving a construction crane. In the scene, the female TX cyborg (Kristanna Loken) is chasing John Connor (Nick Stahl), while Schwarzenegger's familiar T-800 cyborg is hanging from the crane's hook as it's dragged through a glass office building.
Schwarzenegger said that director Jonathan Mostow considered cutting the shot when the production fell behind schedule. "I didn't want them to cut certain things because they fell behind, because it hurts the movie," he said. "And this scene was written in, and I had very clear vision the way it should be. And so I said to Jonathan, 'Jon, we have to shoot the scene. It doesn't matter what anyone says.' And then I said to [producer] Andy [Vajna], I said, 'Why don't I put the money in, and then later on, when the money comes back, you pay it back to me.' But, I said, 'We have to have that scene in there, because I think it's a great scene.'"
The scene, shot on a quarter-mile street set especially built on the former Boeing aerospace plant property in Downey, Calif., required 14 cameras to shoot as the crane arm slams into the glass building, destroying it. "I would say it's about 50 percent to 70 percent me," Schwarzenegger said. "To be honest with you, sometimes I don't know."