It takes a lot to go up against both Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton but Terminator: Dark Fate star Gabriel Luna not only did that – he did that with broken ribs.
Gabriel plays Terminator T-1000 out to kill Natalia Reyes’ Dani Ramos at all costs. But he’s no match for Linda’s Sarah Connor and Arnold’s OG boss T-800, is he?
The gritty next coming follows on from 1991’s Judgement Day and blatantly ignores the fact there are three other films in the franchise, picking up right where Sarah left off nearly 30 years prior.
Filming over six months in Budapest, Gabriel and Mackenzie Davis (who plays Grace, sent to protect Dani) filled Metro.co.uk in on the madness that is working on a set like this.
Revealing his injuries sustained during the brutal stunt scenes, Gabriel added there was no way he was missing out on the final fight scene with two greats of action cinema.
‘There was a few bumps and bruises. I think towards the end, I fractured a couple of floating ribs, I was told,’ Gabriel laughed when sitting down to talk all things Dark Fate.
‘I didn’t know, I thought I pulled a muscle.
‘So we worked for a whole week doing the final scene of the film and I’d been waiting for six months to do this thing, there was no way I was [calling in sick]. That was a great, great week.’ It’s not usually dubbed a ‘great’ week when one has to go to work, film fight scenes, with broken ribs chilling in your body.
Another day as an action star, right?
While he insisted recovery was ‘important’ while shooting, Mackenzie was more of the ‘grin and bear it’ school of thought.
As humanoid Grace, Mackenzie’s character was sent from the future to protect old mate Dani, clearly a John Connor-esque saviour risking Skynet’s takeover.
‘It was a real endurance test for all of us. I don’t think I took care of myself,’ she laughed.
‘It was, “you have one month left, you just have to get through this month and then you can sleep”. I didn’t work for 6 months because I was so tired.’ To work alongside the greats Linda and Arnold was a buzz though – if not wildly intimidating. While Gabriel enthuses Arnold was ‘incredibly generous’ with his time on set, Mackenzie was quickly schooled by Linda on how a Terminator action hero holds themselves.
‘When I first met her in a hotel room in Ireland […] she grabbed my shoulders and goes “a soldier stands up straight”,’ Mackenzie said.
‘After that I was scared and in awe of her. I think it was osmotic, being around her and Arnold and their focus and her history with the franchise influences a lot of our behaviour, without her explicitly teaching us.’
The formidable nature of Linda enthralled Gabriel who, despite coming up against the star as the villain of the tale, loved every moment of playing the antagonist. ‘When I found out this film was being made and she was going to be the lead and return that was it for me, I was going to see the movie 10 times never dreaming I’d be in the story,’ he explained.
