I Am A, where the mundane becomes fascinating and the outrageous suddenly seems normal.
Hi, I'm Michael Ironside, Finlay's and Adrienne's father. I'm also an actor. I've been in over 200 features over the years. My latest film is Extraterrestrial, a scifi/action thriller with horror elements. I think I represent all of the misplaced parents and adults in the film.
I'm here in NYC at reddit HQ for New York Comic-Con for the Extraterrestrial panel this evening at 5 PM at the Javitz Center. Hope to see you there.
In the meantime, AMA.
Proof: https://twitter.com/reddit_AMA/status/520251299745775616
https://twitter.com/reddit_AMA/status/520216989038817280
edit: I've never done this before. I like the immediacy of it. I like the opportunity to be honest and thorough. I'll probably do it again. Thanks for showing up and asking me questions that are diverse and interesting.
How do you remember working with Arnold? Do you have any good story?
One of my favorite memories of Arnold at the studios in Mexico City is while shooting, my sister back in Canada had had a cancerous growth in her abdomen that had choked off her intestines, and she was in intensive care after it was removed, and was very very fragile, her health was very fragile. And I had been calling her on a daily basis to see how she was doing, because I"m the oldest of 5, she's the second oldest, and she's my oldest and dearest friend. And Arnold noticed me calling every day at lunch and he said "Who is it you're calling?'
And I told him about my sister, and he said "C'mon, let's go to my trailer."
And he had one of these conference phones set up, and he called my sister, and we talked to my sister, in Peterborough, Ontario, for an hour.
My sister recovered. And that's just the kind of guy Arnold is.
He went through a whole diet thing with her. He told her the healthiest diet she should be on, for her surgery recovery, and he had a wealth of knowledge what was possibly affecting the tumor, and different chemicals and stuff.
And I gotta honestly say - I'm not trying to pump him up - but he changed the course of my sister's recovery. She seemed lighter, and had more of a sense of humor after that. Felt less isolated. Less insulated. Isolated and insulated, you know?
He called her a couple more times on the phone. He called 2 or 3 more times to check on her.
He's a good guy, he really is a good guy.
No disrespect, but I seriously thought that story was going to end with Arnold saying "It's not a tumor."
Its nahht a tumohh anymohr. - the docs removed it.
That made me tear up. Touching story.
Wow man, that made me tear up. I want to call my sister now just to say hi
This is amazing. Just when you think you've heard all of the stories of how nice and humanistic Arnold is, boom you read another one from a reliable source.
u/GovSchwarzenegger
Arnold Schwarzenegger being on the phone with someone in Peterborough, Ontario seems surreal to me somehow.
I know, I live here and it's cool to hear about my city from celebrities
Do you have any interesting stories, anecdotes or memories you'd like to share from your time working on Scanners with David Cronenberg?
I have a lot of 'em.
One in particular: David uses the same crew people and the same creative people, he has a small or extended family, creative family. SO a lot of people had been in the trenches with David before when we did Scanners. I was the newbie.
And David is a very straight, very middle class, average looking person with glasses and an inappropriate haircut and inappropriate shirt. And he came on set one day and said: "I had a dream last night."
And I said "What was it about?"
And I noticed people started to walk away until i was the only one standing there. And he said "I had a dream last night, and my POV was of the ground, and it was a sandy kind of ground, and then vomit started to land on the sandy ground, and it was quite a lot of vomit, and then this wind started to come up and cover the vomit in sand and dust, and the vomit kept coming, and coming..."
He says "And then I felt safe, and satisfied, and relaxed again. And then another wind came, and when the sand had blown away, the vomit had formed into a shape of my naked body, laying on the ground."
He said "I found that very interesting."
I nodded and said "Yeah, that's really, really interesting."
Thankfully we were called to set and had to go shoot a scene. 3 days later, David was standing on set, and he said "I had a dream last night..." and one of my costars said "Really, what did you dream?"
And I walked away with everybody else, and left that person standing there to hear.
And that's a true fucking story.
I'm not at all surprised that he would do something like that.
Any other good Cronenberg stories? Sorry, I'm a big fan of his and this is a crazy coincidence that you're doing an AMA because I was just watching Scanners last night.
Cronenberg stories...
The flashback sequence in Scanners where Steven Lax's character is shown footage of my character in the interrogation room, the day we shot the footage for the interrogation room, the actor who was to play the doctor talking to me in that scene got lost. So we shot it as if it was being viewed through a window, and the continuity lady (who usually looks after the continuity of the script) put on a white coat, sat with her back to the camera, and was basically feeding the character's lines to me. And we shot it as a one-er, one shot. And we didn't know how to end it, so I told David not to worry about it, and I told her when I got angry, to leave the room, because i was going to throw something. And we pretty well improv'd that scene, and other than one minor edit they shot in second unit, it stands to this day. It's not the way it was scripted, it's the way we ended up shooting. And the bandage, the character has tried to drill a hole in his head to let the pressure out, and when they put the bandaid on my head, I said "It doesn't look right, it makes the character look like a fish." And David agreed.
And I asked "Do you mind if I do something?" and he said "Go ahead" and i took a felt pen and drew an eye on the bandage. And David said "What?" and I said "I'll make something up." We shot it in one take, and the dialogue that came out of my mouth, about that being an eye to scare people away from the door in my head, was kinda cool.
This is definitely the best AMA I've ever read.
Right? I usually peace out after the first few answers, but this is freaking gold.
I thought Michael was a bad ass before this...now I'm just blown away.
haha that's an awesome story, if it wasnt Cronenberg i wouldnt believe it
Hello, Mr. Ironside! I have to say that I liked your voice work as Sam Fisher in the Splinter Cell series. How do you feel about Ubisoft's decision to not use you in the newest game? Also, any stories about your work on the games?
I think it's a great idea for Ubisoft. They've gone to motion capture, and this spring I will be 65 years old. I don't think anyone wants to pay money seeing a 65 year old Sam Fisher bounce around on set, killing and stumbling while he kills people. I wish them all the luck. I hope that franchise has a long and storied future.
I have to confess I'm not a gamer. And when they sent me the contract for the very first game, it was quite lucrative, and I said "absolutely, I will do this." I thought it was going to be like PONG, and I would just have to introduce it.
My wife, actually, went out and bought a brand new SUV with some of the money.
When I got the script, it was very stiff, very inflexible, and very blood and violent.
And I didn't want to do it. And told them I was going to give them back their money. They asked me what would it take to keep me on the project, and i said we would have to change the character, and give him some type of humanity. To their credit, they sat me down with the game creators, and we came up with the present Sam Fisher, who had an empathy and was not just a 2 dimensional killing machine. And we got as much humanity, I think that that format will allow.
And my wife didn't have to give back her SUV.
ALso, what happened is, when you're doing games, usually it's one person in a booth doing their work, creating their character, and then the next person goes in, you usually never get to work or meet anybody. On the first 2 games, we brought the cast in, and we all did it together, so we had a sense of humanity. That was one of my stipulations.
I said "Working is like making love, if i do it by myself, it's just masturbation. I'd rather have the other cast around." And I think the proof is in the pudding, the game has had a pretty good set of legs on it.
This answer makes you my hero. Seriously... you GET it and that is rare enough. Thank you for helping Ubi make good decisions, lord knows they need the help!
Ubisoft should be given a bit of a hat's off to start with. When Splinter Cell was created, it was breaking new ground, and their allowing me to create the character and renovate the script for the game is quite phenomenal, and in a paranoid, financially-tight market, I have to share the credit with Ubisoft and the five owners. It was quite brave what they did in taking those risks.
That is an excellent point actually, one that we from the other end don't end up seeing. You're absolutely right about how paranoid the gaming market is however, it is a source of real concern because so many companies are afraid to move off of sure money makers and take risks - even Ubisoft is risk-averse, though this story clearly shows they do have it in them.
Thank you for the unique insight!
I Remember that the game came out a year after 9/11, on really new hardware , and it was the first real graphical showcase on the xbox.. So many shadows, great storyline, great albeit impossible gameplay .. My second favorite trilogy (I don't really count double agent , thought the series lost it's way around then) and I have great memories of Michael Ironside's sam fisher !
The way you and Ubisoft did Splinter Cell was a step in the right direction. John Carmack once said that story in a video game is as unnecessary as story in a porn, and I disagree. By taking the role as seriously as any other role, you've likely encouraged others to do the same, and elevated a medium.
As a side note, even if replacing you is the practical choice (in terms of motion capture) it really crippled the story. Your final performance could have been a perfect conclusion to the series. For them to suddenly replace your character with someone who seems about the same age as Sam's daughter completely demolishes my suspension of disbelief. As far as I'm concerned, it ended with you, and you gave it a fantastic ending.
While I never liked the Splinter Cell franchise, I have to agree with you: that move inspired other games to improve the character development and plot, while earlier games were just killing anything that moved. Doom and Quake were great for their time, but games had to evolve.
I played the first game when I was twelve or thirteen. It was one of the first games that made me sit up and think about the actions the characters was performing. I loved that the less violent Sam was, the more he had to say. I really got the impression that Sam didn't enjoy doing what he did, but he was the kind of person who knew it had to be done, and was willing to put himself out there.
I ended up replaying it something like six times, just trying to get the perfect 100% nonlethal run.
As the games continued, and you saw what the job did to him, you could see how it changed from him hating the job, to him hating himself. Double Agent, and then Conviction really had some of my favorite moments for Sam, but it actually bothered me how ruthless he became. Any thoughts on the character's progression?
I just wish they would have just retired Sam with you. The new game played well but the story and the characters just felt like an episode of 24. It means a lot to read all of this from the horse's mouth though. These games were some of my favorite of all time and some of the first truly difficult stealth titles.
Honestly I think it's lame they didn't just have someone else mocap it and have you voice over top, but I'm not about to say you had to do work you didn't want to. It's just you ARE Sam, thanks for the many years of fun Mr. Ironside!
They honestly couldn't have picked a better voice and personality for Sam Fisher. I love every movie you have been in (Starship Troopers being my favorite), but I think the role of Sam Fisher will always be some of your best work.
i now imagine Sam Fisher saying this
Glad I wasn't the only one...
It's very rare that I participate in these things, as I prefer to avoid interactions with those who either create or participate in the creation of my entertainment. It keeps the "reality" of what I'm watching / reading better separated for me. I have very much enjoyed the characters you've played over the years, and I just wanted to comment that with most of the AMA's that I've read, the celebrities tend to give very short answers. That you are taking the time to actually flesh out a complete answer for the folks reading this is amazing.
Thank you for your time, and I wish you many more years of making good movies.
I don't know, I'd buy that game.
People bought MGS4.
Burn!!!!!!!
They should have given the new guy a different character to play, your voice made sam fisher for me.
Yeah seriously, set the game 20 years in the future and have a 65 year old Sam Fisher voiced by Ironside be the "voice in the ear" of a new character to maintain some continuity and expand the Splinter Cell world a bit.
In the first game he was 47 years old, that game came out 12 years ago. You don't need a time skip to make Sam too old for this shit.
Mad props to that you weren't just demanding more money but making the game what it is.
You're awesome and so is starship troopers :)
Holy shit this is one of the best AMA answers of all time, and what an incredible insight into how cool you are. I know you'll never read this comment, but I wanted to leave it for future readers.
What's your best memory from Top Gun ?
At the end of the film, when Maverick buzzes the Tower at Miramar, that has never happened in real life. And the day we were shooting it, they had to shut down the airport, all of Miramar plus 2 adjoining airports, because the flight path to buzz the tower ran across all the runways. And the Top Gun pilots that were on the film with us, 8 of them, drew lots to see who was going to do it. And I remember when the fellow that got the opportunity, laughed and said "Hey it's me!" he laughed, and everybody looked at him very sternly, all the other pilots , and i said "What's going on?"
and they said "We can't talk about it."
Cut to the actual shooting of the fly-by of the Tower. They had 8 cameras set up, some of them locked off at 50 feet, because he was going to come in through Hangar Row, and go past the tower at 50 feet, and they had given clearance for that, the navy department had given clearance for that and we were all there watching. I was in one of the Hangar upper floors to watch.
And they said "Action"
And when he came by, I remember looking DOWN at the aircraft as it went by. And I heard on the walkie-talkie next to me the camera reports coming in... "Missed him.... missed him... missed him." Only two of the cameras captured him, he was below the 50 foot mark.
And I immediately understood what all the stern looks were for. The idea was if he was going to be the only person to Buzz the tower at Miramar, he had better do it bloody right.
So there was a huge discussion, and phone calls, and meetings for half an hour to get permission to have him do it a second time, while he buzzed around in the air. And he radioed in "Don't change the camera positions, I'll get it right this time."
And he came in on the second pass perfectly at 50 feet, and every camera got him. So my hat off to that pilot. I will not say his name, I do know him.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf_bCOoXK24
Not only was he the first person to do it, he got to do it TWICE, that's priceless.
You know he screwed it up the first time just to do it again.
"Screwed up"
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Hello Mr. Ironside,
I was serving in the Navy in 1985 on the flight deck of the USS Constellation as a "Blue Shirt", a chock and chainman who helps organize the aircraft on the flight deck. One day, the Air Boss announces over the flight deck public address system that there's a Hollywood 2nd unit film crew on deck, filming flight deck operations and we're to not pay them any mind, just concentrate on our jobs and try not to get sucked into a jet intake and embarass the Navy.
Top Gun was released in '86 and I can see myself as well as many of my shipmates in some of those flight deck shots.
Well at that time, the 'Connie' was deployed to the Northern Pacific area of operations, we were playing a game of 'Who's got the bigger set of balls' with the Soviets and we pull into Anchorage, AK. for a port call, supplies and some liberty.
Now, a carrier had not been to Anchorage since WWII and Top Gun had just opened in theatres there two weeks prior. When the good people of Anchorage learned that we had two squadrons of F-14 aircraft onboard, word spread quickly and they turned out in droves to see us. The ship was opened for tours and I remember working four 18 hour days giving tours of the ship and the flight deck.
When we left a week later, the public affairs officer had been keeping track of the numbers of tourists who came out to see us, it was half the population of the state. I believe him because the airport was filled to capacity and the harbor had huge numbers of small aircraft with pontoons everywhere.
Thanks to the popularity of Top Gun, you guys worked our asses off!
Clip
The jet footage in that movie is incredible. Also the volleyball footage...
C'mon Jester, lets'do this!
He's going ballistic Mav!
Hello Mr. Ironside. I have fond memories of you as the villain in Highlander 2. Do you have any good stories from its production?
I've got so many...
There's a scene in the movie where my character comes to earth, and literally lands by going through the city streets and through the roof of a subway car, and lands on the subway. My stunt double had never been anywhere in the world where cocaine was so cheap.
And he got absolutely hammered out of his mind for a week, and ended up running through the streets naked in Buenos Aires, and was arrested the morning of that sequence.
So I had to do the stunt, because we had nobody in that part of the world who looked anything like me.
So I had to hang on the roof of the subway car, and land on the floor, without any pads, and it was about a 12 foot drop, straight down, and in costume as the character. In the actual movie, you'll see me slowly get up, and the character checks both his knees as he's standing, he checks his back, his arms, and then throws his head back with a joyous scream knowing that he hadn't broken anything.
That was not acting. That was me. Because i realized I had done it, and I didn't have to do it again!
From that moment, we just walked forward with the scene. It's one of my favorite sequences of that film, because it's where real life and acting come together in such a joyous moment, and it's captured.
I had been shooting on Highlander 2 for two months of the 6 month shoot in Buenos Aires when Sean Connery arrived.
And I was actually on the city set we had built, down on the docks, helping the stunt crews rig all the stunt mechanisms because i was bored and had nothing else to do, in the middle of the night. And down the street came a small mob of press with sean Connery walking at the head of it.
And they had just returned, the producers had just returned from Cannes, where they had pre-sold the film and it was going to be a financial success. And they had come back with Sean, who was going to be working on the film for 10 days.
They walked up to me, and introduced me and said "Michael Ironside, Sean Connery. Sean Connery, Michael Ironside." And Sean stuck out his hand. I was wearing rubber boots, shorts, a singlet, and covered in mud and grease from the wires we were setting up for the flying sequences. And having never met a childhood idol, I turned into a blithering idiot.
I said (and I quote) "My name is Michael Ironside, I am playing Katana in this movie" and then I looked at myself and said "But not in these clothes... I got a leather outfit, and a cape, and I got a REALLY BIG sword."
Leaving Sean's hand sticking out, and not having taken it.
Sean very gently tapped me on the shoulder and said "My good boy, of course you are. I have to go now."
And he walked away with the 30 press people behind him. I have it on tape, because my stunt coordinator videotaped it. It's in my archives of moments of real humility.
It's absolutely true.
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It's easily one of the best AMAs Reddit has ever had.
I usually just skim around, but on this AMA I read every response, the whole way through.
I would pay all the money to see that moment. What an awesome story.
Wow, two replies? Thanks a bunch, Mr. Ironside!!
I hope that video makes it out someday.
That was a great story! Here's the clip, for anyone curious like me.
Interesting that the line immediately preceding the stunt is "If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself."
Holy crap, you're just like Jackie Chan
Can corroborate, coke in Buenos Aires is super cheap.
I will also now say a sentence that I never thought I'd say:
I can't wait to go and rewatch Highlander 2.
"They Sucked His Brains Out." How often in public do fans ask you to say that?
Hmmm.
I'm guessing that you're probably in your mid-to-late 40's. If you're not, it means you've watched it on videotape and CD, wait it's DVD not CD.
A lot of people don't reference that film because it is from 3 decades ago. It's one of those ones that people find and are joyously happy when they find it. I can usually tell the age of somebody by their favorite film of mine: Scanners puts them 40+, Total Recall puts them 30's, Starship Troopers was late 20s to early 30s, V puts them in their 30s, Free Willy puts them in their twenties because they were children when they saw. It's kind of interesting...though now with online viewing and accessibility to films, it's a whole new playing field. There's a young director I worked with just recently so when I walked into meet him, he said "What happened to you?!"
He had just watched VISITING HOURS which was made in 1979/1980, and he expected me to look something like that. And he didn't know the film was 34 years old. He was very deflated. And somebody younger got that part.
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Not to correct you on your own movie knowledge, but isn't the brain sucking quote from Starship Troopers? And yes, I am early 30s.
Scanners: "I'm gonna suck your brain dry."
Starship Troopers: "They sucked his brains out."
Planet Terror: "I'm going to eat your brains and gain your knowledge!"
"That's pretty arrogant, considering the company you're in."
Is there a particular "type" of person that you find approach you more often at cons and the like, or are you just universally appealing?
I was shocked when Splinter Cell first came out. I was on a transatlantic flight, first class, Swissair, and I ordered a cup of tea, and the next moment, I had this 3 piece suit with his tie undone standing off my right shoulder saying "You're Sam?!" and I said "No my name's Michael" and then I realized he meant Sam Fisher, and I said "Yes, I guess I am Sam."
And he was an absolute Splinter Cell freak. And the great thing about the game is that i've found over the years that a lot of people from different social, racial, and ethnic and national backgrounds to have a worldwide conversation.
Because they're all gaming together online! And where I thought the stereotypical gamer was an oversized pair of pants, runny nose, sitting in a corner, playing with his control, it's actually none of that. It hits every level of society, and every socio-economic group.
Awesome. Your responses add such depth to the entire conversation. Thank you for being here!!!! How available do you make yourself when promoting projects like Extraterrestrial? How are these interviews acquired? I'm just curious about you interest in a 20 min. interview with a somewhat established podcast.