Terminator: Dark Fate carries the burden of its iconic legacy with pride, as original cast members team up with young blood to push the franchise forward. Two such newcomers are Mackenzie Davis and Natalia Reyes, who become valuable allies to Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor in the film. The actresses sat down with Screen Rant prior to the November 1st premiere and discussed the most powerful parts of their experience on set.
This is a brilliant movie and a great follow-up to T2. The question I have for you is: Linda is such an iconic action female star, what's it like working with her?
Natalia Reyes: Amazing.
Mackenzie Davis: The best.
Natalia Reyes: The most amazing experience. She's a great actor. I remember when I was little, seeing her Sarah Connor, doing pull-ups, was amazing. We all wanted to be like her.
But just meeting hair and actually working alongside her; just seeing how serious and committed and discipline she is with her work and how much she cares about every line, every scene and her character and the scenes. It's really inspiring usually. We all want to be like her and care so much about our craft.
Mackenzie, I'm a big fan of the franchise. So, this kind of like a nerd question for me for about this movie: Grace has tattoos. Where did they come from, and do you think that they're evidence of the time loop and given by Dani? Or do you think there's a bigger mystery involved with the tattoos?
Mackenzie Davis: No, they are from the surgery, done with precise lasers that gave me my new innards. I'm so glad I knew the answer to that question, because there’s a lot of Terminator questions I do not know the answer to.
Speaking of which, one of the biggest scenes in the movie that was visually stunning for me was that airplane scene. Can you talk to me about the preparation for that and what it took?
Mackenzie Davis: That was amazing. It was one of the last things we shot, and we kind of heard tell of this enormous revolutionary gimbal that was being built by the best engineers in the world in some warehouse in rural Hungary that one day we would shoot the airplane sequence on. It kept kind of getting pushed, and when we finally got there, it was just amazing. It rotated a full 360 degrees, so you'd be standing in it and you just kept walking. And then you were walking on the ceiling, and then you were walking on the walls, and then you were walking on the floor. It was really an incredible achievement.
What was the question?
You pretty much answered it. With so many things that we have now, like Siri and Alexa, we could be heading down this Dark Fate kind of world. What do you think the one piece of technology would be that does us in as humanity?
Mackenzie Davis: I think, like fascism, it's just a small incremental shift that gets you comfortable with new realities in small doses until all of a sudden you're yelling out in your home to have somebody order you toilet paper on Amazon, because that's too much for you. But you've also invited this spy that listens to absolutely everything in your home.
I don't know, I think I think we're already much too far down the path.
I agree. Sometimes I just look at social media, and it's like I was just having a conversation about this and it pops up. Natalia, the Terminator franchise in general has a lot of ties to Mexico, especially in past movies. What's it like to start seeing that culture in this film?
Natalia Reyes: It's great. It's always been in the movies, as you said. But I think this one comes with bigger representation, and I think that's amazing. I think it's a reflection of how the world has changed and how Hollywood is changing, and Latinos [too]. I feel proud of this character not only being one of the main characters, but also not being related to drugs or anything illegal. It’s just a fair representation of a Latina woman. So, I think it's great and this is just the start of hopefully better and bigger representation.
Speaking of the start of something, where would you guys like to see this franchise go in the sequels?
Natalia Reyes: I don't know.
Mackenzie Davis: I have no idea.
Natalia Reyes: Yeah, I think it's so much work, and we were just trying to make this one work. We'll see. I think there's room for more. This is so relevant; we're talking about technology, and technology is changing every single day in our relationship with it and how are we going to protect humanity from [it]. Not fight against technology, but just how are we going to deal with it?
So, there is a space. There's room to tell more stories, but we'll see.
You guys did an amazing job. Thank you so much for your time.
