Loken Nailed Scene

Kristanna Loken, who plays the female TX cyborg in the upcoming Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, told SCI FI Wire that she had to shoot a particularly hairy sequence in a single take. Speaking in an interview at the Los Angeles Comic Book Convention over the weekend, Loken said that the sequence takes place "towards the end of the film, in one of the offices. And, I mean, it is just complete mayhem."

The sequence involved so-called T-1 robots, Loken said. "Things are blowing up, and people are being shot, and there's me, just walking through the destruction," she said. "It was very orchestrated. ... I had one chance." With large robots moving and explosions detonating around her, she said, "you just try to somehow ... detach from what's actually happening and just focus on your target and just keep going forward. But it was fun going forward."

Loken added that she studied the Israeli martial art of Krav Maga, in part to learn how to walk and sprint like a robot in the sequence. Loken's instructor "trained me in heels, so I was actually running in heels, which is really difficult. ... Learning to stay on the balls of my feet to get more of a sprintier kind of run. ... I wore the kind of, like, heels that you wear for dancing, like dance shoes."

T3 director Jonathan Mostow, meanwhile, told SCI FI Wire that Loken convincingly portrayed a machine, which he called "truly one of the hardest acting tasks imaginable." Mostow added that Loken spent hours with a mime coach to learn how to control her movements. "One of the things you have to do if you're playing this part is erase everything that is individualistic to yourself, ...even the way you walk," he said.

Loken said the demanding role often left her bruised. But she added that at least she didn't have to undergo hours of elaborate special-effects makeup, as did co-star Arnold Schwarzenegger. "I don't actually get any injuries," she said. "I always look flawless in the movie, so I didn't have any weird face prosthetics."

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