Benny, before he got screwed, was enjoying handfuls of pleasure inside The Last Resort. Here, Martians would gamble, drink, tell fortunes or ever perform sex acts with willing “Earth slime” participants. But when our hero Arnold Schwarzenegger walks in, does he too want to squeeze the cans of Mary, the hooker with three boobs? TheArnoldFans interviewed Lycia Naff, who played Total Recall’s Mary to find out if Douglas Quaid ever jokingly felt-up the mam-tastic prosthetic. Lycia shares her tales from within the raunchiest brothel on Mars.
TheArnoldFans: It’s been almost 25 years since you were behind the camera in Total Recall. Do you think the original film still holds up well today?
Lycia: It holds up extremely well. Look at the new movie compared to the old one. Some of the effects are a little old but the story is still dynamic. It holds the test of time.
TheArnoldFans: What’s your best Arnold story?
Lycia: When I first met him, he (Verhoeven) said to Arnold, ‘this is going to be your hooker.’ I remember his eyes were so beautiful. A beautiful light green and his pupils were so tiny. I kept thinking those are the tiniest pupils I ever seen. He was such a consummate professional. He was in love with Paul Verhoeven and asked that he direct him to the nth degree. Paul told Arnold what to do and he did it exactly the way Paul wanted it. I was extremely impressed. He was very professional and very fun on the set. Arnold is an intimidating guy. He’s stature is big. He has such big charisma.
TheArnoldFans: You even had to do some stunts. You were shot by Michael Ironsides in the back and you were hooked up to squibs. What was that like?
Lycia: That’s got to be the quintessential most fun day of my acting career. It was so fun and we had to do it several times. It’s not easy. They squib you up and then the head of stunts, he came over and showed me the guns and assured it fired blanks. I was so scared. I mean they really are real guns. But even when they were shot, there’s still a projection of air. He didn’t want me to be afraid of that so we practiced shooting me a few times. We got comfortable. Then it was time to do it for real. He said ‘when I say NOW, you’re going to arch your back and throw your hands up and the blood is going to pop and at the same time, I’m going to give you capsules in your mouth so you’re going to bite down on them and open your mouth so that the blood flies out.’ The first time we did it, I opened my mouth and just a little came out so we had to do it again. So again, Michael shoots me in the back, the stunt coordinator pressed the control and all the squibs opened up at the same time and I arched my back and I fly forward where there’s a mattress. They didn’t want me to brace myself, which was okay because I had the three-breasted plate on – all this foam. So I had to fly down and it was a big fall. I mean, it was like playing cowboys and Indians. It was the funnest day of work! We went through about 5 chest pieces that day. Sometimes we could just wash them off but usually they were ruined.
TheArnoldFans: How long were you in the make-up chair?
Lycia: We started out and it was about 8 to 8.5 hours, if you can believe that! But with each passing day the make-up artist got better and better. It latter got to about 5.5 or 6 hours. I always had the first call – like 2 or 3 in the morning. They laid me down in a barber chair - flat almost. I’d put on my headphones and my Walkman… because that’s how old this was…with a tape recorder. I’d just listen to music and fall asleep.
TheArnoldFans: What were you listening to?
Lycia: I’m trying to remember. Probably like the Go-Goes or The Replacements?
TheArnoldFans: In between takes, did Arnold ever jokingly squeeze this prosthetic chest piece that you wore?
Lycia: You know, he was really conscience of that. He actually did a lot of still photography on the set. He didn’t take pictures my way. So these photos (being sold at the booth), are screen grabs from the movie. He might have had aspirations at that time to run for office one day so he didn’t want to mess around with that, so no, he didn’t grab them. There was no hanky-panky. Not even joking and I would have loved to have joked around with him.
TheArnoldFans: Finally, what are your top three Arnold movies?
Lycia: Twins, of course Total Recall and probably Terminator 2!
Look for Lycia Naff at a few upcoming big pop culture conventions. We caught Naff at the Hollywood Show and we hope to see her again at Comic Con. She’s got many more stories so be sure to stop by with her and have a good chat while ogling over her Total recall photos for sale. So before you get ya ass to Mars, get ya ass over to Lycia’s signing booth.