If you didn't guess, we had a blast in LA last month. As if just being on the red carpet for the biggest Arnold film to come out in over a decade wasn't cool enough, we got to Periscope from Arnold's account, then walk with Arnold into the Kodak Theater, watch the film itself with the most enthusiastic crowd possible, and then waltz on over to the swanky after party! The action was happening across the street from the theater at the Roosevelt Hotel. We passed through a couple security checkpoints, saying "Sure, here is my invitation," and then we were in!
It was in the inner courtyard area where there's normally a pool, but it was covered with risers containing several private lounge areas for the big stars, like Jai Courtney, Emilia Clarke, and Jason Clarke. Arnold and his people had their own area off to the side which was even more private, but he was still pretty accessible to people walking up to schmooze and say how great the film was. Randy even got to compare rings with Arnold, and found that even his very cool endo skull ring was dwarfed by Arnold's massive one from AJT Jewelry.
;)
The ambience was cool, with the red lights and smoke coming out of metal barrels giving a hip future apocalypse vibe. The food and drinks were of course high quality and in plentiful supply. Then there was the inexplicable wall of donuts forming an endoskull! I have no idea who came up with that, but nonetheless, everyone took pictures with it, so I guess it worked. A genuinely cool thing they had was if you went to the upper balcony, you could get your "mug shot" taken, just like in the movie, and they would then display them on monitors around the party throughout the night. Here are ours!
As we navigated the party floor, we bumped into many of Genisys' stars, other people who worked on the film, and a few other celebrities. There was actor Wayne Bastrup (yougn O'Brien), who was having a blast at his first premiere of this magnitude, and Brett Azar, the '84 T-800 body, recounting more tales of his fight with old Arnold and the infamous "sock" barely covering his junk. We also had brief chats with Jai and Jason, who were both getting quite inebriated. I told Jai in my best Terminator voice "I require a selfie," and the resulting photo was memorable!
We spoke with both the director Alan Taylor and writer Patrick Lussier, who were both very appreciative of how much we enjoyed the film, given the kind of longtime Terminator and Arnold fans we were, and at least a little open to suggestions for future movies! And of course, it wouldn't be an event without saying hi to Arnold's crew, including son Christopher, friend/stuntman Dieter, the great Daniel Ketchell, and cigar/humidor maker Daniel Marshall. We even got to hang out with young Joseph Baena and his super-cool brother Roger for a bit- they were very friendly and Joseph has a promising future as he readies himself for college this year.
It was an fantastic night of mingling with both mega-stars and Hollywood newcomers, capping off a great weekend of Terminator and Arnold. In one word: excellent.
