James Cameron’s True Lies with Arnold Schwarzenegger is best remembered for Jamie Lee Curtis’ unforgettable sexy dance, but how was this film born, crushed between two much more famous giants of the director?
If you stop to think for a moment and don’t get distracted by the scene of the ballo sexy in lingerie by Jamie Lee Curtisa movie like True Lies is curious in the very ambitious career of James Cameronwho made it with his friend Arnold Schwarzenegger. How does it fit into your filmography? Was it successful? What was its origin? Let’s find out together.
True Lies, the strangeness of James Cameron
Apart from that True Lies lasts “just” 130 minutes, the most surprising thing is that it is a remakean unusual step for James Cameronwhich came from the triumph of Terminator 2 – Judgment Day (1991) and would dive into the other triumph of Titanic (1997). In fact, Cameron himself rewrote the script of the film The total! (1991) by Claude Zidi, but the idea didn’t come from him. It was his friend Arnold who showed him the original French filmrecommended by his brother-in-law, and Schwarzy had found the idea of a funny Secret Agent that he had to juggle his work commitments with those family members. Jim agreed… and, since their mutual project on Spider-Man was shelved due to Carolco being unable to get the necessary budget, True Lies was born!
However, do not think that Cameron has not been faithful to his natural record trend: just before Kevin Costner and Kevin Reynolds got bogged down in Waterworld (1995), for only one year was True Lies the most expensive film ever madewith a budget of 100 million dollars (Hollywood in years to come would consider them motes). With 380 million dollars grossed worldwide, however, it remains one of the James Cameron’s “minor” filmswhich however began with the 20th Century Fox to think a following, ideally placed in theaters in 2002, with the same cast, to be made after Titanic. Nothing more was done about it, because after 11 September James didn’t feel like touching the subject of terrorism in a comedy: “It’s no longer funny”.
Two other firsts: 1) Cameron had never faced one commedia in his life, so he enlisted the help of other screenwriters. He didn’t find their material very funny so he decided to take a chance and try his hand at the script. 2) This is the first feature film with visual effects curated by Digital Domainco-founded in 1993 by James himself and still active.
True Lies, Schwarzenegger’s greatest fear, James Cameron’s temper, Bill Paxton’s sympathy
Even though he risked his neck in the horse scene, Arnold Schwarzenegger he certainly wasn’t afraid of them action scenes of True Lies, but was instead terrified of tango sequence. He wasn’t at all sure he knew dance decentlyso a large part of his physical preparation for this wild action movie was for him to… dance lessons! Model? Al Pacino in Perfume of woman, on the same music. The scene was later quoted in Mr. and Mrs. Smith. It seems that Schwarzy was still a real gentleman on the set, so much so that he accepted without hesitation Jamie Lee Curtis in the role of Helen despite not being convinced of the choice, trusting Cameron. When filming wrapped, she even agreed to have Jamie’s name next to hers in the manifestoa move that for James Cameron was due after Jamie’s performance that he would give her Golden Globe. As a star performer, he might not accept, but he made no problem.
Cameron for his part reiterated his smoking character. Still a novice, the director of photography Russell Carpenter fu scolded severely during the screening of some dailies. According to James, the night shoot had turned out too dark and he yelled in his face: “Have you ever learned to read a light meter?” (the device used to measure light and adjust the camera accordingly, ed.) Humiliated, Russell telephoned Mikael Salomoncinematographer of The Abyss, to ask him for advice on how to deal with Cameron. Before he could even tell him about the scolding, Salomon said, “Has he already asked you if you’ve ever learned to read a light meter?”
It’s tender to see the late Simon in the shoes Bill Paxton: Bill, who passed away in 2017, had been in The Abyss and Aliens, but had also appeared briefly in The Terminator, and would have been in the cast of Titanic. A strong friendship bound him to James.
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True Lies, Jamie Lee Curtis and the epic sexy scene: “There was me, music, three cameras and about 100 men”
True Lies, the plot of the film by James Cameron with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis
True Lies (letteralmente: “Outright lies“) tells of theundercover secret agent Harry Tasker (Arnold Schwarzenegger): apparently he is a representative from the very boring life, at least in the eyes of his wife Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis) and his daughter Dana (Eliza Dushku). It’s actually a counterterrorism agenton the trail of a very bad antiques dealer (Tia Carrere), who may have ties to Salim Abu Aziz’s terrorist cell, which Harry is investigating. Harry’s two lives collide when he discovers that his wife makes googly eyes at a mysterious man Simon (Bill Paxton), who professes to be a secret agent himself: it’s just a provolone cheese, but Harry investigates and sadly realizes that Helen has always dreamed of a more eventful life. He therefore organizes them one fake spy missionwith the idea of making them seduce an agent to steal secrets from him: the agent would be himself, ready to reveal the truth to Helen. But things don’t go as planned…
