Terminator: Genisys Actor Terry Dale Parks speaks on PG-13 rating
FilmFad: So switching gears, I actually watched your reel and I checked out your IMDB page. You’ve had quite a few action films. Thor, Olympus has Fallen, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, The Last Stand, and your upcoming one is Terminator: Genisys. Do you think this is a genre of choice for you?
Terry Dale Parks: Well I love sci-fi, I can tell you that. Sci-fi and action together, that’s what my first love was growing up. I grew up watching a lot of Saturday Night Live in the 70s but I also grew up watching a lot of Star Trek, a lot of Twilight Zone, a great little show that was on in reruns right behindThe Twilight Zone called The Outer Limits. So I really got into sci-fi. And the action movies, I’m a big fan of the action movies of the 90s. I was just watching one that I love and people laugh at me because I love it so much but it’s called Broken Arrow.
FilmFad: Oh yeah, John Travolta!
Terry Dale Parks: John Travolta yeah, which is one of his best films…he’s so him in that film you know? And I love watching Travolta in that film. Anyways, I’m a big fan of the whole action [genre]. I feel like that’s when action films really came into their own in the 90s. There were so many great ones. In fact I was just looking at a ranking of the best action films of the 90s so that I could go through and watch them all again.
FilmFad: Well speaking of 90s action, two of [your] films you were in with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Is this just a coincidence or did you guys hit it off in some way?
Terry Dale Parks: No, it is totally a coincidence. In fact the first film I did, it was a Schwarzenegger film called “The Last Stand,” I never even got a chance to meet him. But, [Terminator: Genisys] was the first time I ever had a chance to meet Arnold Schwarzenegger. And you can’t say “Arnold” and you can’t say “Schwarzenegger” you have to say “Arnold Schwarzenegger” haha.
It was the first time that I ever had the chance to meet him and it was the “post-governor” Arnold Schwarzenegger. We met him at a table read for the very first time and it was quite an experience honestly. He was nothing like I expected him to be. He was this, kind, older gentleman haha. I don’t if there’s exactly a way to explain it. He’s got a lot of charm of course and he’s got a lot of presence.
I was a big fan of the first two “Terminator” films.
” I think that [the rating] is a lot more due to the fact that it’s a really great story.”
FilmFad: Well let me ask you about those since you know about the previous films. I think it was only “Terminator Salvation” and this film that received a PG-13 rating. I know that you play one of the police officers in the film. Would you say that this PG-13 rating is due to maybe watered down violence or do you think it is more of a testament to how desensitized we have become as a generation and where our standards are less strict.
Terry Dale Parks: That’s a great question. I think it’s a lot of both. I think we have become desensitized to a lot of it. A ten year old today can get on the internet and see more violence than I ever saw before I was 25 years old. I don’t think there’s any way to deny that as a culture we’re become desensitized to it.
Now, for this particular film. My feeling is the reason why it’s PG-13 is that one of the things that the executive producers on this film and the director too, one of their goals was to return back to the original Terminator films. Return back to that original story, the original idea behind it, and honestly that becomes more story-driven because of it and less about the violence. It really is a good story in this film. There’s amazing cinematography and all the special effects. I think that [the rating] is a lot more due to the fact that it’s a really great story.
FilmFad: Hmm, that’s a good call. That’s very optimistic for the film because I’ve been looking forward to it as well.
Reiterating what you just said, would you say that outside of all the sequels of the original James Cameron films, would you say that this relates the best out of “Terminator Salvation” and “Terminator 3?”
Terry Dale Parks: Without a doubt. When we all got together for our first table read, that was laid out as the intention. And I think they’ve done a really great job of capturing that. I think it’s going to be a really great film. And it is going to be a lot more akin stylistically and story-wise to the first two Terminators.
