Due to what seems to be incredibly heavy traffic, I haven’t been able to access the official website of the Governor of California (?!?) to see it for myself but Arnold Schwarzenegger has reportedly addressed the ins-and-outs of his role in McG’s Terminator Salvation in a new webcast. His “maybe” left people even more confused… but thankfully, Variety have stepped in to reveal exactly what we can expect.

Apparently, a CG version of Schwarzenegger really will be appearing in the film. They describe the process by which this alter-Arnold was created thus:

A body-cast mold of Schwarzenegger, created when he first appeared as the muscle-ripped cyborg, provided the basis for a digital-effects version of his famous character. The figure appears in Terminator Salvation as a living, breathing actor.

So he hasn’t had to do a single thing! The body cast has just been sitting around for 25 years and was just pulled out of storage someplace. I hope he didn’t charge them too much for the privilege of using his likeness. I suppose Roland Kickinger provided motion capture, or an on-set torso for the acting Arnie to be pasted over…?

Other comments in the Variety article suggest quite clearly that this CG creation has no lines to recite, so no voice over work would have been required:

Schwarzenegger viewed the resulting footage and gave his go-ahead just in time for McG to include the footage before the helmer completes his cut of the movie.

There is an outside chance, I suppose, that they have woven in some prerecorded dialogue, most likely from a previous Terminator film or perhaps outtakes.. or even Junior, Kindergarten Cop or, who knows, a Governor of California press conference. If you ask me, he sounds quite similar no matter what he’s talking about.

It should only be a couple of weeks until Salvation starts screening and the wraps will well and truly come off.