Above, a scene from “Terminator: Genisys.” (Photo credit: Paramount Pictures)

By Barbara Vancheri
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

After “Whiplash” was released, Arnold Schwarzenegger complimented his “Terminator Genisys” co-star J.K. Simmons on the film and his performance.

“I just kept fishing for a compliment about my physique because I’d been working out a lot for that movie,” Simmons said with a laugh in a recent phone call. “He finally said he was moderately impressed.”

Given that the Austrian-born bodybuilder had been Mr. Universe and Mr. Olympia, maybe that’s high praise. Or diplomacy.

Either way, Simmons said, “Meeting Arnold is a trip because he’s obviously an iconic guy, and there have been so many incarnations of his public persona, and you don’t know what to expect. But the main thing I found really enjoyable was he was just a regular guy who wanted to have a conversation and get to know you a little bit.”

The two star in “Terminator Genisys” opening in theaters July 1. “We’re not calling it a sequel, a prequel or a reboot. I think the word people may be settling on is a reset because the timeline has changed.

“It loves and respects James Cameron’s original two films, and there’s lots of sort of subtle nods to that and some not-so-subtle nods, but it’s also a modern, stand-alone thing for people who are already not fans of the franchise.”

The series holds a special place in the heart of the Oscar-winning star of “Whiplash.” He recalls seeing “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” in summer 1991 on what was the first, or one of the earliest, dates with his future wife, actress Michelle Schumacher.

“We were on tour together with a Broadway production of ‘Peter Pan,’ and we were playing Honolulu for a couple of weeks — which was a pretty nice gig — and we went to see the second movie. … I remember she had been even a bigger fan of the first movie than I was, and remembered the specifics of the first movie better than I did.”

“The Terminator,” starring Schwarzenegger as part man, part machine, was released in October 1984 and spawned sequels, a TV show and now a reset with Jason Clarke, Jai Courtney and Emilia Clarke. Simmons plays Inspector O’Brien, a San Francisco police detective.

“It’s modern day 2017, and I have an encounter, really, with all of the characters we’ve come to know and love, from Arnold to John Connor and Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese,” he said.

“My character actually is introduced by a younger actor in 1980-something, a different actor plays the character of O’Brien and when the timeline changes, we see me in 2017, looking significantly more haggard. …
“To me, the fun of O’Brien is really watching him interact with and try to figure out exactly what it is he’s interacting with, in terms of the people from the future and the robots and all that. He’s a guy who, frankly, has been in his cups for quite a while, ever since his first encounter with those characters when he was a 20-something rookie cop.

“He’s been trying to wrap his brain around exactly what that was and then he comes along at age 60, and all that stuff he’s been obsessing about for 30-some years is becoming reality again.”

This may be sci-fi but, he said, “it hits closer to home than it did in the 1980s, it feels much more real in a scary way now but this is not inconceivable.”

Simmons and Schumacher married in 1996, and they have a daughter and son (both musicians, in an eerie echo of “Whiplash”), and they’ll miss the U.S. premiere of “Terminator Genisys” because their son is performing with the Los Angeles Youth Orchestra in Prague and Vienna. They and “Nana” — she doesn’t like to be called Grandma — are building a monthlong vacation around the trip.

The actor, whose father died in 2012 and mother in 2014, reminded the world what’s important in his Oscar acceptance speech when he suggested viewers, “Call your mom, call your dad. … Don’t text, don’t email, call them on the phone, tell them you love ‘em and thank them, and listen to them for as long as they want to talk to you.”

He had planned, if he won the Academy Award, to stress the importance of family and the people you love. “Somebody told me years ago, you’re not going to be on your deathbed wishing you had made one more movie, there’s more to life than this.”