Gabriel Luna, the new Terminator
Take a good look at Gabriel Luna, the new Terminator, a.k.a. Rev-9, who is introduced in Terminator: Dark Fate. A native of Austin, Texas, Luna’s first starring role was as Tony Bravo, a skilled CIA operative in Matador, a 2014 Robert Rodriguez TV series for El Rey Network. After Dark Fate, he will reprise his titular role in Ghost Rider for Marvel for which he also starred in the ABC-Marvel series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Rev-9 is a state-of-the-art robot far more sophisticated than the earlier versions.
“He’s pretty damn spectacular,” said Terminator producer James Cameron. “We spent a fair bit of time on his design, and I think he’ll impress. He’s different in so many ways. It’s not only his abilities but also in what I guess you’d call his personality. He’s not a cold, mechanical robotic cyborg. He’s very personable and very charming, but he’s also extremely lethal.”
Told during the roundtable interview that he has huge shoes to fill, inheriting the iconic killer machine from Arnold Schwarzenegger, Luna smiled. “I think we both wear size-11 shoes,” he laughed, adding that he was around 11 when his mom took him to watch Terminator 2: Judgment Day. “I saw the original (The Terminator) after that and I was really impressed by his leaps and bounds between those two films. I also watched him in his other movies, Conan, The Barbarian and Kindergarten Cop.”
Luna recalled that he and Schwarzenegger developed a strong friendship, a master-student kind of relationship, in Budapest where some of the movie’s scenes were shot.
“Having grown up on his films, the first time we met I felt something that was hard to describe. It was so unbelievable to me standing before a movie hero who was part of my childhood and with whom I was now working.”
That first encounter was made memorable by the fact that Schwarzenegger took note of Luna’s biceps.
“When I walked into the hairmake-up trailer, Arnold turned to me and said, ‘Who’s this guy? He’s ripped!’ He looked at my biceps and nodded. I was thrilled, I told myself, ‘Wow, Arnold just complimented me for my biceps!’ which are not the best parts of my body, but I guess they got better because Arnold appreciated them. Well, I have seen his fabled muscles a thousand times. His first words to me were encouraging. He made the transition very easy.”
Growing up, Luna wanted to become a football player, never an actor.
“To me,” he shared, “movies were just a source of joy. So I never imagined that I would be playing a character that I grew up admiring.”
Drawing inspiration from Schwarzenegger, Luna worked hard to be worthy of the role.
“I lifted weights and did rigorous training. During the shoot, there was no shuffling of feet, just moving forward with no facial expression. I had to keep my eyes open, unblinking, while firing weapons and I just wiggled my toe a bit.”
Schwarzenegger was impressed by Luna’s commitment to reshaping himself for the role.
“It is very difficult to change a body in six months,” he said, “and I admire Gabriel for that. You have to be extremely disciplined and actors are not necessarily disciplined people. But the pictures of him when he signed the contract and when we were shooting are like night and day.”