Bringing the Talent Together

"Collateral Damage" originated as a story idea from writer and long-time film editor Ronald Roose, who presented it to his friend and colleague David Foster. Foster, a veteran film producer with a string of successes to his credit ("The River Wild," "The Mask of Zorro"), knew a good story when he saw it and championed the project throughout its development and production, ultimately joined by producer and CEO of Bel-Air Entertainment Steven Reuther, himself a keen judge of quality with numerous high-profile films to his credit ("Face/Off," "Sommersby," "Rock Star"). Writing partners and brothers Peter Griffiths and David Griffiths wrote the screenplay.

Director Andrew Davis

Director Andrew Davis, whose numerous critical and box-office successes include "The Fugitive" and "A Perfect Murder," and who collaborated previously with Steven Reuther on the international blockbuster hit "Under Siege," was the obvious first choice to direct this layered action thriller.

With Davis at the helm, and with a finished script, the filmmakers began assembling the cast. Arnold Schwarzenegger was the first to sign on after hearing about the project, which was brought to his attention on a chair lift by Steven Reuther while the two were skiing together in Sun Valley. "This is how I always get projects from Warner Bros. Pictures," Schwarzenegger quips, "this is the same way I found out about 'Eraser' and 'Batman & Robin' - someone is always pulling out a script on the chair lift and saying, 'Look at this!'"

Arnold Schwarzenegger

"I liked the action of the story," Schwarzenegger says, "as well as the drama and frustration Gordy experiences, all the emotional elements and the realism." Being a family man himself, the actor felt an immediate empathy with his character. "When you love your family you can't imagine what it would be like to see them get killed right in front of your eyes so it's easy to get the emotional element of the story. All you have to do is imagine what it must be like and you feel it immediately. This is what drives Gordy."

He was also pleased at the opportunity to portray a firefighter. "I can be a hero on the screen, but the real heroes are these guys who are out there every day, bravely doing their jobs," Schwarzenegger readily acknowledges. "This was dramatically demonstrated after the terrorist attacks on September 11th, when we saw so many firefighters, along with police and rescue workers, risking their lives - and in some cases, losing their lives - in order to save others.

"I have always had the utmost respect for firefighters," he continues," and now my respect has been heightened tenfold. I believe there is a whole new appreciation now for firefighters in this country and around the world."

For Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has become an international cultural icon portraying characters that are absolutely in control of every situation, the role of Gordy Brewer adds a degree of depth. Although Gordy is a man of action, capable of great stamina and purpose, he is also a man making his way through unknown terrain, consumed by grief, discouragement and frustration.

"Arnold's performance is compelling," states director Davis. "He did a fabulous job with this role. His Gordy is believable, compassionate, smart and driven. In looking at Arnold's body of work, he has never had an opportunity before to play a real character in a reality-based drama."

"Arnold Schwarzenegger surprised some people when he did 'Twins,'" producer David Foster recalls, "because no one thought of him then as a comic actor. And it turns out he has a great gift for comedy. Now everyone takes that for granted. In 'Collateral Damage,' he reveals another facet of his talent by presenting himself as an ordinary working man who's got himself deep in dangerous territory and is going to tough it out. It's more than the confident, indestructible Arnold character we're used to seeing. He's stunning. He really delivers."

"This is a significantly different Arnold we're seeing here," producer Steven Reuther concurs. "Rather than the invincible hero role that he's known for, he's an average man who had a job and a family and is suddenly way out of his depth and thrust into heroism. He draws his strength from deep inside this time. You want to say 'hey, where's his machine gun?' but that's not what this character is all about."

With Schwarzenegger committed to the lead, the filmmakers cast the rest of the culturally diverse roles. "I was very lucky," says Davis, "to cast an eclectic group of actors for the film, including Francesca Neri, a talented and beautiful Italian actress, Cliff Curtis, a gifted chameleon from New Zealand, Elias Koteas, with whom I've wanted to work for years and who evokes for me qualities of Robert De Niro and Robert Duval, John Leguizamo, who I think is a comic genius, and the ever-magical John Turturro."

"We had a great ensemble cast, real chemistry," says Reuther, clearly enthusiastic about how all the individual parts fit into the whole.

Elias Koteas

For the role of CIA agent Brandt, the filmmakers cast award-winning actor Elias Koteas, who recently wrapped the Broadway production of "True West." Koteas plays Brandt close to the vest, as a man who either knows more than he can say or at least wants to convey that impression.

Francesca Neri

For Francesca Neri, a sensation in her native Italy, taking on the role of Selena was a unique challenge that she was looking forward to. "'Collateral Damage' is my first action movie," she says.

Neri, as well as Curtis and some of the other actors, worked with Spanish language instructors and dialect coaches during production to achieve the proper accents.

The filmmakers agree that Neri was undeniably the right choice for the role. "I wanted Selena to have a European quality, not necessarily Colombian or South American," Davis says, addressing the complexity of the role. "She is an intellectual who gets involved in the political struggles of Latin America. Francesca is a wonderfully gifted actress who transcends her beauty with an honesty and realism that elevates her character and thus the whole picture." "She has extraordinary presence on screen," says Reuther. "She inhabits the character of Selena perfectly."

For Neri, being mysterious is the key to Selena's character as well as what acting is all about. "It's about changing yourself," she explains, "from the way you speak to the way you move your hands, your hair, everything. What is not expressed can be as important as what is."

Overall, Neri concluded that working on a major Hollywood action film was not as different as she had expected. "I found that it's just like shooting a small movie in Italy," she says, "there is no essential difference. You have the same collaborative feeling among the actors, everyone working together. When you are doing a movie you are just like a family."

Cliff Curtis

Cliff Curtis not only liked the story but also welcomed the chance to work with director Davis and with Schwarzenegger, whom he credits as an inspiration to non-American actors like himself. "When he first came to America," Curtis says of the Austrian-born Schwarzenegger, "he was unknown, and he was still learning the language. I'm sure he didn't have a lot of encouragement when he announced that he wanted to be an actor. But he persevered and I've always admired him for that. When I used to think how absurd it was for me to expect I could ever work in Hollywood I'd think of him and how he started and it's truly inspiring."

As for director Davis, Curtis says, "He really knows how to make action entertaining. He has a great sense of rhythm and he's smart enough to weave in the politics and the nuance of the story while he's entertaining you, all in two hours. I have a lot of faith in Andy."

Schwarzenegger has similar praise for the director. "Davis brings as much realism as possible to a film," he says, "so that when audiences leave the theater they're not only feeling that they got great entertainment but they also learned something about a specific and complex subject - in this case, the situation in Colombia. Davis is very good at that, and at directing action and creating suspense - he's an expert. I loved working with him." Rounding out the starring cast are John Leguizamo and John Turturro.

Film, television and stage star Leguizamo takes on the role of the high-strung and unreliable Felix, who supervises the production of cocaine on a vast and rundown jungle plantation that becomes Gordy's first stop en route to the interior.

John Turturro

Talented Brooklyn-born character actor John Turturro portrays Canadian expatriate Armstrong, an opportunist living on the edge in the Colombian war zone. Armstrong is employed by the guerillas as a mechanic, for which he carries a special pass enabling him to cross into rebel-held territory. Gordy needs that pass in order to find The Wolf but Armstrong isn't going to give it up easily.

Tyler Garcia Posey

Playing the small but significant part of Mauro, Selena's young son, is Tyler Garcia Posey, a young actor who developed a special working relationship with Arnold Schwarzenegger during production.

"Arnold is great with kids," says Reuther. "It was obvious that Tyler had fun doing the movie. Arnold put him at ease in their scenes together and always had a joke or something fun to talk about afterwards. It provided a nice balance to the somber part that he played, because Mauro is a boy without much joy in his life."

Graeme Revell

Award-winning film composer Graeme Revell was selected to create the textured and haunting score, which follows the story from Los Angeles to Colombia, and finally to Washington, D.C.

On Location

In "Collateral Damage" Gordy Brewer's search for The Wolf takes him deep into the jungles of Colombia. For practical reasons shooting in Colombia was not an option for the filmmakers. Needing a location that could realistically represent this remote area, they settled on the state of Veracruz in Mexico. A geographically diverse area located on Mexico's Gulf Coast, this area is a topographical wonder with lush jungles, dramatic waterfalls, incredible coastal plains, white sandy beaches and an 18,000-ft. volcano. The cities of Veracruz, Xalapa and surrounding towns and villages provided the perfect backdrop for Gordy's venture into the unknown.

The setting alone helps to sustain a certain level of suspense, Schwarzenegger explains. "Just being in the jungle is dangerous in and of itself because of the snakes, animals, poisonous insects, the rivers and the fear of losing direction and getting lost. It's easy to feel that Gordy would be scared just because of where he is, even without the added threat of armed enemies around. The setting adds intensity to the film."

"The area around Xalapa is wonderfully lush," recalls director Andrew Davis. "It provided us with the atmosphere we needed to create the reality of Colombia." Davis' commitment to realism involved every aspect of production, on both a large and a small scale. "We had to create an environment," the director explains. "We had to create an entire war zone, including guerillas, Colombian army, paramilitary death squads and innocent people caught up in the middle of a civil war. It took a lot of research and attention to detail."

Principal photography commenced on September 26, 2000 in Veracruz, a bustling seaport located on the Gulf of Mexico. From Veracruz the company moved to the river town of Alvarado and the fishing village of Antigua before heading into the mountains. Xalapa, nestled in the lush coffee-growing hills halfway between the mountains and the ocean, became home to the cast and crew for the remainder of the production in Mexico.

Shooting a film of this scope invariably presents built-in logistical problems, which were made all the more complex by the remoteness of the location. The size of the production was staggering, with a crew numbering close to 1,000 men and women in the U.S. and Mexico combined, hundreds of extras, and tons of equipment that had to be shipped by truck over almost impassable roads. Braving heat, humidity, rugged terrain, very large insects and the threat of Hurricane Keith was easy compared to mounting a huge production in an area of dense jungle where many of the roads were simple dirt paths that turned into mud when it rained - and it did rain.

"'Collateral Damage' was a real challenge for many reasons," explains executive producer Hawk Koch. "Language and cultural differences always present problems when you're combining crews - in this case one American and one Mexican -- but the most difficult aspect of our shoot in Mexico was the condition of the roads. We had to actually build our own roads into the jungle in order to transport the equipment. It was an extreme location."

For producer David Foster, who spent several months in Mexico as one of the producers of the Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones film "The Mask of Zorro," the unique challenges of filming on such a location were not surprising. "It's the price a committed production pays for authenticity," he says.

"It was not an easy shoot, " Foster says candidly. "The roads were rough where we wanted to go, and in some cases they were non-existent. Water had to be brought in and carried everywhere. But still, it's an undeniably beautiful country with so many unspoiled areas, and for the atmosphere we were trying to create it was made to order. I was on the initial location scout in Veracruz with Andy Davis and instantly we knew that this was the place."

Accentuating the positive is Cliff Curtis, who says, "I love location work! Mexico, for me, was a breeze. I was staying at a beautiful hacienda and having a great time being out in nature with the elements. I got to see real-life poisonous spiders and poisonous snakes - how many other jobs could I have that would allow me to make that statement? That's why I don't work in an office."

Francesca Neri concurs, although not necessarily about the spiders and snakes. "It's always a pleasure to work on location," she says. "It provides you the opportunity to see different countries and speak to people you would otherwise not know anything about. Now I can say that I've worked and lived in a jungle in Mexico."

Perhaps the most daunting task fell to production designer Phil Rosenberg, art director Richard Reseigne and the art departments in Los Angeles and Xalapa. Practical sets included a carnival on the streets of Xalapa and a 200-year-old Mexican hacienda that had to be dressed to convey the look and feel of a Colombian estate. An old coffee plantation, still in operation, served as The Wolf's base of operations as well as the dark and dank jail where Gordy meets his quarry face to face for the first time since the bombing in Los Angeles.

Many of the sets, including the safehouse where Gordy is captured by Claudio, and the guerilla camp, were built from the ground up. "For the safehouse, finding an empty lot with an existing wall that could be blown up was difficult," explains Rosenberg. "The site had to be situated in a way that we could blow up our building without damaging the surrounding existing structures. The Mexican locations department did an outstanding job finding such a lot. It was perfect."

The safehouse itself, a two-storey hacienda-style structure built in the small mountain village of Xico, took five weeks to build. Hours of research went into designing the set, requiring close collaboration between Rosenberg and Reseigne, special effects supervisor Tommy Fisher and stunt coordinator Billy Burton. Weeks of planning went into devising a way to create the dramatic effect that the scene called for without compromising the safety of the stunt crew.

Constructing the set for the guerilla camp called for more drastic measures. Roads had to be cut into the jungle and more than an acre of dense brush and trees needed to be cleared before the crew could even begin their work. Surrounded by mountains and rugged terrain, the set included several tented barracks, outdoor kitchens, pens for the farm animals and a training area for the guerillas to practice maneuvers.

Waterfalls and Explosions

"Collateral Damage" showcases a number of complex and large-scale stunts from the opening scene to the astonishing finale - some involving fire, some involving water, and all of them designed to take your breath away.

Special Effects Coordinator Thomas L. Fisher and Visual Effects Supervisor William Mesa, both of whom have earned Academy Awards for their work, re-team with Davis on "Collateral Damage," having previously collaborated with the director on the 1992 hit "Under Siege." Fisher coordinated special effects on some of Arnold Schwarzenegger's memorable films including "True Lies," "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" and "Total Recall," while Mesa is credited with supervising the legendary train crash in Davis' "The Fugitive."

Schwarzenegger, of course, was ready for anything. "Even though it was a hard shoot and a great challenge," he says about the physical demands of the action sequences. "I train every day -- cardiovascular and weight training, stunts, running, climbing -- so I was well-prepared. It was kind of like being a kid again, playing and having a good time."

Without standard weapons at his disposal in the jungle, Gordy gets by on his wits, his skill and his firefighter's knowledge of pyrotechnics. At one point he makes a frantic escape from his pursuers by leaping into a raging waterfall, falling hundreds of feet in seconds, a mere speck on the water.
Executive producer Hawk Koch, who was on the set throughout production, describes the preparation for one key scene. "I've been prepping for this since last June and we are now in the middle of January," he says with a smile. "On the day of the shoot we had 15 cameras going. Hundreds of extras, over 30 stuntmen. Cars exploding. And it's all one shot - we don't get a second chance so it had to be right."

Turning Arnold Schwarzenegger into a Firefighter

After two months and with the work in Mexico completed, the weary cast and crew headed back to Los Angeles. Several key scenes, including a fire in a tenement (which opens the film and introduces us to Gordy), the explosion at the Colombian Consulate, and several daring stunts still needed to be shot.

"Collateral Damage" begins full-blast, so to speak, with an intense fire scene featuring everything from meticulously choreographed fire-fighting and rescue operations to collapsing floors. To ensure the safety of the actors and the authenticity of the scene, the filmmakers hired Captain Stephen Ruda of the Los Angeles Fire Department to serve as technical advisor.

One of Captain Ruda's primary functions was to teach Schwarzenegger and the other actors the fundamentals of fire-fighting strategies and tactics, and how to properly handle their gear. He showed them how to "suit up" and taught them techniques that firefighters use to make a forcible entry. It was also his job to make sure the actors' uniforms and equipment were as realistic as possible.

Ruda also worked with the writers, providing insight on how firefighters communicate in emergency situations and how they interact with each other. Certain details that firefighters take for granted on the job needed to be explained, such as the fact that they never stand up straight in a burning structure because of the heat, preferring to bend and move closer to the ground. Above all, Ruda underscored the point that firefighters regularly disregard their own safety for the safety of others.

Schwarzenegger was impressed with both the mental and the physical demands of the job. "Fully suited up and with approximately 100 pounds of gear on my body - the belts, the oxygen tank, the mask and all the equipment," he says, "it's easy to see that these guys have to be in incredible shape just to move around, let alone run up and down stairs. I walked through fires in the film that were safe because it was a controlled atmosphere. It makes you think about the kind of character a person must have, as well as the physical stamina, to do that kind of thing in reality, in out-of-control situations that firefighters deal with all the time."

In return, Captain Ruda commends the actor for his commitment to authenticity. "Arnold was very open to listening and learning everything he could in order to portray his character in a proper manner," he said. "I think the fire service will be very proud of his portrayal of Captain Gordy Brewer."

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