THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, November 22, 1994 TAG: 9411220056
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Long : 102 lines
WHAT IF MEN had to have the babies? What would it be like? Would the world change?
Arnold Schwarzenegger knows. He's been through it.
Sort of.
``I got this urge for food, strange foods,'' he said, flicking an ash from his stogie.
The former Mr. Universe, the guy who threatened mankind in ``Terminator,'' went full-term with ``Junior,'' the new comedy opening Wednesday in which Schwarzenegger plays the world's first pregnant man. (Not quite. Billy Crystal found himself in a similar condition in the 1978 flop ``Rabbit Test.'')
``I thought I went through all this with my wife, Maria, and the birth of our two daughters,'' Schwarzenegger said. ``I found out it is different when you actually try to the play the part. It's not just stuffing a pillow in your trousers and play-acting.
``This guy I play was initially very non-emotional and strict. With the thought that he is carrying a child in his body, he got emotional. His skin glowed. He was more sensitive. It is a strange feeling.''
Schwarzenegger plays Dr. Alex Hesse, a scientist with less than 1 percent body fat until he decides to try out his new discovery, Expectane. Aided by his pal, a gynecologist played by Danny DeVito, he steals a frozen egg and implants it in the last place anyone would look - how own body.
``Junior'' reunites Schwarzenegger with DeVito and Ivan Reitman, who directed them in the $100 million hit comedy ``Twins.''
``I've always wanted to get Arnold pregnant,'' DeVito said, laughing. ``Actually, he was not a whiner. He went to doctors and he observed pregnant women in an effort to go through the whole thing. I got very jealous of him during the filming. He was the mother. He was the one carrying life. Automatically, you'd want to pull up a chair for him.''
Schwarzenegger recalled when his daughters, Katherine Eunice and Christina, visited the set. ``My youngest daughter asked me why I was pregnant now. `Are we going to get a little brother? Mommy must be tired of having babies. Now Daddy has to have them,' she said. They liked this look a lot more than `The Terminator.' ''
In one scene, he looks into the camera and says boldly, ``My body, my choice.'' It gets the loudest laugh of the film, the one-liner successor to ``I'll be back.''
``It's not a political statement,'' Schwarzenegger vowed. ``I wasn't thinking of politics, but I was thinking that a woman should have the right to make her own choices about what she does with her body. Playing this role makes that more apparent than ever to me.''
Later in the movie, the very-pregnant Alex looks at a friend and asks in frustration, ``Does my body disgust you?''
``Everyone was waiting for the day I'd have to say that line,'' Schwarzenegger said. ``I mean, I have been working on my body and, by any accounts, from age 15 to 47, people have been telling me it is spectacular. You know, that's been my life.
``Then I have to have this big belly and feel that, maybe, I'm disgusting. That teaches me something about what a woman goes through. I mean, she must feel the same way.''
The role also called for him to wear a dress. ``I was looking forward to it,'' he confessed. ``That's one of the good things about being in the movies - you can do things you wouldn't be allowed to do otherwise. I don't think I looked too bad.''
Emma Thompson, the Oscar-winning British actress better known for ``Howard's End'' and ``The Remains of the Day,'' is Schwarzenegger's unlikely co-star. ``It was very easy for Arnold to find his feminine side,'' she said. ``He was very open to his femininity. He didn't need to defend himself.
``There is nothing wrong with not having children, you know. A woman in the modern world is expected to carry on her job and have children at the same time. Frankly, I think a woman who wants to have children before she has established a career is insane, but it's different things for each person. I'd like to have children, and I know that time is marching on. But, at the same time, now is my time careerwise.''
Thompson campaigned to play klutzy Dr. Diane Reddin, the stuffy researcher who loosens up with the man who is carrying her baby - the egg Alex steals is hers.
``Well, it's just gob-smacking to think of it, isn't it?'' she said. ``I thought the chemistry between Arnold and myself would be OK, and it is. I get to dance and fall about a bit, real comedy stuff. In growing up, you see, I wanted to be Lily Tomlin or Bea Lillie, not those more serious types. It's strange, really, that my best breaks in films came in more serious things.''
Director Reitman said he tried hard to be fair to men and women. At one point, Diane chastises Alex, saying, ``You men have tried to take most of the other social opportunities. Now you want to take the one joy reserved just for women.''
``Junior,'' Reitman said, is about how the family environment has evolved.
``Everyone is looking for a family relationship,'' Reitman said, ``looking to be loved. But families aren't the same as they once were. All kinds of relationships are bonded together to replace what was once the traditional family.
``The concept of birth focuses everything we think about masculinity and femininity. If it weren't for it, would we be so different? Aren't we a lot alike?'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by UNIVERSAL PICTURES
Arnold Schwarzenegger, with the help of Danny DeVito, gets a new
outlook on life as a pregnant man in "Junior".
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