AMERICANWAY

ITINERARY L O O K I N G B A C K TOP, LEFT TO RIGHT: DALE ROBINETTE; PAUL ZIMMERMAN/GETTY IMAGES. TERMINATOR: EVERETT COLLECTION 3 0 O C TO B E R 2 01 4 A A .CO M/A M E R I C A NWAY { M O V I E S } Make 'Em Laugh … 'Til They Cry This COMEDIC SWEETHEART may ruin your day. A lthough MEGAN MULLALLY is known best for bringing sm i les t o v iewer s ' fac e s with her lovable-mess roles as Karen Walker on Will & Grace and as her real-life husband Nick Offerman's nemesis, Ta m my T wo, on N BC 's Parks and Recreation, there's one per- son this funny lady can't seem to make smile. Mullally's latest role is as Jennifer Garner's belligerent boss, Nina, in Disney's Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (an adaptation of Judith Viorst 's chil- dren's book), out this month, for which she is quite convincing as Garner's tetchy superior. Despite frightening her co-stars, Mullally's actua l role in life is to ma ke people ( her adoring husband included) laugh with her quick wit and charming personality. AMERICAN WAY: First things first: Was it fun to play the bad-tempered boss? MEGAN MULLALLY: It's a small part, but it was a blast to do. I only shot for like two or three days, and on the second day Jennifer Garner told me that she was scared of me. I said, "You're kidding," and she was like, "No." Maybe she was kidding, but maybe she wasn't. That's how mean I was. AW: You've played some really fun characters throughout your career. How do you select your roles? MM: Since I'm mostly known for comedy, I tend to get offered really kooky, crazy, broad comedic characters. It's nice to be known for making people laugh, because when people see you, their faces light up. It's different from being known for playing Charles Manson or something. It's a little nicer. AW: What else do you have going on right now? MM: Traveling, so much traveling! I've been doing a lot of theater and some Broadway concerts, and I have a band called Nancy and Beth that's been going really well. Then Nick has his stage show, American Ham, which he's been touring with constantly, plus shooting movies and shows out of town. We've been flying constantly because we have our two- week rule. AW: What's the two-week rule? MM: Somehow we've never been apart for more than two weeks in 14 years. We don't like to be apart. Nick and I talk on the phone a lot when we're not together, and we text a lot. Our relationship is extremely flirtatious. We love emoticons, and we'll emoticon-text for, like, a whole day. AW: Any other creative pursuits … besides emoticon flirting? MM: I'm teaching myself to play the ukulele. I have traveled with it quite a bit in a giant African purse. That way I can take it on the plane with me. — K R I S T Y A L P E RT The Terminator A S TO L D TO J . R E N T I L LY A low-budget sci-fi action film written and directed by the virtually unknown James Cameron and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, The Terminator was released 30 years ago this month with modest expectations. That it went on to become a contemporary classic and box-office monster, grossing $78 million worldwide, was a surprise to everyone. The subsequent Terminator film franchise, which has grossed $1.4 billion worldwide, followed suit. Here, Oscar-winning special effects veteran Tom Woodruff Jr., gearing up to make his film directorial debut later this year with Fire City: Interpreter of Signs , reflects on a memorable moment from the Terminator set. "During the scene when the Terminator has to do eye surgery on himself, I was puppeteering the 'Arnold head.' So I had my hand inside this puppet, and I was crouched down in this tiny bathroom between a porcelain sink and this granite wall of a human being, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Arnold had to reach around what I was doing with the puppet head and actu- ally use his hands to do the surgery on camera. This went on for, like, three or four hours. At one point in the surgery scene, we had this 'blood gag' we had to do: Our job was to squirt this gob of fake blood through a syringe that ran into the puppet head and then out of the eye. I'm down there beneath the sink, and my colleague, John Rosengrant, gets down there with me, pumping blood into the syringe, and the syringe just gets jammed. And John's working on it and working on it, pushing like crazy on the syringe, and all of a sudden it popped and blood went everywhere! All over the camera. All over the crew. The syringe was pointing away from John and me, so we were all clean and dry, and they were just covered in blood." EXCLUSIVE! To celebrate the release of Edge of Tomorrow (Warner Bros. Home Entertain- ment, $20), we're giving digital downloads of the movie to 20 lucky readers. To enter, go to aa.com/ americanway and click on "Deals and Steals." INSET: Jennifer Garner and Megan Mullally (right) in Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

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