How Carrie-Anne Moss saw 'The Matrix' in 'FUBAR' tango with Arnold Schwarzenegger
"The Matrix" franchise star Carrie-Anne Moss and Arnold Schwarzenegger had never shared the screen before the Netflix series "FUBAR." The two had never even met, beyond Moss spotting the hard-to-miss former "Governator" of California at a Starbucks in Los Angeles more than a decade ago.
"He had these security people, and they all looked so cool," Moss says. "Now that was a real star sighting."
Moss, 57, comes face-to-face with Schwarzenegger, 77, in Season 2 of the action comedy series (streaming June 12) when the two titans finally get to tango, literally. They dance passionately after Moss steps into the cast as Greta Nelso, an East German spy and former flame who returns to CIA veteran Luke Brunner (Schwarzenegger).
"Once we were working together, it felt like it was meant to be," Moss says.
"FUBAR," Schwarzengger's first scripted TV series, takes its title from a profane military reference for "fouled up beyond all recognition" and features the unkillable star, still in the spy game. Luke leads an improbable CIA team that includes his daughter Emma (Monica Barbaro) while patching up relations with his ex-wife Tally (Fabiana Udenio). Critics panned Season 1's fest of action scenarios and line replays (like the "Predator" classic "Get to the Choppa!"). But it was unfiltered, gleeful Ah-nold.
Moss says she "laughed hard" watching "FUBAR," admiring Schwarzenegger's indefatigable zeal in delivering action lines, both new and golden oldies.
"Take his line 'I'll be back.' It's such an iconic line every time he says it. And (Schwarzenegger) absolutely delivers it like he's saying it for the first time," says Moss, who doesn't pull out her Trinity lines without a fight. "I don't think I could say 'Dodge This!' the way I said it in 'The Matrix.'"
Moss signed on to play the East German Cold War survivor, who tries to pump new life into the once-steamy couple, in a bid to remake the spy partnership that helped bring down the Berlin Wall.
She found Schwarzenegger to be an action mensch from the jump. He even gave high praise on Moss's first scene, when Greta injects Luke with a syringe full of elephant tranquilizer. "He was like, 'That was so good,'" Moss recalls. "It was my first day of school, and that was so supportive."
The 'FUBAR' tango is a comedic nod to Schwarzenegger's 'True Lies' dance
The tango was a big deal, a tribute to Schwarzenegger's sensual dance with Tia Carrere in the 1994 action classic "True Lies." Moss worked with the choreographers, including Jade "Hollywood" Anderson, on the Toronto set before Schwarzenegger arrived, and the duo practiced together. Even when Moss went home to Vancouver on weekends, Schwarzenegger sent photos from his dance sessions with Anderson .
"I thought we had chemistry," Moss says. "And then (Schwarzenegger) would send me pictures dancing with this beautiful man, our choreographer named Hollywood. Arnold would be holding him with that same look in his eyes."
Undeterred, Moss brought the return fire and rocked the sequence with her stone-faced dance partner.
"We were dialed in. The music was on, and I love dancing. We were doing all this silly stuff. And I'm sauntering around," Moss says. "I was like a cat or something."
Not entirely catlike: When Greta scratches Luke's hairy chest, the small streaks of blood from the nails were added digitally.
The completed dance is such a barnstormer that the two are featured in the Season 2 poster, with Schwarzenegger dropping Moss for a deep tango dip.
"That's hard on your neck and back," Moss says. "It was like: 'Let's get this and not have to do this part too many times. I want to be able to still walk tomorrow.'"
Because in "FUBAR" the action stars never retire: They just don't overplay the stunts. Between battling global emergencies involving nuclear weapons, Greta and Luke discuss the perils of aging.
And when the cameras weren't rolling, Moss found healing hands with a local physical therapist. "That guy became my best friend. That made it so clear that getting older is really a bitch. Every day I had off, I would go to him and say, 'My body really hurts!'"