Film Review (#606, June 2001)
by John Millar
*Excerpts*

... When he meets up with Film Review during a break in filming out in the Hertfordshire countryside, Arnold Vosloo - who plays the head shaved, torso bared Mummy - stresses that no one had predicted just how huge a smash the original film was going to be. "None of us knew. I remember someone saying that it would be great if we took $20 million on the opening week-end. Then, of course, it was $44 million!" In the original movie, Arnold had not been exactly clear about the lack of costume for his role. "I turned up thinking I was going to wear a robe," he chuckles, adding that the skimpy outfit meant he quickly lost weight for the cameras. "This time I started working out two months before we began filming. My regime is simple: I don't eat anything bigger than my fist and eat five or six times a day. I wake up, have the biggest glass of water then go and walk at a good pace around Hide Park for 45 minutes. Then breakfast is some cereal. After that I go the gym for 20 minutes and do basic exercises, squats, chins and pull-ups. Doing all that means that I have lost 25 pounds." Like the rest of the cast, South African-born Arnold is impressed by the neat twists that have been woven into The Mummy Returns. "One of the things I liked was that the love story between Patricia [Velasquez] and myself has been fleshed out. Her character, Anck-Sunamun, is reincarnated. There was a good reaction first time around to their love story so we want to play around with that a bit more. "So this time she comes back and digs me up, " he says with a grin. - ...

... The impact made by The Mummy meant international acclaim for the cast, a fact that Arnold Vosloo readily concedes. But he's astute enough to know that one blockbuster doesn't mean an actor can take anything for granted. "After a high like The Mummy you come back to reality. Making movies is such a crap shoot. I'll know in 10 years time if I have made the right calls," says Arnold. "At leat now, thanks to The Mummy I am in contention for lots of parts. It has opened doors part of the way."
Since The Mummy explosion, Arnold has had lots of offers to play bad guy roles. "But they are in slasher movies and I had done enough of those," he says. "I don't mind being the bad guy but I want to be like Kevin Spacey in Seven."
There were two scripts in which the star was almost desperate to be involved, one of which was The Gift. "I met director Sam Raimi and it didn't work out. Keanu Reeves got the part. The other film was The Mexican with Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt. There was this fantastic part: a gay hit man. James Gandolfino got that. He'll be very good in it. Those were the only two things in 18 months that I felt I really had to do," he says with a shrug. "The danger, of course, is that you are still The Mummy - and that's always how people see you. That's the risk I'm running. But we'll see, there are worst things!" - ...