Arnold Vosloo Resource Page:
THAT GIVES ME THE CREEPS! Weird fans give 'Mummy' Arnold the shivers.
Not everything that comes with success and fame is pleasant, as Arnold discovered after the success of The Mummy.
The lid of the sarcophagus closes with a terrible sound above the man with the shaved head and piercing eyes. In his dark cocoon he can feel the maggots and beetles crawling all over him.
It makes him cringe, but he waits patiently for the camera team..."I knew only 30 of the 200 beetles were real insects," Arnold Vosloo said after the release of The Mummy. "Even so, weeks later I still woke up in a cold sweat!"
At least he was well rewarded for his bravery and perseverance. For this boy from Alberton, Johannesburg, all the 'ungrateful years' when he did stage work for $150 a week, have finally paid off.
He was worried that he would only be offered roles as the bad guy, Arnold says, but the cheque that the producers of The Mummy flashed before him, made him reconsider.
One can almost say that for Arnold, death was only the beginning. Adele Heydenrich went to Los Angeles to speak to him.
You are currently filming The Mummy Returns. What can we expect to see in the sequel?
We pick up the story about 8 years after what originally happened in Egypt. Brendan and Rachel are now married and living with their 7 year old son in London. Someone brings me - the mummy - (in the British museum) back to life and, as you can imagine, chaos erupts in London!
Where's the movie being filmed, how long will it take and what will it cost?
A big part of the movie will be shot in London and the rest in Morocco. It will take about 5 months, but then the computer images and special effects still needs to be added. The total cost is now about R750 million.
It must have been a big surprise when the first movie did so well?
O yes! We were hoping that the movie would bring in about $100 million, but in the end it made about $450 million at the box office alone.
Did you at least make them sweat a bit while negotiating the sequel?
But of course. I am after all their Mummy! I made good money from the first movie, but because it exceeded everyone's expectations, we all got a nice pay raise for this one. Actually, I don't even need to work anymore.
People were very impressed with your "hairstyle" in The Mummy. Did you continue to shave your head after the movie?
I just let my hair grow for a while, but I shaved it all off again the other day when they needed to make a plaster-cast for me. I'm going to keep it this way for a while so that I can get a bit of colour up there! It's kind of funny that more people recognize me without my hair than with it.
You've been married to Sylvia for about 2 years now. How did you meet?
On a blind date - my first! Just goes to show: You have to think carefully before doing something like that. You could end up before the altar!
She's a marketing manageress at a financial firm here in California. She's now also managing my finances for me.
Are you planning a couple of mini-mummies?
Not yet. We are so on the go these days that it just wouldn't be the right time. On the one hand I feel that I've sacrificed enough in my life, and that this is my time now. But one's plans can always change.
What was your strangest experience with an admirer?
There was the woman who got hold of my phone number. She was very polite at first, but after the third or fourth phone call, I decided to change my number. After that, she waited for me outside a theater one night. She just wanted to tell me what a big fan she was. And then she somehow got my new number!
Things got out of hand when she phoned me one morning at 2 o' clock and threatened to kill her child if I didn't go to her house right away. I told her I was on my way over, but I phoned the police instead and asked them to take care of the situation for me. I don't know what happened after that.
There are people who honestly appreciate my work, but the rest give me the creeps. For some reason or the other I always attract the WEIRD people. Maybe it has something to do with the characters I portray!
