Arnold Schwarzenegger’s career as an actor in Hollywood has been glorious but in many ways, he had to endure several bumpy roads. For his 1998 buddy cop action comedy Red Heat, the crew was denied permission to film the movie in Red Square.
The Walter Hill-directed movie starring Schwarzenegger, Jim Belushi, Laurence Fishburne, and Gina Gershon was intended to film a few sequences in Red Square. The historic place is one of the oldest and largest squares in Moscow, located in Moscow’s historic center. The makers of the film had to go for a different approach to film the scenes.
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Moscow Authority Denied Permission to Film Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Red Heat
The film crew of Red Heat applied for a permit to film a few scenes in Moscow’s historic Red Square, however, the application was rejected and the authority denied permission to film in the location. To meet the director’s vision, the crew had to “sneak-film” the entire Red Square scene in the movie.
In a risky move, the crew disguised Arnold Schwarzenegger in the uniform while filming him low-key as if they were making an amateur/home movie involving only a few crew members present at the location.
Also, the director of Red Heat, Walter Hill deliberately toned down Schwarzenegger’s character attempting to make his role more realistic. Schwarzenegger also dedicated a lot of time to creating the persona for the movie. The actor reportedly spent three months learning to speak Russian.
Arnold Schwarzenegger Was Amazed To Find His Fans in Red Square
Schwarzenegger played Ivan Danko in the 1998 movie. Danko is a rough and tough Russian policeman who teams up with an arrogant detective to bring down a drug lord. Ironically, lots of Schwarzenegger fans had to resort to smuggling his videotapes into the area and upon finding it he was just amazed. Speaking with John C. Tibbetts, the action star revealed his experience with fans in Red Square.
“I was absolutely amazed when we shot our uh scenes on Red Square how many thousands of people turned out to watch this film I had no idea. I mean, how would anyone even know about me since my movies are not being played over there or about the shooting or anything like that. And we started asking people and they said you know I have your videotape and they spoke English you know a lot of these kids speak English really well and they said I have your videotape. I said, ‘Which one?’ Commando, have Terminator, I have Conan of this and that and then I asked the next kid and he said he had all the videotapes and I realized that they are the hottest videotapes in the black market over there.”
Red Heat grossed a little over $34 million at the box office which was not an impressive box office number considering the estimated production budget of $29 million. Red Heat is available to watch on Apple TV.
