He may not have been the original John Connor, but up until recently Nick Stahl was the most recent version of mankind’s only hope. Now, Christian Bale is the newest “Terminator” star, Thomas Dekker is the kid brooding all over “The Sarah Connor Chronicles,” and the “T3” actor has a message for the fans wondering why he…ahem…won’t be back.

“I don’t care really, to be honest,” admitted the 28-year-old actor, at Sundance recently to promote “Sleepwalking” and “Quid Pro Quo,” two upcoming indies with decidedly smaller budgets than “Rise of the Machines.” “I don’t have much interest.”

In regards to the soon-to-shoot “Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins,” Stahl said he had been told some time ago that his considerable talents would not be required for the fourth movie, although he is scratching his head over rumors that Bale will be 30-years-old in the flick.

“They said it would be a 50-year-old man, but I guess they reduced the age a little bit,” Stahl said of how the franchise producers had explained the plot to him. “That’s what they told me very early on [in development of the 'Salvation' script]. That it was gonna take place further in the future, and I probably wouldn’t be on.”

Discussing the man who will step into Stahl’s role, much as he once did for the legendary Eddie Furlong, the actor said: “I like [Bale] a lot…he’s a little older, and they wanted someone a little older, and also he’s got a name. He’s a big guy now. So, God bless.”

“I love the franchise, and I love the movies,” he continued, “so I’ll probably be seeing the fourth one.”

Stahl feels quite differently, however, when it comes to the newly-launched TV show on Fox. “That I won’t be seeing,” he said of “Chronicles,” which focuses on the years leading up to Stahl’s film. “I don’t watch much TV; I’m not a big TV guy.”

Nick Stahl is best known to audiences for his moody and intense performances in festival and art-house films such as “Bully,” “The Sleepy Time Gal” and “In the Bedroom.” Which makes it rather surprising to find him taking over the role of predestined rebel leader John Connor (previously played by Edward Furlong) in the new “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,” opposite Claire Danes and, of course, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Acting since he was 14 (his feature debut was in Mel Gibson’s “The Man Without a Face”), Stahl, 23, doesn’t seem to be waiting around for bigger roles and paychecks from the ephemeral “heat” of his connection to the “Terminator” institution. It’s almost as though he sees his turn as an action hero as more a résumé item than a shot at mega-stardom. Stahl will also be seen in two coming independent films, “Bookies” and “Twist,” the latter shot after he finished principal work on “Terminator 3″ about a year ago. And this fall, he stars in the new HBO series “Carnivale,” about a Depression-era traveling carnival. He describes it as ” ‘Grapes of Wrath’ meets ‘Twin Peaks.’ ”

Was there something on the first day of shooting “T3″ that let you know this wasn’t like the kind of films you had done before?
I knew from the get-go. I knew what it was before I got there — a well-known franchise, elaborate sets, larger-than-life effects. Leading up to it, there was so much pressure because I had built it up so much in my mind. That first day, to see Arnold with the glasses and the wardrobe, I had to walk off set originally to collect myself and try to get centered. During filming, one of the bigger changes from anything else I’d done — besides the fact people would actually see this movie — was that it seemed so set in stone. There was no veering from any lines and, in a sense, this very volatile, free character was confined by the shooting. I had to really stick to the script exactly. I’m used to being able to throw in words here and there, to be more free with the material.

Was that the biggest adjustment for you in moving from character-driven independent films to a big-budget action movie?
Even more so the pace of the movie. The goal of any commercial movie is to appeal to as many people as possible, so I think there’s a real obsession now with speed. You might have an emotional beat, but it has to keep moving. [Director] Jonathan Mostow certainly understood the value of the characters and the emotional +through lines, but you still have to move it along. That’s something I wasn’t used to. I definitely felt the pressure of, “OK, let’s get on to blowing up that cop car.”

If “T3″ is a success, would you be up for another one?
I’m actually signed on for two more. But I can’t even think a week into the future, much less like that.

The ending of the new film certainly feels like it’s setting up another movie. Do you have any hints on what happens next?
I wouldn’t find out until a couple months before they filmed it. I barely knew where the movie I was in was going, to a degree, until the last second. It was such a secretive thing. I read a script, but it was under lock and key. Once I was going to screen-test for the role, I came in and I was kind of sealed into a room with this guy standing there, the script keeper guy, who waited until I finished the script. It was intense.

TheArnoldFans.com sat down with T3: Rise of the Machine’s star Nick Stahl just the other day to learn more about mankind’s great military leader! Nick, sitting just a couple of feet away from me and wearing a white dress shirt and a scruffy beard, was ready for my questions.

TheArnoldfans: Nick, now that the film is finished, how are you liking all the tours, press junkets, Cannes and video game parties that goes into promoting such a big film?

Nick Stahl: It’s pretty fun, you know. I mean, I’ve never even done this part of the job as well I guess. I was always more comfortable with just the acting but this is like a whole new world, the publicity stuff. I’ve done junkets but nothing like this. You get to go to Cannes and lounge on a yacht (smiling) so you don’t have much grounds to be complaining.

TAFs: And the video game party? Did you kick Arnold’s butt with the game?

N.S.:I was a bit of an athlete on the video gaming circuit. I took to it pretty quick. Yeah, it was fun! I’m a video game fan so I like that stuff.

Later, I questioned Nick on his experience on the indoor filming of the future war scene and asked if he was able to keep his battle scare. Although he did not get to bring it home, we did learn he was appalled to see the Academy Award winner Jeff Dawn’s old man make-up on his face. It really freaked him out to see how he may really look one day.

Maybe he wasn’t able to make it off the set with his scare but he did keep one memento.

N.S.:One of the gifts that Jonathan gave me when we left was the C4 (explosive prop) that I am carrying around towards the end (of the film). So, I was taking a trip to Atlanta and obviously I knew it was fake. It’s some clay with a timer on it. But I threw it in my travel bag and I was going to take it to my nephew but just as I was walking out the door, it took me that long to realize, ‘hey, do I have a block of C4 in my bag?’ Is that what they’re going to see? So I didn’t take it with me and it’s still in my apartment.

TAFs: Have you always been an Arnold fans and what are your favorite movies of his?

N.S.: Yeah, I’ve always liked Arnold. I’m a Conan fan. I like me some Conan. (smiles proudly).

TAFs: So on the set, were you pushing for him to play the role again in King Conan: Crown of Iron?

N.S.: (Nods) I kind of mentioned it to him. I said ‘Arnold, that would be cool if you could hook me up with some more Conan’ but I think he has other elements to contend with. You know, I don’t think ME wanting him to do it would necessarily be the breaking point. But Maybe.

Since being picked out by Mel Gibson over thousands of other boys for a role in “The Man Without a Face”, Nick Stahl has put together an impressive and diverse CV. His films include “The Thin Red Line”, “Bully”, and “In the Bedroom”. Now he takes over from Edward Furlong to play potential saviour John Connor in “T3″.

What was your impression of the first two movies?

I was a huge fan of the second movie; I saw it about six times as a kid. I was a bit young when the first one came out.

Did you audition for the role, as you were replacing Ed Furlong?

I did. It was actually quite extensive. I had maybe five or six lengthy sessions working the scenes, which was pretty exhausting.

Do you know when you’re doing it, who you’re up against?

I knew there was me and like two other guys.

Who were the other guys?

Er… Shane West and Jake Gyllenhaal.

What were your first impressions of doing the film and Arnold?

Initially I was pretty intimidated by the scale of the whole movie, but also him, and just being part of this larger than life world. I’ve never done anything a fraction the size of this scale. [Arnold] very much puts you at ease, because he’s very calm with his work. He’s a very hard worker but at the same time doesn’t seem to take it too seriously. It was such a long shoot, it was pretty imperative that we had some laughs to get us through it.

You’ve just taken up golf. Did you play with Arnold, because he’s a good golfer?

I can barely hit a ball, so I held off. He’s also a big chess player and he loves to play chess on set. He said we should play, because I play a bit, but I was a bit scared to play him. So I never did.

Did Arnold encourage you to get on the weights?

He had this 20ft gym trailer, and he said I could use it any time. He invited me in, but after one look at all this gym equipment, I declined and went outside for a cigarette.

Entertainment Weekly
By Liane Bonin
April 20, 2002

In the Academy Award-nominated ”In the Bedroom,” Nick Stahl played a son who gets blown away by a bloodthirsty bully. Luckily, his character in ”Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” can turn to assassin cyborgs for protection. As John Connor (played by Edward Furlong in 1991’s ”T2”), Stahl joins Arnold Schwarzenegger for what’s likely to be next summer’s box office annihilator (the movie opens July 4, 2003). EW.com talked to Stahl, 22, about getting in shape for Ah-nuld and outgrowing his first director, Mel Gibson.

Is this the kind of role that demands abs of steel?
I’m not quite there yet, but for the first few weeks of filming I have very few scenes, so that buys me some time to get in better shape. I like physical roles like this since I need excuses to work out; I haven’t the willpower to do it on my own.

Has training forced you to cut out all bad habits?
Not really. After working out, there’s nothing like a cigarette. And I figure that your body just works that much harder if you have the lungs of a 4-year-old.

Everyone from Edward Norton to Shane West was rumored to be up for this role. How tough was the audition process?
I auditioned about five times, and there were three screen tests, which is more than I’ve done for any movie. But the director, Jonathan Mostow [''U-571''] is a pretty thorough guy — probably because everyone knows there’s going to be constant comparisons to the first two films.

Did they let you read the top-secret script before you auditioned?
The first time I did a screen test, I had to come to them, go into a room, and sign all these documents before I could even look at it. And they only let me read the first two acts. Don’t ask me anything about it, because if I tell you, someone will come to my house and kill me.

How difficult was it stepping into a role created by another actor?
I haven’t talked to Edward Furlong. The fact is, it’s been 10 years since the last movie, and people change, so it’s like creating a new character. I think audiences love these movies so much they’ll give me the benefit of the doubt.

What was it like meeting Schwarzenegger? Were you tempted to imitate him?
When you meet him you realize just how bad all those imitations are; no one else can really do him. I had these nightmares that he’d be a vicious anti-smoker and he’d throw me into the gym and scream at me, but he’s very nice and incredibly humble. He has a gym in an 18-wheeler that follows him wherever he goes, and he said I could use it. I may take him up on that.

You made your feature debut as the little boy in ”Man Without A Face.” Do you ever see your costar/director Mel Gibson?
It’s not like we go to bars and hang out. I saw him at an after-party not long ago, and it was great to see him. But it was weird — I’m actually taller than he is now.

By Rebecca Murray
Source: About.com

Stepping into a role created by another actor is never an easy task. In “Terminator 3,” Nick Stahl fills the role Edward Furlong occupied in “T2.” Questions about the casting change are inevitable but one look at Nick Stahl’s performance in the critically acclaimed relationship drama, “In the Bedroom,” put aside any doubts the filmmakers had about his ability to express Connor’s internal battle.

“Connor is very preoccupied with the existential dilemma in which he finds himself, so I needed an actor who could convey all that pathos, that emotion, that gravitas. It’s difficult to find an actor who is 22 or 23 years old, and yet feels in some sense they’re carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders. That’s what I thought was so compelling about Nick Stahl. He gives you that sense,” explains director Jonathan Mostow.

NICK STAHL (’John Connor’)

What is one little tidbit or surprise about your character that you can give away, without giving away too much?
I would say that John Connor is a little bit more hardened by his experiences and he’s a little more cynical now. So he’s coming from a different place than he did in the second movie. When he was a kid, the world was a little more wide open and now he’s a little more grounded and a little more closer to reality.

Did you ever meet with Edward Furlong?
I actually never did. I watched the second movie a lot – and the first movie for that matter – but I think he did a great job with the role in the second movie. I didn’t nessarily emulate but certain qualities you naturally pick up from a performance.

Are you feeling any pressure?
Tonight I’m just trying to have fun. I’m trying to rub the pressure off a bit. This is exhilarating, you know? I didn’t expect this big of an event. Now I just want to have fun and see the movie and see the crowd’s reaction. It’s going to be fun.

Have you seen the movie yet?
I have actually seen it once but not with a crowd. I want to see it with a whole crowd.

What’s happening with your movie, “Bookies?”
I don’t know. I know it went to Sundance Film Festival and hopefully it will be distributed. I don’t know but we’ll see.

Leaning against a brick wall, the actor Nick Stahl suffers one lost layer of blush to the tip of his snub nose, gently administered by a seasoned professional. Most noses hovering amid the heavy bags and jump ropes of the La Brea Boxing Academy this morning haven’t enjoyed such a tender fate. The tough old trainers and Golden Gloves alumni wear their twisted, flattened monuments to past pain and cruelty right between the eyes. At 23, Stahl stands 5 feet 11 inches, nearly as tall as Mike Tyson, but he’s slender enough to be a welterweight. He crouches beside the academy’s center ring, where an ex-rugby player is smashing the head of his sparring partner. Turning a sensitive gaze toward the camera, Stahl seems in need of the kind of protection Arnold Schwarzenegger will be providing him in this month’s Terminator 3, in which he plays the latest incarnation of John Connor, humanity’s ultimate savior against the evil machines.

Stahl’s love of boxing is a love of beautiful wounds. The first Mike Tyson-Evander Holyfield fight–the one free of ear mutilation–hooked him on the sport. While he has more respect for Holyfield’s career, he’s attracted to Tyson’s pathos. “When Tyson lost to Lennox Lewis, he was like a child. He was truly humbled,” he says. “He gave Lewis a hug, and he was like, ‘Please let me fight you again.’ I see Tyson as an innately smart guy, but it’s filtered through this mask of problems that he has, so that’s what people see.” Stahl is at least as captivated by the punishment boxers endure as by the pain they inflict. “Some people are born with this ability to get hit, and it doesn’t faze them,” he says.
“Some guys, you hit them once and they’re done.”

In the movies, Stahl is usually done in. In Terrence Malick’s 1998 film The Thin Red Line he lasted just long enough for the audience to glimpse, in languid succession, his terrified face aboard a ship, his terrified face on a battlefield, and his corpse riddled with rifle fire.

For In the Bedroom, his breakthrough film of 2001, Stahl fared worse. The sweetness, the guilelessness, the androgynous fragility he lent to his role as a love-struck New England college student made his murder by a jealous husband something worse than horrifying. “It seems more times than not I die in the movies. I’ve died something like ten times,” says Stahl, now smoking a cigarette in the gym’s parking lot. “It’s odd–it’s kind of my forte or something. I moved here when I was 16. That’s when that whole teen craze was around. Those roles were just a celebration of teenage idiocy. Coming into the room and jumping around and being a crazy, zany guy–I never did well at that. I feel like I’m much more suited to pain than pleasure onscreen. It’s much easier for me to do something like cry or be upset than to have fun.”

As a ten-year-old in the Dallas suburb of Richardson, Texas, Stahl landed the role of one of two sons led to the slaughter in a production of Medea. “I don’t think I had a line,” Stahl says. “There was me and a white kid with this giant Afro. Medea follows us. We’d go offstage and scream as if she was stabbing us, and then we would be carried out covered in corn syrup.”

The stage violence insulated him for a time from other afflictions. When Stahl was two, his father left him, his mother, and his two sisters. “I actually met him twice as a kid in kind of weird roundabout ways, but he wasn’t around,” Stahl says. “I didn’t have a happy childhood. I always wanted to be an adult. I felt that I was missing out on something. I feel like I’m in therapy right now. But I never linked it directly to my father. It might have more subconscious weight than I realize, but it was never a burden on my shoulders.” Searching memories of his hometown, Stahl singles out the drinking and the drugs, the pointless physical confrontations and frustrations, the time he was loitering on a street corner when a good friend had a 40-ounce beer bottle broken over his head–”a gruesome occurrence,” he calls it.

In a few of those films where his life has been spared, Stahl plays fatherless boys redeemed by male guardians: the forlorn Latin student uplifted by a mutilated Mel Gibson in 1993’s The Man Without a Face, and now John Connor taking cover behind Schwarzenegger in Terminator 3.

In Stahl’s own extracurricular art, the father-son dynamic rarely works out happily The actor is also an amateur painter who is drawn to tragedy, mythology, and the Bible. He considers only two of his canvases to be completed works. One that he’s still working on is a scene of Abraham taking the knife to Isaac at the altar. “Which is ridiculous,” he says, “I know.” Stahl finished a screenplay a few years back that has yet to be produced. He wrote in no less than three father figures to torment the antihero he created with himself in mind. There’s the absent biological father who’s just escaped from a mental institution and may or may not be coming home. There’s the unhinged stepfather who chases Stahl’s character around the family trailer with a baseball bat. Then there’s the flamboyant cockfight promoter who takes the boy under his wing like Fagin in some latter-day Oliver Twist and orders him to kill his best friend in a test of loyalty.

The mental institution escapee, for his part, does eventually show up as his son’s would-be rescuer. “He wants to take the kid,” Stahl says. “He kind of claims that he’s reformed and he is a changed person. He wants to give this kid a better life and take him out of this world, but it’s too late really, and the kid is too far gone into this situation. So it ends kind of tragically.” Not with the best friend’s murder, of course. In this, as in many other films, the corpse at the grim conclusion is Nick Stahl’s.

One of the fresh faces appearing in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is Nick Stahl, veteran of such acclaimed films as In the Bedroom and The Thin Red Line.

With Edward Furlong officially entering into the drug-addled, self-destructive phase of his E! True Hollywood Story, understandably skittish producers booted the troubled child actor from the project and offered the role to Stahl. Seeing Stahl in the role of John Connor is a little odd at first, but the feeling fades quickly. It’s kind of like when your favorite rock band changes bass players – it’s not nearly as big a deal as one would think.Joblo.com interviews Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines star Nick Stahl

One of the fresh faces appearing in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is Nick Stahl, veteran of such acclaimed films as In the Bedroom and The Thin Red Line.

With Edward Furlong officially entering into the drug-addled, self-destructive phase of his E! True Hollywood Story, understandably skittish producers booted the troubled child actor from the project and offered the role to Stahl. Seeing Stahl in the role of John Connor is a little odd at first, but the feeling fades quickly. It’s kind of like when your favorite rock band changes bass players – it’s not nearly as big a deal as one would think.

Stahl, looking a little bit like a rock star himself (unshaven, mussed-up hair, untucked shirt), talked about stepping into the blockbuster Terminator franchise.

Do you consider yourself more of an “In the Bedroom” or more of a “T-3” actor?
I always respond to good material, good roles and stories. I can see the importance of doing a movie that’s a little bigger, that more people will see, just to create more opportunities.
But that was the furthest thing from my mind. It’s not that I didn’t want to do a blockbuster, but I just always was cast in smaller movies. More people will see this than any other movie I’ve done, by far. That’s a positive thing, I guess.

Were you a fan of the Terminator movies?
I was. Mostly the second movie, because I was really young when the first one came out. I watched the first one once I was cast in this. But I loved the second one – I saw it multiple times.

Can you talk about meeting Arnold?
I met him when we started rehearsing for the movie. I quickly discovered that he likes to sort of give you a hard time. That’s his sense of humor. He said, “You know, I saw your audition tape.” I was all nervous, and he said, “It was…all right.” (Laughs)

That’s sort of his sensibility. But it was great. He has a really strong work ethic. It was evident that he really wanted to make this movie as good as possible, so he really wanted to collaborate with the director and worked really hard.
That was definitely something refreshing to see, from someone of his stature.

What’s it like stepping into a movie franchise that you were such a big fan of when you were a kid?
I didn’t know what to expect from it. There was some initial pressure I felt, I guess, just because the role had been done before. I know that there were a lot of fans that wanted to see that again, to see that formula repeated. But I realized that I really couldn’t think about that and I had a responsibility to make it my own.

This was a pretty intense role, from a physical standpoint.
Yeah. I’ve done physical roles before, but not as physical throughout as this one is. There’s such a furious pace throughout the movie – we never stop running. There were times in the movie when I felt like my role consisted of looking over my shoulder and saying, “Come on!” And Claire’s role consisted of saying, “Oh my God!” (Laughs).

I also did some weapons training for the film. It was as if I got to do everything I wanted to do as a kid. I got to learn to ride a motorcycle, too, which is something I’d wanted to do anyway.

But it really doesn’t matter how much you work out – you still have to face Arnold each day.
Right. It’s definitely an uphill battle. Arnold has a gym housed in this huge truck – an 18 wheeler that followed us around wherever we went. He told me I could use it whenever I wanted to, but I never did. I was a little freaked out by the notion, I guess, but I looked inside a few times. It’s a nice setup.

What was the audition process like?
When I found out they were doing the movie, they didn’t have a script or anything. But they did say they were going to focus more on John Connor as a protagonist. I felt like it was an interesting idea, to explore what he’s like 10 years later. The one thing that struck me with the second film was that, despite the fact that it is a commercial movie with all this action, there was a really strong story. That really intrigued me.
I knew I wasn’t really an action star or whatever, but if it’s a good role, then maybe I’ll have a shot.

So I went in for the first audition, which led to five or more auditions and two or three screen tests. It was pretty intense – each time it was one or two hours, really hatching it out.

Was Arnold involved at any point in the audition process?

No. There was just a couple of readers who tried to do Arnold. It was like two or three USC students reading opposite me. And they could not help doing at least a mild impression of him. But I didn’t meet him until rehearsals started.

When did you get to see the script?
I didn’t get to read it until after I got the role. I went to an office and had to go into this room, where some guy was standing there. I think he was the “script-keeper” or something. It was very much under wraps. I sat in the room – I felt like I was sealed into a vault – and read it. But I couldn’t take it with me.

Are you signed on to do a sequel?
Yeah I am. But, it’s all speculative, I guess – depending on the success of this movie.

By Ryan J. Downey

MTV – JULY 17, 2002

As promised, the Terminator will be back, and in “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” he’s bringing Nick Stahl with him.

“It’s gonna be great,” said Stahl, who has appeared in such films as “Disturbing Behavior” and “In the Bedroom.” “I feel really good about it.”

Currently shooting in California, “T3″ sees the return of Arnold Schwarzenegger as the T-800 model Terminator, a role he made famous nearly 20 years ago. Helmed by “Titanic” director James Cameron, 1984’s original “Terminator” depicted Arnie as a murderous cyborg sent from a future ruled by machines to eliminate the mother (Linda Hamilton) of human resistance leader John Connor. Played by Edward Furlong, Connor was a teenager in the 1991 sequel, with a friendly, reprogrammed Arnie protecting him from a deadly new liquid-metal killer.

Hamilton will appear only in flashbacks in “T3,” while Cameron and Furlong are nowhere to be found. “U-571″ director Jonathan Mostow has stepped in for Cameron, while Stahl is taking over as a grown-up Connor.

“[I'm not trying] to imitate anything about the character that’s been done,” Stahl said of his approach to the role. “I just don’t think that that’s really realistic or that’s even possible. You have to kind of use your own arsenal. So I’ve really just tried to kind of make it my own.”

Stahl got his start as a young boy, playing alongside Mel Gibson in “The Man Without a Face,” and later appeared in “The Thin Red Line,” but he’s best known for art-house hits like “Bully” and “In the Bedroom.” He said he’s aware of the high expectations for “T3,” since he’s a big fan of the series himself.

“I saw the first one when I was really young. The second one was probably one of my favorite movies growing up. So I’ve seen that many times. It was a really interestingly conceived sort of story. And it’s a great kind of commercial mix of dark, dark action and comedy.”

So will “Rise of the Machines” measure up?

“The script is really solid,” Stahl promised. “I think the main aim was to basically up the stakes from the last one and to make the newest one even more groundbreaking. Because the second one, really nothing like that had been done before. And so I think in order to match that kind of enthusiasm, they have to really try that much harder as far as the story and the actual filming goes.

“And the effects, you know, there’s a lot of effects that are done these days that weren’t available 10 years ago,” he continued. “In that way, visually, it’s gonna be more realistic. It’s hard to know how it’s going to turn out, … but if the script says anything I would say that it’s definitely as good, if not better, than the last one.”

Like everyone involved with the production, Stahl has been sworn to secrecy about the finer points of the “T3″ plot. What is known is that resistance forces send yet another T-800 to protect Connor from a female Terminator, played by newcomer Kristanna Loken (”Gangland”).

“She’s just doing a great job,” Stahl said. “She’s doing months of weight training and then fighting training and weapons training. She’s just really been very dedicated to it. And also, sort of like a mime movement class for the sort of robotic sense to the character. Once you see her in action, it’s quite a transformation.”

The “transformation” fans really want to know about is whether or not Loken’s “Terminatrix” is made of liquid metal.

“Yeah, she is,” Stahl offered cautiously. “And she’s got … It’s new and improved. But I don’t think I could … They won’t let me say any more. It’s very top secret stuff.”

“T3″ has about three months of shooting left. After that, Stahl’s off to make “Carnivale,” a new HBO series about a traveling circus during the Depression. Stahl called it “a fantasy story about good and evil.”

After that, what’s next? Would Stahl be down for “Terminator 4″?

“Yeah, yeah, definitely,” he said. “From reading the third one, it leaves some questions as to where you go from here. But I guess they thought the same thing after the second as well. You know, if it was around, I definitely would love to do it.”

“Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,” also starring Claire Danes, is scheduled to hit theaters July 2, 2003.