3. I'll Be Back...Creep!
Before Peter Weller was chosen to play RoboCop, other actors being considered were Rutger Hauer, Michael Ironside (who also auditioned for Boddicker), Tom Berenger and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Orion were very keen to hire Schwarzenegger, especially after the success of The Terminator, another Orion backed film. But it was agreed that Schwarzenegger was physically too big for the role and would struggle to fit in the suit. Weller was chosen because Verhoeven liked the fact that he could convey emotion through his lower face and "the fact that his chin was very good." As soon as he got the part, Weller began rehearsing with mime artist Moni Yakim to perfect the robotic movements he would need to make RoboCop believable. They worked together for 7 months and developed a snake-like fluidity in the movements. At this point, the suit was not ready so all the rehearsing was done without it. When it came to translating all the mime work through the suit, Weller realised that he couldn't move in the way he had practiced, the suit was too rigid. Production had to be stopped and Yakim was flown in to help Weller get more comfortable with the outfit. Yakim recalls;
So I went, they flew me over there. A car came and took me over to the set. Nothing was happening. Everybody was depressed, especially Paul Verhoeven, who was going absolutely crazy. It was his first chance at doing a big American movie. I came to an extremely depressed place. I had met Paul before that, because we discussed the character, but he hardly looked it to me when I arrived there. And I saw Peter, and Peter said, How do we go about it? I said, I cant do anything unless you put on the costume. So he went and they worked on him, again, for a few hours, to put on this costume that was not easy to deal with. He appeared with the costume, and I laughed, because he did indeed look like a huge toad. So I asked him to walk a little bit, and then I realized that it needed just a small adjustment. I asked everybody to leave the set and to give me about an hour to work with Peter. And I worked with Peter and found out that all was in the rhythm, that we had to throw away everything that wed done, rhythmically, over the four months, and to create the rhythm that would fit that costume. That, instead of having the bulk as a negative thing, to use it as an asset. So we started to move slower, and to walk slower, the motions were slower. And we worked Peters body into the weight of the costume, rhythmically. And, after about an hour, I called Peter, Verhoeven, and the guys, and told them to look at what he can do. And everybody got excited, and they started shooting. Thats the real story. And it was in the papers because Peter Weller actually said it that if I hadnt come to the set that day, there wouldnt be a RoboCop.