Arnold Schwarzenegger trained with a Los Angeles SWAT team for three months to perfect his weapons skills for new movie Sabotage.
The former California governor plays a Drug Enforcement Agency officer in the movie.
Schwarzenegger has worked with guns in some of his previous films, but director David Ayer wanted him to fine tune his weapons skills and learn the differences between the military and police operations.
"He made us go down to see the LA SWAT team, to hang out with them," Schwarzenegger says.
"He said, 'I want you to think like them. I want you to look like them. I want you to train and to work like them.'
"From an acting point of view, it was the most challenging. I love that David pushed me because sometimes directors get intimidated when they meet someone like me."
Ayer was "very clear" about the need for weapons training, says the star.
"I said, 'Weapons training? I've shot more guns than anyone! In movie history I've killed more people than anyone.'
"He said, 'I want you go to SWAT and learn the ballet of this team.'
"He used this strange kind of language. It helps to have a director like David Ayer, who is a fanatic about realism...
"There's a difference between the military and police forces. In the military you hold a weapon a certain way - and you approach an enemy in a certain way. In a drug enforcement task force they do it differently and hold their weapons differently - and David Ayer wanted us to do it the right way, like the SWAT teams would do it."
*Sabotage opens in Australia on April 10.
