Arnold Schwarzenegger is revered as a veteran actor in Hollywood and for very good reasons too. Starring in iconic and memorable roles ever since the 1980s, Schwarzenegger has created a name for himself with his work.
Talking about the film that started it all, Arnold Schwarzenegger starred in James Cameron’s 1984 film The Terminator. Stating the intense training that he had to do for the franchise, Schwarzenegger claimed that he stopped blinking at the gun range after firing so many rounds!
When Arnold Schwarzenegger Bled For The Terminator
In 1984, the usage of VFX was very limited as it wasn’t so advanced at that time. Actors had to often rely on their dedication and their practice for their role to achieve the difficult things to perfect their role.
Portraying the role of a cyborg assassin from the future coming back to kill a waitress, Schwarzenegger had to essentially make himself a heartless and emotionless robot for the role.
Alongside the neutrality of emotions, the actor revealed that he had to also learn all the gun stunts that he does in the film by heart. As per Schwarzenegger’s new book Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life (via Insider), the actor had to practice all the gun stunts while being blindfolded!
“On ‘The Terminator,’ it was becoming a machine: blindfolding myself until I could do every gun stunt with my eyes closed, and shooting so many rounds at the range that I no longer blinked when my gun fired”
He further continued,
“On ‘Terminator 2,’ it was practicing the shotgun cocking flip so many times my knuckles bled for what amounted to two seconds of screen time. I didn’t complain.”
Despite the hardships that he has faced in The Terminator franchise, Arnold Schwarzenegger revealed in a separate interview that due to his bodybuilding and James Cameron, his Hollywood career was saved.
If Arnold Schwarzenegger Didn’t Have James Cameron
In a separate interview with The New York Times where Schwarzenegger was promoting his book, the actor talked about his longtime friend James Cameron. Talking about what made him unique during the early 1980s, Arnold Schwarzenegger stated that the answer was his muscular body and James Cameron’s The Terminator.
“If I hadn’t had Jim Cameron at that time create “Terminator” and have me appear without the muscles, but still everyone knew what was underneath the leather jacket — that was kind of like, yeah, I get it, Schwarzenegger is a machine, so the body looks different than anything else; he talks like a machine with his accent. Without that, it wouldn’t have worked.”
The Terminator received a rating of 8.1/10 on IMDB and a record-breaking 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and the film is available to stream on Max in the U.S.
