Since the 80s, Arnold Schwarzenegger cemented himself as one of the biggest action stars in the globe, but apart from playing a valorous hero, he is also pretty good at playing a ruthless antagonist. Although there aren’t a lot of instances when we witnessed the actor playing an antagonistic role, the one time he did, he absolutely terrified everyone.
The James Cameron-led The Terminator and its sequel revolutionized the sci-fi genre, and in doing so, it elevated Arnold Schwarzenegger’s career to the top, making him one of the biggest names in Hollywood. But before the first movie took the world by storm, he once terrified a bunch of people in a restaurant, following the True Lies actor’s terrifying look as T-800.
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Harmless Prank Resulted in a Chaos
Before The Terminator made its official debut, Arnold Schwarzenegger decided to pull off a harmless prank in a restaurant, wearing his damaged make-up for the movie. Witnessing a hugely built guy with a damaged face would’ve made anyone panic, and the same was the case for the waiter and the fellow customers present in the restaurant.
Recounting the hilarious situation, the actor recalled after he walked up to the waiter, “He freaked out” after witnessing the Terminator make-up. This went on to cause a chain reaction with other customers also freaking out.
“The people around him were screaming and running in other way.” Schwarzenegger recalled.
However, this little experiment did give the Total Recall Star confidence that he was the perfect fit to play the villainous cyborg, and was quite satisfied with the makeup following people’s reaction.
Arnold Schwarzenegger Wanted to Double Down on the Villainy
But after mastering playing the ferocious bad guy, Arnold Schwarzenegger hesitated to switch sides in the next entry, as he wanted to double down on the first movie’s approach. However, his desire to be more violent and kill over 150 people was eventually shut down by James Cameron, as he had other plans for the sequel. The Predator Star recalled,
“I said, ‘What do you mean a good Terminator?’ I say, ‘I was killing 68 people in the first one.’ I say, ‘In the second one I have to kill 150. We go up,'”
But despite his desire to continue where he left off, the actor was satisfied with how things turned out in the sequel, as it cemented itself as one of the greatest sequel and action films ever made.
The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day is available to stream on Max.
Source: The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
