James Cameron is one of those Hollywood directors that every actor wants to work with. Those who have got that chance with him early on, like Arnold Schwarzenegger, know his skills through and through.
Cameron, 69, revolutionized filmmaking with his exotic sci-fi stories and has, so far, been incredibly successful with the grand scale and an innovative sense of filming.
With over a dozen films to his credit as the director and writer, it’s the latter that Cameron had a war of words over with the said actor that he worked with in the initial years of his career.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, 76, had his breakthrough with Conan the Barbarian in 1982 but another opportunity was waiting for him with Cameron in the form of The Terminator in 1984. It was during this $78 million film, that they butted heads.
James Cameron Was Infuriated Over A Dialogue
As per Esquire, Arnold Schwarzenegger learned while filming The Terminator that James Cameron doesn’t like to be poked for his writing.
Schwarzenegger had issues with a particular dialogue in the film that, according to him, didn’t sound like what a cyborg would say.
His most famous line from the film – “I’ll be back” was the one that the actor, in his most recent docuseries Arnold on Netflix, revealed made James Cameron angry.
Esquire mentioned that Cameron wanted to keep things simple. But upon consistent poking from Schwarzenegger to change it, Cameron had to shut him up.
James Cameron Yelled At Arnold Schwarzenegger
The Terminator was James Cameron’s third film and while it set the stage for him and Schwarzenegger to become famous, the latter revealed that he was yelled at by the former.
Schwarzenegger wanted his dialogue to sound more “machine-like,” as per Esquire, and he wanted to say “I will be back.”
“Are you the writer?” – yelled Cameron. “No,” Schwarzenegger recalled replying. “Well, don’t tell me how to fu-king write,” the director yelled again.
Looking back at how well received The Terminator film had been, Arnold realized that Cameron knew what he was doing.
“It became the most quoted movie line, I think, in the history of motion pictures,” Schwarzenegger said. “So this just shows you who was right and who was wrong.”
2019’s Terminator: Dark Fate saw the return of Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger who reprised his titular role. James Cameron served as the co-producer on this one.
James Cameron is currently working on Avatar 3 which has an expected release date of December 19, 2025.
Source: Esquire
