While Arnold Schwarzenegger gained worldwide recognition for his role in The Terminator, he missed out on a role in the classic sci-fi film, RoboCop. Schwarzenegger was set to play the titular character instead of Peter Weller in the film directed by Paul Verhoeven. However, one bizarre reason prevented him from playing the iconic role — the costume.
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s The Terminator was produced by Orion who was also behind RoboCop. Orion considered several actors to play the human-robot hybrid cop, even at one point fixing their Terminator star as the lead.
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Arnold Schwarzenegger Couldn’t Star In RoboCop Due To A Bizarre Reason
Arnold Schwarzenegger met with Orion’s head, Mike Medavoy, and he was all set to play the role. However, when it came to designing the suit for Schwarzenegger, Rob Bottin, the suit designer, encountered a problem as revealed in Netflix’s The Movies That Made Us. While drawing the suit for the Twins actor, Bottin found the size proportion to be too big and exaggerated. It would have made the True Lies actor look ridiculous, like the Michelin Man.
Only after rejecting Schwarzenegger did the studio realize that they needed someone with low body mass. They eventually found the perfect lead in Peter Weller who made the role memorable. But, Weller also found the role extremely difficult to play due to the difficult costume. Interestingly, this was not the first time the Kindergarten Cop actor missed out on a big role.
6 Major Movies That Arnold Schwarzenegger Missed Starring In
With a film career spanning over five decades, Schwarzenegger has given us some memorable roles in the action genre. However, there were some roles the Conan actor couldn’t star in, either because he was not finalized in the role or because he turned down the role in favor of other roles.
Air Force One (1997)
Arnold Schwarzenegger missed out on playing the President of the United States in one of the top-grossing films in 1997, Air Force One. Before Harrison Ford took over the role, Schwarzenegger, Tom Hanks, and Kevin Costner were considered by the studio. Fans missed a chance to see how the Escape Plan actor would have played the POTUS with his thick accent.
Face/Off (1997)
The Nicolas Cage and John Travolta pairing in this sci-fi action thriller worked exceptionally well. However, the producers considered several actor combos before finalizing the duo, and one such pair was the then-archrivals Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. While the duo worked together in later films, bringing the two together at the time would have been a risky affair for the producers.
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Schwarzenegger rejected the legendary Stanley Kubrick who thought the actor would perfectly fit the role of machine gunner, Animal Mother, in his war drama, Full Metal Jacket. The Predator actor turned down the role in favor of The Running Man. It eventually went to Adam Baldwin.
I Am Legend (2007)
I Am Legend was supposed to hit theaters 15 years before its actual release. The post-apocalyptic film was planned with Ridley Scott as the director and Schwarzenegger in the lead. However, once Scott left the project, the Commando actor was no longer interested in the film and it went into development hell.
Spider-Man (1991)
It is a lesser-known fact that James Cameron once planned a Spider-Man movie in 1991. The director, who only helmed a few selected projects in his entire career, pitched a concept featuring three major villains – Electro, Sandman, and Dr. Octopus. Cameron even engaged in discussions with Schwarzenegger about playing Dr. Octopus in the movie, but the movie never took off.
Die Hard (1988)
Bruce Willis was mainly known for his comedic role in Moonlighting when he was offered the Die Hard role. But before the role went to Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger rejected the role that could have earned him another successful franchise to his name. The FUBAR actor wanted to branch out into comedy at the time and opted to act in Twins instead.
