Terminator is one of the most popular sci-fi franchises of all time thanks to the pair of James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The actor-director duo has created the marvel on the screen and opened doors for more installments.
The bodybuilding god was not supposed to play the Terminator rather he had a very different role in the film. But Cameron could see his face would be the perfect fit for the character. And after much debate from both parties, they have pulled it off.
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Suggestion Made Him The Terminator
Several reports indicated earlier that OJ Simpson was cast as the Terminator and before that, the studio was considering Mel Gibson and Tom Selleck and Arnold Schwarzenegger was never in the mix. Schwarzenegger was supposed to be another character, Kyle Rees but he had suggestions for the character of the Terminator during a lunch with the director.
“It was a total coincidence because I didn’t even try out for Terminator,” Schwarzenegger said in an episode of The Howard Stern Show. “I was trying to be Kyle Reese and during the lunch when amid that James Cameron, the director right I kept talking all the time about the Terminator,” he continued.
“It doesn’t matter I know you guys have already probably hired OJ Simpson. I said but whoever is playing it I just want you to be clear he has to Train himself duty sample weapons into boot weapons together and to shoot and to load the weapons and all this have blindfolded totally blind for that because Terminator can never ever look down at his hand what he’s doing because he’s a machine. And has said when he walks he has to have a certain walk I mean he scans and looks around he has to have a certain scan it has to be absolutely clear at all times that this is a machine with actually absolutely no human behavior.”
His suggestions were on point and James Cameron knew that Schwarzenegger was going to be the face of the movie, the hard part was to convince him.
James Cameron Argued With Arnold Schwarzenegger To Convince Him To Play Terminator
Schwarzenegger was not really excited to play the character but he was fascinated by a Westworld’s Yul Brynner character and he discussed Terminator with the director over an hour. “I saw the Yul Brynner character in Westworld right they played the machine and so I was so amazed at his performance,” he told Howard Stern.
By the end of the lunch, “Cameron looked at me and he said so why don’t you play Terminator?” Schwarzenegger revealed. “I mean you understand him so well this character this exactly will be needed,” he added.
“I said no no no Jim please, please. I mean, I say I counted the amount of lines this guy says. It’s 27 lines, that’s right. I said then Conan I had 128 lines. I’m not gonna go back I said you can give it to someone else. I said but I want to talk a lot I want to perform I want to be the leading man. He says I will make the guide a leading man it’s called the Terminator I will shoot it for below up you would look heroic and don’t worry about killing all these people because your machine no one is gonna play my Arnold your machine dry your acting a machine.”
Eventually, Cameron could convince the actor and the result was the sci-fi cult classic. The Terminator can be streamed on Max.
