‘The Terminator’: James Cameron Almost Cast a Different Actor for the Titular Role
Although James Cameron ultimately cast Arnold Schwarzenegger as the T-800 in The Terminator, Schwarzenegger says the director originally had different ideas about who would play the role. Via an interview with Graham Bensinger, Schwarzenegger suggests O.J. Simpson was Cameron’s first choice to play the Terminator. Schwarzenegger was initially considered to play Kyle Reese, the human character who travels back in time to protect Sarah Connor. That role ultimately went to Michael Biehn.
Schwarzenegger remembers taking a meeting with Cameron about playing Reese. He recalls that when he talked with the director, he made reference to Yul Brenner’s robotic mannerisms in Michael Crichton’s Westworld. Schwarzenegger told Bensinger he also shared some of his ideas about how the Terminator should look and act. He told Cameron he thought the character needed to move “like a machine” and that he should be “trained blindfolded.” Cameron liked Schwarzenegger’s take on the character and eventually offered him the part. The rest, as they say, is history.
The setup for The Terminator goes like this:
Disguised as a human, a cyborg assassin known as a Terminator (Schwarzenegger) travels from 2029 to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton). Sent to protect Sarah is Kyle Reese (Biehn), who divulges the coming of Skynet, an artificial intelligence system that will spark a nuclear holocaust. Sarah is targeted because Skynet knows that her unborn son will lead the fight against them. With the virtually unstoppable Terminator in hot pursuit, she and Kyle attempt to escape.
While Schwarzenegger stands firm in the claim that O.J. Simpson was the first choice for the role, Terminator producer Gale Anne Hurd and director James Cameron both denied that Simpson was ever under serious consideration for the part. Cameron previously told the L.A. Times that the film’s distributor, Orion, wanted Simpson as the Terminator, but he and Hurd never even considered The Juice for the role.
Regardless of where the truth lies, it’s fascinating to think that Schwarzenegger nearly played a different part in the film. And what a different film it would have been.
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