The Terminator ranks among Arnold Schwarzenegger’s most iconic roles, but the actor was initially warned about taking the part in James Cameron’s magnum opus. A few years after his debut in Hercules in New York, Arnold Schwarzenegger rose to fame for his formidable, heroic portrayal of a pulp comic character in Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer. His acting career soared to new heights when instead of sticking to black-and-white leading roles, he decided to switch gears by playing The Terminator’s anti-hero titular cyborg.
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As fate would have it, former bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger proved to be the perfect casting choice for the ice-cold remorseless Terminator, and even after all these years, it is hard to imagine anyone else as the inhuman indestructible cyborg. However, not everyone wanted Schwarzenegger to play the character, and he, too, was initially apprehensive about taking the part. In the Making Of Terminator documentary, Arnold Schwarzenegger recalls how everyone around him warned him that playing a villain could negatively affect his career. Fortunately, he decided to ignore all doubters and brilliantly showcased his talent as an entertainer in The Terminator.
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Worries About Schwarzenegger’s Terminator Role Weren’t Unfair
Considering how Arnold Schwarzenegger’s early success in movies was primarily a consequence of a time and place — the time being the 80s and the place being Hollywood — it is understandable why many were worried about his decision to play Terminator. From his first film itself, Schwarzenegger established himself as a brawny action hero. By playing a similar role in his breakout Conan films, the actor further cemented his place as the undisputed stereotypical action man whose presence in a movie assured audiences of what they could expect.
While The Terminator stayed true to some elements of his action persona, it portrayed him in a significantly more negative light. This, in turn, put his bankable heroic image at risk. Given how Schwarzenegger was still finding his feet as an actor before James Cameron’s The Terminator, taking the role was certainly a concerning move.
Arnold Schwarzenegger Was Right To Ignore The Terminator Warnings
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s naysayers were proven wrong when his vision for The Terminator came in tandem with James Cameron’s directorial forte. With just seventeen lines and less than a hundred words, he excelled as The Terminator’s stoic villain without wholly shedding his brand of action and deadpan humor. This decision also rippled further down in his acting career, when he avoided being typecast by taking bigger risks and starring in Ivan Reitman’s hit comedy Twins and Cameron’s thriller True Lies. Since Hollywood is riddled with “what if” stories of many an actor whose careers ended or thrived with a single movie, it is quite evident that Arnold Schwarzenegger’s tenure as an action movie star would not have been the same if he had declined The Terminator.
Unlike most sci-fi flicks that rely on wonder to please audiences, The Terminator focuses more on terror. Owing to this, everything from Schwarzenegger’s cold delivery of lines like “I’ll be back” and “Hasta La Vista baby” to his dominating on-screen presence when he rides his Harley-Davidson on the freeway proves to be effective narrative devices for the film’s mounting tension and slam-bang action sequences. Therefore, even though James Cameron deserves all the credit for penning and directing The Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger deserves equal acclaim for sticking to the role and playing it with such devotion.
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