“This Guy Only Talks 27 Lines”: Arnold Schwarzenegger Once Almost Did Career Suicide by Rejecting a $2,000,000,000 Franchise Saying He “Don’t Want Regrets”

Arnold Schwarzenegger mastered the professional fields he took part in. It’s incredibly tough to achieve such a feat, and it takes a lot more than just talent to crack it. Taking the right and tricky decisions at the right time plays a crucial role, and Arnie is known to be a master of it. He left the bodybuilding arena while on a winning streak to pursue acting. Arnie further ventured into politics after becoming the action superstar of Hollywood. However, one thing was constant, his unparalleled success, irrespective of the domain he entered. But there is one instance when ‘The Austrian Oak’ was not confident enough to decide.

The Predator actor sat down with Graham Bensinger last October to discuss various events in his life. During the interview, he revealed how he was unsure whether to play the lead role in the 1984 movie, ‘The Terminator’.

Arnold Schwarzenegger once backed off from playing Terminator

The 75-year-old’s all-time classic, The Terminator, catapulted him into new horizons of popularity among the masses. The James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger venture became a big hit and led to a series of sequels. However, Arnold Schwarzenegger wasn’t the first choice for the role of Terminator. It was O.J Simpson. But James Cameron chose Schwarzenegger for the Terminator role after a chat over lunch.

Having watched Yul Brynner’s performance as a machine in ‘Westworld’, Arnie suggested to Cameron, “Whoever he plays it, I said, you got to train them to be a machine, not to act like a machine.” Impressed by the Governator’s thoughts about the role, Cameron opined, “I think we’re all in agreement that you should play The Terminator.”

But ‘Conan the Barbarian’ actor refused initially, and said, “Jim excuse me,” and added, “I don’t want the regrets in my career.” He described the Terminator role and said, “This guy only talks says 27 lines. I don’t want to go backwards.” Arnie wanted to take up a more challenging role with more dialogues. But Cameron told Schwarzenegger in an assuring way, “I will shoot the character so that you’re not only the number one villain that they’ve ever seen, but the number one hero.” It wasn’t the only time the star director had to talk some sense to the action hero.

James Cameron stopped a bloodthirsty Governator once

After playing the villain in The Terminator, there was a role reversal for Arnold Schwarzenegger for ‘Terminator 2: Judgement Day’. He had to turn into a good guy for the second installment of the series. However, the lead hero was not satisfied with Cameron’s idea.

“I was killing 68 people in the first one. The second one, I have to kill 150. We go up with the count and cut their throats and kill them and run them over with the car,” Arnold Schwarzenegger said to Cameron. The director was not happy with his actor’s thoughts this time around and said, “Arnold, stop it. You’re a very sick guy.” Eventually, Terminator 2 turned out to be a blockbuster hit.

Read More: Terminator Arnold Schwarzenegger Once Granted ‘50 Cops’ a Moment of Joy by Demolishing a Police Station: “They All Applauded”

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s acting career was cemented in the history of Hollywood because of the Terminator franchise. And James Cameron’s farsightedness could be credited for the success of the film, apart from Arnie’s terrific acting.

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