There are many fascinating details about the casting of franchises such as the Harry Potter films. Even movies like Love Actually have stories about casting that are downright intriguing for those with a passion for the subject. But the truth about casting the first Terminator movie may take the cake. And a lot of that has to do with the fact that Arnold Schwarzenegger almost lost out on the titular role. But thanks to an in-depth article by Entertainment Weekly, we now know that there were actually many peculiar and downright frustrating aspects about forming the cast that would ultimately sell Terminator to a mainstream audience, launch a multi-billion dollar franchise, and make stars out of Arnold and Linda Hamilton. Let's take a look.
O.J. Simpson Was Supposed To Be The Terminator
According to the Entertainment Weekly article, the main reason why studios were even taking a look at the script for The Terminator had to do with the fact that the budget was so low. At the time, James Cameron was a nobody director. His idea was solid enough to grab the attention of producers, mainly Mike Medavoy at Orion, but they were convinced that a big star would be the only thing that would make people think of the flick as something more than a B-movie.
"Initially Jim and I thought in order to keep the budget down we would use a fairly unknown cast," co-screenwriter and producer Gale Anne Hur told Entertainment Weekly. "Lance Henriksen was originally going to play the Terminator."
But then Mike Medavoy sat Gale and James Cameron down and told them that he wanted O.J. Simpson as The Terminator... Yep, that's right... O.J. Simpson... You have to remember, he was a big star at the time. Not only was he a legendary athlete, but he was also making a name for himself in the movies. To be fair, Mike also mentioned Arnold Schwarzenegger, but in the Kyle Reese role.
"That did come out of my mouth. At the time, O.J. Simpson had one of those commercials for Hertz where he jumped over a counter and ran to get a rental car. It was all of that athletic stuff, which I thought the Terminator should have," Mike Medavoy admitted to Entertainment Weekly.
"Gale and I just looked at each other and thought, 'You’ve got to be f- - -ing kidding me.' Mind you, this was before O.J. was actually a killer," James Cameron said of the alleged crimes O.J. Simpson was later (and controversially) acquitted of. "We might have reconsidered after he had [allegedly] killed his wife. [Laughs] This was when everybody loved him, and ironically that was part of the problem — he was this likable, goofy, kind of innocent guy. [Laughs] Plus, frankly I wasn’t interested in an African-American man chasing around a white girl with a knife. It just felt wrong."
Still, it was O.J. that Mike wanted. Arnold was later approached to play the character of Kyle Reese, which brought him face-to-face with James Cameron who didn't want him in that role.
"The Arnold thing was harder to deal with, because he had just come out with Conan the Barbarian, so I had to think of a way to torpedo the idea," James Cameron admitted. "I was walking out to meet Arnold for lunch to discuss Reese, and the last thing I said to my roommate was 'Do I owe you any money? Because I have to go pick a fight with Conan.'"
While James couldn't see Arnold as Kyle Reese, he could see him as The Terminator... and Arnold had a few ideas about the character (even though he wasn't initially interested in playing him).
"I could visualize very clearly what the Terminator should look like," Arnold Schwarzenegger said. "And so when I met Cameron to talk about Kyle Reese, I gave him all these points: This is what you should do with the Terminator, this is how the Terminator should act."
All of this convinced James to offer Arnold the Terminator part, but Arnold initially turned it down because of the lack of lines.
"I was building my career, being a leading man and not being a villain. But Cameron said that he’d shoot it in such a way that all the evil stuff that I do will be totally excused by audiences because I’m a cool machine. And so cool that some of the people will cheer," Arnold said, so he signed on.
Casting Linda Hamilton
Soon Michael Biehn was cast as Kyle Reese and Linda Hamilton was tapped to play Sarah Connor.
"Jim and I auditioned quite a few actresses and Linda was the only one who captured the essence of Sarah — her relative innocence as well as the strength of character she develops over the course of the film," Gale explained.
But Linda wasn't as excited about the opportunity as other actors might have been.
"I was going to be a Shakespearean actress when I came out of the Strasberg studio in New York. And so I wasn’t as excited about The Terminator as my people were," Linda admitted. "Maybe I was a little snobby. I thought, 'Oh, Arnold Schwarzenegger. I’m not sure about that.' I was little nervous about whether all the pieces would fit together."
But they did fit together... And the movie became one of the most successful of that year and launched a multi-billion dollar franchise.
"Believe me, I did go to the set to check Arnold out," Linda said. "And I remember standing back and watching him and going, 'Hmm, this might work.' There was something so utterly robotic and terrifying about him. I realized that we were doing something new here, and all of the sudden I believed."