There has been a bizarre casting rumor involving Arnold Schwarzenegger. It suggested that another actor was originally considered for Arnold’s role in The Terminator. Director James Cameron has set the record straight.
Rumor about casting another actor instead of Arnold Schwarzenegger
Released in 1984, The Terminator remains one of the defining films in Cameron’s long and successful career. The film follows Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), who is a soldier from the future who returns to the past in order to protect Sarah Conner (Linda Hamilton), the mother of a crucial resistance leader, from an unstoppable killing machine. The Terminator was met with strong reviews and ultimately kickstarted a franchise that would play out over the next 35 years.
In a recent interview on Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace (via Variety), Cameron snubbed the claims that former football player and controversial figure O.J. Simpson was originally considered for Schwarzenegger’s role in The Terminator. The claim stems from Schwarzenegger himself, who said in a 2019 interview that Simpson was actually cast in the role before him. While Cameron admits that one studio executive did want Simpson for the role, the director explains that he shot the idea down immediately. Check out Cameron’s full comment below:
“Very early on, a highly placed person at one of the two studios that funded that film had a brilliant idea and called me up and said, ‘Are you sitting down?’ I said, ‘Well, no, I’m not.’ He said, ‘Are you sitting? O.J. Simpson for the Terminator!’ I said, ‘I actually think that’s a bad idea.’ It didn’t go anywhere.”
