Besides what I covered in my article about Terminator 2: Judgment Day possibly going 3D, Cameron discussed The Terminator at the Hero Complex Film Festival.
While James Cameron may have become different over the years, part of the story about the creation of The Terminator is heartwarming. Cameron wasn’t a rich person back then but depended on using McDonald’s coupons sent to him by his mother to eat regularly. In this environment he was able to start making the first movie in what would become a franchise.
Cameron remarked that he was very free to do what he wanted and that a lot of people hated being in that stage of life. However, he said, people would then try and get back to the state he was in when he wrote The Terminator. People found out that having so much freedom was the best thing.
Cameron said he thought of The Terminator as an “urban noir film” and talked about first meeting Arnold Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger was originally going to be Kyle Reese but him and Michael Biehn ended up changing roles. And that’s really for the better.
As Cameron was just beginning to get a hang of the movie business, he realized that choosing Schwarzenegger for the role of Kyle Reese wasn’t a good idea. So the plan was to anger Schwarzenegger so that it could be claimed that the actor quit because of creative differences.
However, when Cameron met up with Schwarzenegger, he realized the man was perfect for the role of the T-800 aka the Terminator. So things were set in motion to have Schwarzenegger take the role.
Schwarzenegger’s agent, for some reason, didn’t want the man to take the role. It might be because it the role had a small amount of screen time and hardly any lines of dialogue. Luckily Schwarzenegger fired his agent for a short time so that he could take the role.
Even though I have heard the story before, it’s one of those stories where hearing it again doesn’t hurt.
Source: LA Times