Arnold Schwarzenegger Made Major Career Gamble, Refused Agent’s Advice That $2.74B James Cameron Franchise Would Ruin His Career
Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of the best action stars that the world has ever seen. The Austrian-American actor will go down as one of the greatest action heroes of all time in history books. After dominating the world of bodybuilding back in the 1970s, Schwarzenegger turned his sights to Hollywood. Schwarzenegger rose to mainstream fame and success with some prominent action roles in the industry. After struggling in the film industry for almost a decade, the Predator actor did make it eventually.
The Terminator franchise is one of the biggest reasons that Arnold Schwarzenegger made it big in the industry. However, his agent initially advised him against taking the famous role.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was advised against taking up the role of Terminator
Back in the early 1980s, things were finally going right for Arnold Schwarzenegger in the industry. Conan the Barbarian came out in 1982 and was the first box-office hit for the Austrian-American actor. Schwarzenegger also starred in some promotional videos during the year and in 1983. Things were starting to look up for him when James Cameron came along with the project of The Terminator.
Not knowing how big it would be for his career, Schwarzenegger was advised against taking the role that would solidify his legacy in action movies. The Sabotage actor’s agent “heavily warned him of accepting the lead role of The Terminator in the sci-fi action movie“. The agent further added that the film would mark the end of the actor’s career. Well…he couldn’t have been any more wrong.
The Commando actor initially wanted to play the character of the hero in the franchise
James Cameron once opened up about Arnold Schwarnegger’s views on playing the villainous character. According to him, the actor was not very interested in playing the role of a villain in the movie and wanted to play the role of a hero instead. However, Cameron wasn’t on-board with that idea. He said, “Casting Arnold Schwarzenegger as our Terminator, on the other hand, shouldn’t have worked. The guy is supposed to be an infiltration unit, and there’s no way you wouldn’t spot a Terminator in a crowd instantly if they all looked like Arnold. It made no sense whatsoever.”
Well, and the rest, as they say, was history. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s role in The Terminator is also referred to as his “acting career’s signature role“. The Terminator franchise remains to be one of the highest-grossing sci-fi franchises in history, to this day.
Source: Chillopedia and Wired
