In the year In 1991’s “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” written and directed by James Cameron, Arnold Schwarzenegger scored his highest-grossing feature to date and established himself as an action icon. But he still remembers feeling “suspicious” about something missing from the script.
He wanted to kill more people.
Not just killing a lot of people — “slaughtering,” he admitted at a screening of “Terminator 2” at the Academy Museum on Wednesday. “The first one I was killing 68 people – the second one, I got to kill 150. We go out with the count and the massacre, and we cut their throats and kill them and the cannon and this and that – with the car. I said, ‘I’ve got to beat Stallone!’ I must be 1.
Schwarzenegger’s thirst for blood was so intense that Cameron had to talk him out of it. “He said, ‘Arnold, stop, you’re such a sick person,'” he joked.
As part of the Los Angeles launch of his two-volume book published by Tashen Arnold, Schwarzenegger talks about his experience making “Terminator 2” and why it’s such an enduring genre. The centerpiece of the sold-out evening was a wide-ranging discussion between him and the book’s editor, Diane Hansen, followed by a 3D screening of the film.
Today, the actor, activists and former California governor credited Cameron for coming up with the “interesting idea” of having his Terminator be a defender instead of an assassin in the 1991 sequel. But Wednesday confirmed previous interviews with Cameron (and expanded on revelations he shared in his Netflix documentary “Arnold”) that he was initially upset by the plot twist.
“The reason ‘Terminator 2’ was such a huge success was 1 Jim Cameron. I mean, Jim Cameron is a genius writer,” Schwarzenegger said. “They always say, ‘What’s not on the page isn’t on the stage.’ It worked, and he came up with this brilliant idea – although I was skeptical at first – “I want to make you a good terminator.” ‘What do you mean by a “good” terminator?’ I told him.
“He said to me, ‘I’ll make sure you don’t kill someone in Terminator 2,'” he continued. “And I said, ‘Well, that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. How can we do “Terminator 2” without killing anyone with me? Come on, we’re just going to throw a few token bodies in there.’ No, no. “The whole idea is, you come back as a machine, but this time you have to protect Linda Hamilton and you have to protect this child of hers. Your mission is different.”
The actor then detailed his decision to have his Terminator only shoot people in the knees and shoulders in the film. “You disable them, but don’t kill anyone. And there’s this great scene in the movie where I say to the boy, ‘I swear I won’t kill anyone.’ He agreed not to kill anyone. It’s the brilliance of Jim Cameron, he’s an extraordinary writer and he’s an incredible director.
Watch the full live chat with Schwarzenegger in the video above.
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