With Arnold Schwarzenegger’s fabulous acting and James Cameron’s exceptional filmmaking, the first Terminator movie became superhit enough to spawn numerous sequels in the upcoming decades ever since its release in the theatres back in 1984. But while the film managed to receive worldwide acclamation and became a huge box-office success for its uniqueness, the original budget for its production is more than enough to leave the Sci-fi/Action movie’s fans shocked.
In fact, it was so less that the male antagonist of the movie, Schwarzenegger, and director Cameron had to film several scenes without a permit which once almost even landed him in legal trouble for damaging a civilian’s car while shooting.
The Time James Cameron And Arnold Schwarzenegger Nearly Went To Jail
Although the Terminator franchise is worth billions in today’s day and age, it wasn’t the same four decades ago when the first movie from the franchise was produced. Revealing how they filmed such a big blockbuster on a bare-minimum budget, Arnold Schwarzenegger said,
“It was a small budget movie, it was an independent movie with $6.5 million and we had to go out and do certain shots in Hollywood without the permits. We didn’t even have permits.”
He went ahead to share how one time he trashed a civilian’s car that didn’t even belong to him or the production company just because filmmaker James Cameron told him to.
“I remember one time I got out of the car and he [James Cameron] says, ‘Go across the street here, sunset, and go over to this car and punch the window in the front. We need that shot.’ So I walked across the street and looked Terminator-esque and then looked around and – boom – punched through the window and that’s the way we shot the first movie.”
This heroic act nearly landed both Schwarzenegger and Cameron in jail as well, judging how the cops pulled up soon enough. However, they somehow managed to squirm out of it and the movie ended up being released in the end as well.
Linda Hamilton Didn’t Want To Act In The Terminator With Arnold Schwarzenegger
In the same interview where Arnold Schwarzenegger revealed the shocking details of their almost trip to jail, Linda Hamilton, his co-star, too shared how she didn’t want to want to star with the Kindergarten Cop actor in The Terminator in the first place. When asked about the same, she said,
“Not at all. Only because I was this snotty New York actress, you know. You move from new york, you’re training with Lee Strassberg and you can’t go to LA, it’ll ruin you. You cant do LA movies, they suck! I mean New York – New York is tough. So here’s Arnold starring in this film and my people were very excited and I was like, ‘I don’t know. I’m gonna see for myself.’ But I actually went to set to see him.”
Nonetheless, she went to see him on the sets, and that made her realize that acting with him would be worth it. Thus, she affirmed the offer and ended up starring in the blockbuster movie that went ahead to earn 100% approval ratings from Rotten Tomatoes along with several other awards.
You can stream The Terminator (1984) on HBO Max.
Source: YouTube | The Graham Norton Show
