Rage Against The Machine - The Making Of The Terminator, Part II

Enter Arnholdt!

Lance Henriksen (actor, Detective Vukovich): I didn’t take Arnold Schwarzenegger seriously as an actor at the time we made the film. I said, ‘Oh, man, why cast a man who looks like a machine to play a machine? C’mon - can’t somebody who’s very thin perform these superhuman feats?!’ And I was wrong. Dead wrong. He was tremendously effective and he was served very well by the film. If I had played the Terminator, it would have been a much different movie. It wouldn’t have been such a physical character; it would have been more of a mental character. Jim Cameron went the other way and he made an amazing movie.

Adam Greenberg (cinematographer): A lot of actors would have been pissed off about losing a part as big as the Terminator, but not Lance. He’s such a professional. His attitude’s so great, he thoroughly deserves all the success that’s come his way.

Lance Henriksen: I never for one second felt that Jim short-changed me. I’ve learned enough about this business over the years to realise that this is just the way it goes sometimes. I wanted Jim to get the movie made just as much as I wanted to be in it. So it really didn’t hurt at all. Then another role in the movie came up - Vukovich, one of the cops - and Jim asked me if I wanted it. I jumped at the chance to be in his movie in any role that he offered me.