James Cameron Sets The Record Straight On Terminator And O.J. Simpson
James Cameron specifically lays out that he never considered O.J. Simpson for the role of The Terminator in the original film.
James Cameron is no stranger to changing cinema, with his contributions to the horror genre with his writing and directing of Aliens, changing the science fiction genre with his underwater thriller, The Abyss, and pushing technology to the brink with Titanic and Avatar. One of the most significant contributions he made to both science fiction and action was in the Terminator franchise, which created a superstar out of Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to Variety, James Cameron is debunking a longstanding rumor that O.J. Simpson was initially cast as the Terminator.
In a recent appearance on the Chris Wallace series, Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace, the Titanic director addressed the rumor originally started by Schwarzenegger when he claimed that Simpson was initially cast back in an interview in 2019. According to him, James Cameron didn’t see O.J. Simpson as a believable killing machine, so they moved on; Schwarzenegger even went as far as saying that the original concept art poster that James Cameron did that features him as the Terminator actually has Simpson’s face underneath. In the Variety article, the legendary filmmaker debunked this rumor by recalling the way it actually happened on the phone with a studio executive.
“Very early on, a highly placed person at one of the two studios that funded that film had a brilliant idea and called me up and said, ‘Are you sitting down?’, James Cameron recalled about the Terminator casting rumor. “I said, ‘Well, no, I’m not.’ He said, ‘Are you sitting? O.J. Simpson for the Terminator!’ I said, ‘I actually think that’s a bad idea.’ It didn’t go anywhere.” To hear Cameron say it, it sounds like while there was some initial consideration by certain people involved for the actor/athlete as the Terminator, the director didn’t take the idea seriously.
“Very early on, a highly placed person at one of the two studios that funded that film had a brilliant idea and called me up and said, ‘Are you sitting down?’ I said, ‘Well, no, I’m not.’ He said, ‘Are you sitting? O.J. Simpson for the Terminator!’ I said, ‘I actually think that’s a bad idea.’ It didn’t go anywhere.”
James Cameron on the extent of O.J. Simpson being cast as the Terminator
O.J. Simpson became renowned for his decade of football greatness in the 1970s, where he picked up just over 11,000 rushing yards and made him the second all-time rusher at the time he retired. He then turned his attention to acting, where he starred in projects like Dragnet, Roots, The Towering Inferno, and The Naked Gun with Leslie Neilson. While James Cameron debunked that Simpson was ever cast as the Terminator, the comments don’t say that he was unbelievable as a killing machine the way Schwarzenegger claims.
Of course, that statement feels slightly ironic when put up against the fact that killing is precisely what O.J. Simpson is most closely associated with. Only a handful of years after The Terminator was released to theaters, Simpson was arrested for suspicion in the murder of his ex-wife and her boyfriend, Nicole Brown-Simpson and Ron Goldman. While he was eventually acquitted of the murders, he is still primarily associated with the drama, and his public image never quite recovered from the trial.
Hopefully, for James Cameron, this newest interview where he debunked the rumor of the Terminator casting will be the last time it comes up since he has a lot more on his plate. Digging deeper into the lore of how the casting and production of the film played out, you can find that Arnold Schwarzenegger was initially cast as the protective hero, Kyle Reese, which would have added a whole new layer to Terminator 2: Judgement Day’s flipping of the killing machine as the protector. Either way you look at this rumor, whether it happened or not, it is hard to argue with the fact that it all worked out the way it was supposed to.
