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Did you know OJ Simpson lost Terminator’s role to Arnold Schwarzenegger Because He Is Black? Exploring Rumors
OJ Simpson was supposed to be a part of Terminator. But he lost the role to Arnold Schwarzenegger and that too because of his skin colour?
The 1984 James Cameron classic film, Terminator, was a box office hit, and gave Arnold Schwarzenegger a breakthrough into Hollywood. The seven-time Mr Olympia winner became an overnight sensation because of this movie franchise. In the film, The Austrian Oak played a robot assassin from the future who was sent back in time to kill Sarah Connor. She was a woman whose unborn son would one day save humanity from AI. After the first movie, Arnold also starred in the sequels.
However, perspectives changed when people got to know that American football player OJ Simpson was the first choice for the role that Arnold played. Let’s see why OJ Simpson was not finalised for the role of the Terminator.
Was it something to do with skin color?
James Cameron had supposedly approached OJ Simpson for the role of the killer assassin robot and Arnold was originally considered for the role of Kylie Rees, who would be a soldier in the movie. Arnold Schwarzenegger also talked about this in a previous interview. During an interview with the Guardian, even James Cameron spoke about the same incident. He said that the first Terminator movie was never expected to become a blockbuster and he was pessimistic about it.
He also mentioned how it might have all gone wrong if one of the producers had their way of casting. “Mike Medevoy at Orion called me up one night and said, ‘I just went to this party and I got the movie cast!’ Now, of course, every filmmaker loves to hear that some douche executive has cast your movie for you. And he said, ‘OK, OJ Simpson for the Terminator.’ I was like: ‘Hey Mike! Bad idea! You’re going to have this black athlete chasing this white girl around LA with a freaking knife and a gun? We’re not doing that.’ Which was fortunate, but also unfortunate in that life ended up imitating art there.”
But what did James Cameron mean by this? Arnold Schwarzenegger had talked to Metro Entertainment and had said that the producers were not interested in the idea of OJ playing Terminator because according to them, he could not be convincing as a killing machine.
James Cameron explained the real reason OJ was not cast
According to the director, the studio executive named Mike Medavoy of Orion had pitched OJ Simpson’s name. According to Variety, Schwarzenegger had supposedly claimed to have a concept drawing of the character of Terminator and as per Cameron, it resembled Simpson’s face.
However, James Cameron denied everything and said, “I didn’t make the painting for him. I made the painting for us, for the production of him as the Terminator.” He also mentioned that there was no OJ Simpson under the painting and he was never in the director’s mind.
So supposedly it was not due to skin colour but just the fact that James Cameron did not think OJ Simpson would be proper for the role of a cyborg in his movie.
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