Linda Hamilton wasn't in any hurry to call ex-husband James Cameron back about Terminator: Dark Fate
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If there’s one good thing about the new (sixth? seventh if you count the TV show?) entry in the clankingly undying, exhaustedly rebooted Terminator franchise, it’s the unlikely-for-many-reasons return of Linda Hamilton. Having sat out what the A.V. Club’s Jesse Hassenger calls the “increasingly misbegotten follow-ups” to the original trilogy (and jury’s still out on the Hamilton-less Terminator 3), Hamilton’s increasingly badass world-savior Sarah Connor returns to kick (shoot, bazooka) some metal butt in Terminator: Dark Fate. Coming out to the sort of applause an audience gives to someone who’s saved their bacon on a number of occasions, the once more ripped-for-battle Hamilton sat down with Jimmy Kimmel on Tuesday to talk about returning to the film universe that helped launch her career some 35 years ago—and why it was such a hard sell.
“At all,” is how Hamilton quickly responded, with her signature throaty laugh, to Kimmel’s opener about her rumored reluctance to get back into Terminator-killing shape. And while the now 63-year-old Hamilton admitted to having plenty of “itis-es” thanks to the strenuous training regimen required to embody the even-more-formidable-than-ever Connor, it wasn’t the physical toll of the role that was her biggest stumbling block. That would be working again with original Terminator director and guy she famously divorced for infidelity among other things, James Cameron (who’s on board this time, at least in a producer’s capacity). “Jim Cameron called,” explained Hamilton. “And then he called a second time. And then he called a third time and said it’s about work, and I was like, ‘Oh, what’s up?’” Don’t cross Sarah Conner, is the message here.
Kimmel, bringing up Hamilton’s former marriage to Cameron, joked whether she would be suing him for all the physical costs of reprising her most famous role, to which Hamilton, eyes all a-twinkle, responded, “That’s a great idea!” Just a joke—Cameron already paid Hamilton a rumored $50 million after cheating on her with Titanic actress and current wife Suzy Amis, so she’s good. As to her return to the land of the Terminators, Hamilton did express some disappointment at the film’s gala premiere being cancelled this week, what with California being on fire and all, although she didn’t exactly sound that broken up about it, honestly. “It’s okay,” shrugged Hamilton mischievously about the film after explaining that’d she’d finally gotten to see the finished project in a private screening. (Sort of the general consensus.) Once more, don’t mess with Linda Hamilton.
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SHE DOESN’T HAVE HOT FLASHES SHE HAS OWNAGE FLASHES
So where’s that Beauty and the Beast reunion? Ron Perlman didn’t wrong Linda Hamilton in any way that I’m aware of.
Ray Wise was in the show, I only bring this up because Ray Wise seems to follow me in the world of TV and I’m pretty fine with that.
Ray Wise freaks me right the hell out.
He and Danny Huston need to do some sort of evil brothers thing together.
Yup. Ol’ Danny freaked me out in American Horror Story when he showed up, purely because I thought it was Ray!
Same here. And he’s super awesome so much like you I’m exceedingly fine with it. My biggest surprise was seeing him as Ken’s Father in Law on Mad Men.
My biggest Ray Wise Surprise was realizing he was the human Alec Holland in Wes Craven’s Swamp Thing. I’d seen it so many times as a kid that rewatching was a trip.
He made himself a pop-tart. It was very good.
Ray Wise really tied RoboCop together.
Even better would be a Terminator-Sons of Anarchy mashup. Sarah Connor joins SAMCRO as they fight a time-travelling gang of Terminator bikers.
Well, technically Linda Hamilton did kind of make an appearance in Terminator Salvation …Also, Connor is spelled correctly for the most part in this article except for the one time that this most pernicious of errors that keeps creeping in to this day.“Don’t cross Sarah Conner, is the message here.”
There is no “original trilogy” in the Terminator series. There is only the first and second. The jury came in long ago on the third, right about the part where the T-800 put on sparkly star-shaped glasses.
The Weekly Planet has a funny bit about all the different “real” Terminator 3s out there.
I was going to say. What a pointless movie. It completely undid everything that happened in 2.
and jury’s still out on the Hamilton-less Terminator 3The very fact that Terminator: Dark Fate ignores Terminator 3 and every movie in the franchise after that should say enough..
One of my old roommates used to name his dumps after movies, and I think the Terminator franchise was (and continues to be) his favorite, for obvious reasons:The TerminatorJudgment DayRise of the MachinesSalvationGenisysDark Fate
I don’t really want to know how Rise of the Machines was apropos here.
My god it’s refreshing to see an actress not turn herself into a facial surgery freakshow.
It’s also refreshing when we’re able to talk about the amount of pressure put on older women by the entertainment industry to avoid aging, only without using insulting, derogatory language.
Seriously. Just let us age naturally. We’ve earned it.
So do we know how the new movie ends yet? Someone spoil me
Last I checked, the plot was on effing Wikipedia
I’m just gonna guess here, it ends with them averting Judgment Day. But… for how long?
She looks so damn badass in the trailer. I do hope this one is good, but I am not about to try and learn the story leading into it.
“It’s okay…” – Linda Hamilton(Sarah Connor)
What a shining review, movie looked terrible already, now the lead actress gives it a mediocre review the day after her first viewing… I don’t blame Hamilton, it’s amazing that she came back to the role after all these years, but Cameron can go fuck himself for allowing this piece of shit movie to exist.