How Billy Idol And Lance Henriksen Were Nearly James Cameron’s Terminators?!
Hollywood Newsroom is now Buzz Newsroom! Visit and bookmark our new site. Buzz is bigger and better, including sports, world news, gadgets and the entertainment news that you're used to. Same staff, just more stuff! Why Fark, Drudge and Huffington when you can Buzz!?Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator. Robert Patrick as the T-1000. Pretty iconic roles, right? But it was almost a robot from another android movie and a rock star as those unstoppable killing machines.
“They were thinking of Lance Henriksen for the Terminator, and they wanted Arnold for the Michael Biehn part of Kyle Reese,” revealed “Terminator” stunt coordinator Joel Kramer. “And Robert Patrick wasn’t James Cameron’s first pick – Billy Idol was.”
It’s more well known that Henricksen, who was the android Bishop in Cameron’s “Aliens” movies, was first choice for the Terminator – but Billy Idol? “That’s something most people don’t know,” said Kramer, who now works on the television spin-off, “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.” “I don’t think I even told them that here, to be honest with you.”
But back when Cameron was figuring out what he wanted for the first “Terminator” sequel, Kramer walked into his office to look at the storyboards. “I was like, ‘Jim, these storyboards look just like Billy Idol!’” Kramer recalled. “And he was like, ‘Yeah, he was my first pick.’ But Billy had gotten into a motorcycle accident and broke his leg, so it didn’t work out, because he would have to be in lean running shape.”
- from MTV