Lance Henriksen and Billy Idol were almost given Terminator roles in James Cameron’s first two films. We get this humorous history lesson from our friends at MTV:
“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.”
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.”
Lance Henriksen has a very intimidating look about him, and I certainly think he would have made an excellent Terminator. I am glad Arnold got the job, but Lance would have been acceptable.
Billy Idol on the other hand…. makes me wonder what they were thinking. He’s a great rock performer, but why they would trust him for the role of T-1000 is beyond my understanding. Luckily, Billy broke his leg and Robert Patrick got the job. I really liked Patrick’s performance in T2 and stress to think of anyone that could fill his shoes in that one. It was a signature role for him, that is for sure.
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I don’t know about Billy Idol as a liquid terminator; but right now I can honestly say Shirley Manson of Garbage stinks to high heaven…
The fine line between parellel dimensions. Lol Billy,,,,,
this is a prime example on how unknowns can steal the show.
Patrick almost did.
“Say that’s a nice bike”
It’s not like Robert Patrick had to do much more than to look menacing. I’m sure Idol could have pulled it off. Plus Billy Idol does have some acting in his resume, he was in Oliver Stone’s The Doors among other things.
I also liked Robert Patrick in Die Hard 2. Most people forget he was in it as one of the “terrorists”. Billy Idol would be meh…
I would love to see Edward Norton as a terminator.
O.J. Simpson was also up for the running as the Terminator, but they thought that he was too much of a nice guy to play a killing machine…true story.
I would be col if he was “a” terminator, just not the main villain in a film.
I just recently saw wedding singer. Idol would of been awesome as a terminator. Maybe not “the” terminator, but one from one of the flashback scenes. C’mon they gave Jagger and Sting bad guy roles. Why not Billy?
Maybe Cameron thought that Billy Idol looked like a skinny Arnold Schwarzenegger?
I mean looking at that picture he does have the same type of face as Arnold.
Haven’t a fucking clue why he would pick him for that reason though, so just forget what I said, ok!
I think that Doug Jones would be the perfect T-1000. If Robert Patrick didn’t have that role though, I have my doubts that we would even know his name today.