“Let me correct that right now,” Jame said. “Arnold is literally just wrong. I know it’s hard to imagine! You don’t argue with Arnold.”
“I got a call from Mike Medavoy who ran Orion, which was jointly financing with Hemdale,” James continued. “And Medavoy said, ‘Are you sitting down? I’ve got this movie cast: O.J. Simpson as The Terminator and Arnold Schwarzenegger as [Kyle] Reese.’”
“Gale Hurd and I looked at each other like that was the stupidest thing we’d ever heard in our lives,” James added. “And I told him on that phone call, ‘It’s not O.J. Simpson. We’re not doing that.’ And he said, ‘Well, will you meet with Arnold Schwarzenegger?’”