Meet Jim Cameron’s Original Choice For The T-1000

In the original Terminator, Schwarzenegger was never supposed to play the T-800 infiltration unit. The remnants of this change are hinted at in the word ‘infiltration’ itself, which remained in the final dialogue.  Arnold is not exactly hard to miss.  Instead, Lance Henriksen was to play the Terminator and Arnold to play Reese.  Even then, it was clear that Cameron had a slicker, more athletic predator in mind, Henrikson shares quite a few physiognomic traits with Robert Patrick and the T-1000.  Athletic, incorporating averages, well presented.  Handsome even – these would be successful ingredients to anonymity.  In fact, it was only technology that prevented the T-1000 from appearing in the original movie, CGI being necessary but not available.

Then, when the idea was again raised in Terminator 2 to cast the ‘Porsche’ as opposed to the ‘Panzer’, Robert Patrick was not the original choice to play the T-1000.  If you discard an early idea to cast Biehn in the role, which Cameron wisely dropped, the man originally penned to appear as the T-1000 was in fact Billy Idol.

Joel Kramer, stunt double for Arnold Schwarzenegger recalls: “Robert Patrick wasn’t James Cameron’s first pick – Billy Idol was.”  When he originally looked at Cameron’s storyboards for Terminator 2, Kramer was taken aback.  “I was like, ‘Jim, these storyboards look just like Billy Idol!’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, he was my first pick.'”  A punk rocker, playing the T-1000?  Sounds like a move they’d pull in Terminator 5.  But this is Jim Cameron we’re talking about.  An artist, not a businessman like Michael Bay or a Yes-Man like McG. Cameron held off untill everything was right for Terminator 2, he saw something in Idol.  And you know, skimming through some old pictures of Idol, and knowing how the mind of Cameron works, it doesn’t take long to see it – there is something in Idol’s demeanour that suggests Cameron could’ve put him to effective use.

 Ironic fate though, would intervene in February, 1990. Idol would take his Harley Davidson out and almost immediately crash it into an unsuspecting woman in Los Angeles, California.  Not weaing a helmet, Idol suffered serious injuries including a leg broken in two places and a broken arm.  After being operated on for several hours, Idol survived the accident only to face rehabilitation and, as it happens, criminal proceedings for running a stop sign.  His chance at being cast had ended.  Some time after that, when casting for Terminator 2 began in earnest, little known actor Robert Patrick ignored advice to be himself during auditions and decided to go in staring sociopathetic holes right through everyone in the room.  It was a move that made his career, he got the job as one of the most iconic villains of all time.