Terminator 2: Judgment Day has aged like a fine wine and will undoubtedly go down in history as one of Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Cameron’s best movies. It was a smash hit on its 1991 release, with its groundbreaking CGI special effects heralding the modern era of filmmaking. Since then, it’s been reissued in many different formats and cuts, most notably a remastered 3D version supervised by Cameron that reached theaters in 2017.
You’d think after all those commentaries, making ofs and retrospectives, there’d be nothing new to learn about the movie. Not so, though, as during last week’s Kindergarten Cop virtual reunion, Arnie recounted what happened when his daughter visited him on set.
As you’d expect, most of these visits were a whole bunch of fun given Schwarzenegger’s co-stars and the grandiose props and costumes that mark his films. But the Terminator 2 one didn’t quite go to plan. You see, the actor’s daughter Katherine arrived while they were filming a scene where his T-800 has a damaged face, as he explained:
“Maria would come out to the set when we were in the middle of shooting Terminator 2. And so [Katherine] saw me when half of the face was gone and the eye was lighting up and all that. All this kind of weird makeup, so she started screaming and crying on the set because she didn’t understand why daddy looked like that.”
To be fair to Katherine Schwarzenegger, she would have been about a year old during Terminator 2‘s filming, so it’s understandable that she’d be distressed at finding out her beloved dad seems to be a murderous robot encased in a bloody flesh wrapper.
Schwarzenegger joked that after this he “never, ever thought” that Katherine would marry an actor, only for her to tie the knot with Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World star Chris Pratt, who he described as a “wonderful husband to her and such a great son-in-law.”
Right now, the Terminator franchise is on ice after Dark Fate unexpectedly flopped at the box office. Still, there are rumors that James Cameron may regain the rights and a full reboot could come at some point. He’s going to be busy with Avatar sequels for years yet, though, so if this does happen, don’t expect him to be in the director’s seat. Meanwhile, Schwarzenegger is recovering fast from his recent heart operation and has a couple of projects in the pipeline, including an intriguing new TV project with Scorpion creator Nick Santora.
