This Terminator Actor Isn’t Interested in Ever Returning for a Cameo

Although Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton are making a return to the Terminator franchise with Terminator: Dark Fate this year, the star of the original film has no interest in appearing in any of the sequels. The original film from 1984 featured Michael Biehn as Kyle Reese, a time traveling protector of Sarah Connor. Despite Dark Fate seemingly ignoring the more recent sequels in favor of picking up where T2 left off, Biehn has zero interest in reprising his role.

“There is no way I was going to come in and do a cameo on any Terminator movie,” Biehn told THR. “I find it ridiculous.”

Biehn, back in the 1980s, was taking himself and his career very seriously. At the time he offered a chiseled face and body for the camera, ultimately helping him land the role of Kyle Reese. Initially, he was against the idea of starring in a film opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger as he was more interested in working with the likes or Robert DeNiro or Al Pacino. It was his agent’s suggestion which lead to the work with now-legendary filmmaker James Cameron.

“To me, [Biehn] was the quintessential man, expressing the male values I admire — strength, honesty, a sense of duty, conviction,” Cameron wrote in an email from the New Zealand set of his upcoming Avatar sequels. “He wasn’t too glib — his charisma didn’t come from that too-cool-for-school wit or sarcasm like a lot of young actors — he wore his heart on his sleeve.”

The love story angle was what helped convince Biehn to take on the role in Terminator. “If that doesn’t work, you’re never going to buy the entire premise,” says The Terminator producer Gale Anne Hurd, now known for her work with The Walking Dead. “You have to believe when he says, ‘Sarah, I love you. I crossed time for you.’ Otherwise people would have left the theaters.”

As it turns out, there might not have been much acting involved when Biehn confessed his feeling to Sarah Connor. “I fell in love with her when I made the movie,” Beihn said. I was married. She was married. It wasn’t like we hooked up or anything. But she is just lovely and funny. She was beautiful, and sexy.”

Hamilton expressed a similar sentiment. “I loved him and I don’t know a soul who doesn’t. He was my world,” the actress said.

Still, Biehn has no interest in coming back to the franchise more than three decades later. It’s fitting, considering his character passed away in the first movie, but would have been a welcome nod to the original for many fans.

Terminator: Dark Fate is set for release on November 1, 2019.