Linda Hamilton has revealed she ignored calls from her ex-husband James Cameron about starring in the new Terminator film.
Hamilton, who reprises her role as Sarah Connor in Terminator: Dark Fate following a 28-year gap since her last appearance in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, said she no longer speaks to Cameron, who she was briefly married to in the late 1990s.
Asked how she was persuaded to appear in the film by her former partner, Hamilton told The Graham Norton Show: “We don’t talk at all.
“He rang three times and it was only on the third call when he mentioned it was about work that I rang him back!”
She added: “It took me a little while to decide if I had something more to do with her character.”
Hamilton, 63, revealed that she also needed convincing to appear in the first film in the franchise, The Terminator, in 1984 alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger.
“I didn’t want to do it at all,” she said.
“I was a snotty New York actress and I didn’t want to go to California. It was only when I saw Arnie on set and he was fantastic, that I thought, ‘I’m in’.”
Appearing alongside her on the programme, Schwarzenegger, 72, said: “You didn’t want to work with me? That’s the first time I’ve heard that story.”
Hamilton and Terminator creator Cameron were in a relationship from 1991 and married in 1997 before splitting a short while later and divorcing in 1999. They have daughter Josephine together.
Cameron, who directed the first two films The Terminator and Judgment Day, is back for Dark Fate as producer, having had no involvement in the other films in the franchise Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines (2003), Terminator Salvation (2009) and Terminator: Genisys (2015).
Hamilton returns in her action hero guise in the new film, recruiting Schwarzenegger’s ageing Terminator, her former nemesis, to help a young woman being pursued by a threatening new breed of Terminator.
Dark Fate is billed as a direct sequel to Terminator 2, with the other three films having occurred in alternate timelines.
Of seeing his co-star back in action as Sarah Connor, Schwarzenegger said: “Linda set the bar high for all female action roles. She really is a bad ass!”
They were joined on the programme by Blondie’s Debbie Harry, former Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain, DJ Spoony and the Sugababes.
The Graham Norton Show is on BBC One on Friday at 10.35pm.