This is a third James Cameron interview promoting The Terminator (or any magazine interview, period), in a rare magazine, Film Comment, from February 1985. And what a great, meaty interview this is.
Film Comment seems to me like one of those snob film critic mag, but they did enjoy the film like everyone else and Cameron handled himself very well. He's talking about a wide variety of things related to the movie, not mentioned anywhere else, like, for example, that the first actor he had in mind while writing the Terminator character was Jurgen Prochnow (known for Das Boot, original Dune, Beverly Hills Cop II, Judge Dredd among others). Or that the theatrical poster for the movie was the studios ideas and was designed to look sexy for female audiences (the Terminator with an open chest) to draw them in.
Cameron is clearly and rightfully very pleased and proud with the film, and underscores the fact that The Terminator was all him: "I got to conceive the idea, write the script, have a deal made, storyboard the major scenes go about creating those images in casting and sets and locations, then film it"
There's a lot he talks about and goes deep into many aspects of the story. He says the Terminator is a death figure, that's why it resembles Death in its skeletal figure. This article by the way is the first one in which the Terminator endoskeleton is actually called an endoskeleton, by Jim Cameron of course. Also, for the first time he straight up reveals that he didn't really direct Piranha II, but its producer did.
I would say this interview is obscure, but it has been quoted in numerous books and reprinted in James Cameron Interviews book. The magazine also printed a photo of Jim and Arnold Schwarzenegger on the set of Tech Noir, not seen in any other publication
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