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James Cameron is a well-known and highly respected filmmaker. He’s responsible for some of the most iconic movies in history, including The Terminator, Titanic, and Avatar. In a recent interview, Cameron shared some interesting thoughts about actor Linda Hamilton and her character Sarah Connor. Though many love the first movie, he didn’t feel she came into her own until its sequel.

James Cameron says Linda Hamilton and Sarah Connor ‘flourished’ in ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’

linda hamilton terminator 2
The movie “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”, (alt: T2) directed by James Cameron. Seen here, Linda Hamilton (as Sarah Connor), with a police combat shotgun. Theatrical wide release July 3, 1991. Screen capture. Paramount Pictures. | CBS via Getty Images

Speaking to GQ about the franchise, Cameron shared how he cast Hamilton in the role. “I felt strongly from her audition work that she could do both poles of the character. She could do the kind of Valley girl just going about her life kind of character, but with somehow make her interesting,” he said. “She had to not be somebody that you would just dismiss. And then she had to have the strength for the final scenes,” he added.

When it came to T2, Cameron said “a whole new version of Sarah Conner emerged. And that’s when she became, I think, kind of feminist icon, she really flourished in the role,” he said of both the character and the actor.

Linda Hamilton reflects on playing Sarah Connor.

Sarah Connor remains the role Hamilton is best known for. The actor has spoken about the character on multiple occasions, noting how pivotal she’s been to the genre. “It’s nice that I’m seen as someone who opened possibilities for women in action films, but until this film, I never thought of myself as badass,” Hamilton told Red Bull’s The Red Bulletin in 2019. 

The actor shared how the sequel was different for her. “Truthfully, it felt a lot better than the first one, because I was playing an empowered woman,” she told The New York Times. “That was so much better than playing the victim who’s terrified all the time.” Hamilton felt this spoke to who she is as a person. “I’m kind and compassionate, but I’m not really gentle,” she explained. “There’s something in me that’s incredibly fierce that I have to work against, but that fierceness works for Sarah Connor.”

Linda Hamilton and James Cameron reunited for another film

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Linda Hamilton Isn’t the Only ‘Terminator’ Star Who Didn’t Return for ‘Rise of the Machines’

Both Hamilton and Cameron left the franchise after T2. Neither participated in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Terminator Genisys, or the two-season series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. However, they both returned for 2019’s Terminator: Dark Fate.

“I didn’t want to play me as I was, I want to play me now,” Hamilton told the New York Times when she returned for the film. “It was a journey of discovering who I am today and putting that on screen.”

Cameron has said on numerous occasions that Hamilton is the reason why the franchise is as successful as it is. He has said that her performance in Terminator 2: Judgment Day was “flawless” and that she brought “a level of realism and humanity” to the character that he hadn’t seen before.

Hamilton’s performance as Sarah Connor in the Terminator franchise is considered one of the best in action cinema. Not only did she bring a level of physicality to the role that was rare for female characters at the time, but she also brought an emotional depth that helped make the first two films successful. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to save Dark Fate, and the franchise as a whole.

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