Linda Hamilton Once Thought Her Career Was Ruined After Starring in ‘Children of the Corn’

Many know actor Linda Hamilton from the popular Terminator franchise. But before her stint as Sarah O’ Conner, the actor once starred in the classic horror film Children of the Corn.

But Hamilton didn’t expect she’d have much of a career after the movie.

Linda Hamilton starred in the 1984 horror movie ‘Children of the Corn’

1984 was a big year for actor Hamilton. Although she made her presence in Hollywood known in Terminator, she also starred in another horror classic. Children of the Corn was based on a book by popular horror novelist Stephen King. The story focused on a couple that found themselves in a town populated by children. They would later find themselves fighting for their lives when realizing the children have malicious intentions.

Corn might not have enjoyed the same kind of critical and commercial success as Terminator. Still, however, Hamilton credited the movie for teaching her a lot about the film industry.

“It was a good time. It really was a good time,” Hamilton once said on the It Was The Eighties! documentary (via Michael Felsher). “I mean, I just remember that, I think maybe when you’re a younger actress of course everything has such a greater impact. But I had a great time also sort of defining myself as a working actress. You know, what questions do you put to the producers? What battles do you fight? Which ones do you actually save for a different day?”

Linda Hamilton thought her career was over after ‘Children of the Corn’

The longer Hamilton shot Children of the Corn, the less faith she had in the project. For one, she disagreed with some of the producer’s choices in the film. So much so one scene even offended her after her character made a questionable decision.

“I remember, and I’ve just never forgotten, facing this producer towards the end. Because they added the scene where we get back into the car after all that has come down. And I was so offended. I said, ‘Why? Why would these people ever get back in that car?’ It’s a legitimate question,” she said. “And I said, y’know, after all that’s gone down, ‘We will look really stupid.’ And he said, ‘Well, we want the audience to think you’re stupid.’”

Budget cuts lowered Hamilton’s faith even more in the film. Corn eventually began to look much different from the script that Hamilton initially read. Soon, she dreaded what the movie could mean for her future as an actor.

“Oh, my word. I thought that one was going to end my career, and my career had barely begun,” Hamilton once told Smashing Interviews. “I would show up and say, ‘Wait a minute. Isn’t the corn supposed to be black in this scene?’ They’re like, ‘Oh, yeah. We ditched that. We couldn’t afford it.’ Every special effect that would’ve made the movie cool, they’d go, ‘Oh, no. We couldn’t afford that.’ I really felt sick inside. I really thought, ‘Oh, my God. This is just going to end my career.’ But I survived that one.”

‘Children of the Corn’ still haunted Linda Hamilton’s past

Hamilton had starred in many films that she didn’t quite consider quality. Films like King Kong Lives and Mr. Destiny weren’t the two proudest movies in her resume. But she still asserted that she even looked back at those films more fondly than she did Corn.

“Nothing has beaten Stephen King’s Children of the Corn yet which still haunts my past as the worst film I’ve made. Can you believe they’re making a sequel? They didn’t dare ask me to reprise that role,” she quipped to Starburst (via Terminator Files).