Terminator star Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted to star in another 80s sci-fi cult movie. But the costume looked completely bizarre on him and so nothing came of it
Even the Terminator has his limits. At least that was the case for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s ambitions in the 80s. In the 1987 sci-fi cult RoboCop, he was desperate to take on the lead role of the machine warrior in uniform. It was actually a perfect gig for the star of the first Terminator film. Unfortunately, he failed because of the costume
Sci-fi costume transformed Arnold Schwarzenegger into a beefy advertising mascot
As the third season of the documentary series Movies – Those Were Our Cinema Years reveals in episode 4 on Netflix, Schwarzenegger was very interested in the RoboCop role and met with studio boss Mike Medavoy several times for negotiations. However, when designer Rob Bottin was asked to adapt the robot costume to the action star’s body, problems arose, according to producer Paul M. Sammon.
Watch the trailer for RoboCop here:
The design looked far too “exaggerated” and made Schwarzenegger look like “the Michelin Man”. The makers of the film came to the conclusion that they needed a more petite leading man for the role.
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s dream of playing RoboCop was thus shattered. Instead, Peter Weller (Dexter) took on the role of the policeman of steel and wowed viewers straight away. Schwarzenegger will have quickly forgotten the missed opportunity: After all, his cyborg performance in Terminator 2 – Day of Reckoning brought him one of the biggest successes of his career.
Arnold Schwarzenegger turned down one of the best war films of all time
Stream RoboCop on Amazon Prime Video
