In cinematic history, there are a few characters and dialogues that have stood the test of time. One of those is Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s The Terminator and his catchphrases. While the world will always remember him as the relentless cyborg assassin, there were a lot of clashes between the 7-time Mr. Olympia winner and the director of the action franchise, James Cameron. The dispute was over one of the film’s star’s iconic lines that are still being repeated to this day.

Although the dialogue has become a cornerstone of the Terminator’s legacy, Schwarzenegger revealed that it caused a major dispute between him and the visionary director.

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s clash with James Cameron

Although Arnold Schwarzenegger will go down in history for his iconic one-liners, there is one that beats them all. It is his “I’ll be back” dialogue from The Terminator. While the world may have loved the line, the 76-year-old apparently did not. Recently on Jimmy Kimmel Live, the actor revealed that he and Cameron had gotten into a dispute over the line. He said that he “didn’t really feel comfortable” with using contractions.

After trying to convince the director that “I will be back” was equally as good, he finally had to give in once Cameron put the actor in his place by asking him, “Arnold, are you the f**king writer here?” Even though Schwarzenegger may have had a point, given that robots are sticklers for perfect grammar, fans still went berserk over the dialogue. So much so that it is still being used today. However, the film ended up losing an iconic scene.

Thankfully, there were no more on-set clashes between Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Cameron. However, no one who worked on the film expected the one-liner to become embedded in cinematic history.

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s surprise at the popularity of his Terminator catchphrase

In the same interview with Jimmy Kimmel, Arnold Schwarzenegger revealed that The Terminator team “did not know this was going to be such a famous line until the movie came out.” The 76-year-old even opened up about an incident that made him understand just how much the viewers and fans had loved his “I’ll be back.” The FUBAR star recalled a time when he bumped into a fan at Central Park and had to repeat his one-liner.

After a few failed attempts, the fan asked him to do it “the way” he said it in the movie. This time Arnold Schwarzenegger said that he aced it. In fact, the line is so loved that it has continually made its way back into the franchise, even if it was not uttered by the man himself.

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