At this point, most people know who Arnold Schwarzenegger is. But James Cameron wasn’t convinced that a tribe in the Amazon would be among his fans.
During a talk on stage at the Academy Museum David Geffen Theater in Los Angeles on Wednesday, the star recalled a conversation she had with her boyfriend. Terminator the director during a trip to the Amazon years ago.
In a conversation to promote the limited edition TASCHEN photobook, Schwarzenegger explained how “a very good friend of mine” Cameron joined him in 2011 for an international conference focused on the environment in Brazil with Indigenous leaders and environmental experts. Schwarzenegger shared that the couple reached the Amazon by seaplane.
“As he approached this tribe he knew on the Amazon, [Cameron] “I just want you to know that don’t hurt your ego because they, nobody will know who you are, I can promise you.” I said, ‘Thanks for warning me, but trust me, it won’t hurt my ego, don’t worry.
But after landing, Schwarzenegger explained that Cameron’s expectations were far away.
“In a minute, people would say, ‘Arnold, Arnold, Arnold, Arnold!’ Then they took me to a cabin and there was my poster in that cabin,” he said. “As I was looking at this poster, this huge snake fell from the tree and nearly killed us. So, a monster snake just fell and a wild board was running and all these animals were there.”
“It was crazy. But Jim Cameron was crazy. He says, ‘I think I was wrong for the first time in my life.’ You know, Jim has a big ego but either way it was really funny.”
Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images
Still, Schwarzenegger gave him credit for the tribe that recognized him when Cameron got off the plane.
“It was some of his movies that they saw and I was in his movies, but nobody expected them because there was no TV there,” he said. “So we don’t really know how they got their information and how they watched these movies or anything like that. So I was very happy to be recognized around the world.”
Of course, Schwarzenegger and Cameron’s creative relationship dates back to 1984. Terminatorand even stretch real lies ten years later.
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Speaking in An Evening with Arnold Schwarzenegger, the actor said that the future of artificial intelligence that Cameron predicted in movies “has come true”, and praised the writer and director of the series as well as their first films together.
“Everyone today is afraid of that, of where this is going,” Schwarzenegger said of the current concerns about artificial intelligence. “And in this movie, terminator, We’re talking about machines becoming self-aware and taking control.”
Celebrating the “brilliance of writing” in the 1984 science fiction movie, the former governor of California said, “We had scratched the surface of artificial intelligence, artificial intelligence back then.”
“Now, over the decades, it has become a reality. So it’s no longer fantasy or futuristic. It’s here today. And this is Jim Cameron’s outstanding writing,” Schwarzenegger continued.