Quotes

You can't think about how people will perceive you or your character. All you can do is focus on your work. The rest is up to the universe.

I've been acting for 16 years. I've done 55 movies and, in all seriousness, there's maybe five that are good and the rest are crap.

[on his preparations when he was cast as the T-1000] My intention was just to be a good adversary for Arnold to match. To match and be superior in character that you would believe that I could get the upper hand on him or else the whole movie wouldn't work. I obviously had a great deal of faith in Jim Cameron and Stan Winston and everyone involved, so that was where my commitment was, to really pull this off. I didn't want to let him down or let anybody down but I had hoped it would be this memorable, I had an inclination it would, but I don't think I realized what an impact it would have, and how it would change my life.

[on Wushu - the martial art training he studied for preparing the role of the T-1000] Everyday, I had to show up and convince myself that I literally was this guy (T-1000) and that's not easy to do. There are many distractions. I really consider the whole T2 experience sort of like a boot camp, military type of an experience that I endured and sort of graduated from if that makes any sense to you.

[on his favorite character] He's (T-1000) one of the ones that I'm the most proud of, but I can't say that he's my favorite. But he's one of my close top favorites. I've done some roles since that I'm really proud of. I was proud of what I did in Cop Land (1997). I really liked what I did in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991); there have just been a lot of characters since that I've done that I've really enjoyed. I REALLY enjoyed John Doggett. He was definitely a role that I very much enjoyed. He might be my favorite. Yeah, Doggett might be my favorite, actually. But I really liked the character I played in Cop Land (1997), a little movie I did called The Only Thrill (1997) with Sam Shepard, Diane Keaton and Diane Lane, and another movie, a very obscure little independent movie called A Texas Funeral (1999) with Martin Sheen.

[on his role in Fire in the Sky (1993)] I am this guy. This is the closest to the real me than I've ever seen. I grew up with these kinds of guys.

I wouldn't trade my film school - which is basically Roger Corman - for anything. That's how I got my experience in front of the camera.

I love acting, period. If I'm going to get hired as a psycho, by God I'll take the job. I am enjoying playing humans a little bit more now.

I think every experience you have working with people you admire and respect really enriches you as an artist. I'm the kind of actor that talks to myself in a weird way to find whoever it is I'm looking for.

If acting hadn't worked out? I never really gave that a lot of thought. Acting HAD to work out. I never gave myself another option. I had no choice.

I think 90% of acting is makeup and wardrobe. The other 10% is what I do here in my office, bouncing off the walls.

[on success] Acting is the only thing I have to offer so a day doesn't go by when I don't stop and appreciate this.

I looked to animal and insect imagery to develop the lack of substance and wasted motion that my Terminator has. I tried to tap into the killer instinct inherent in animals, where they are locked onto a target and will walk through anything that gets between them and their intended target.

[The T-1000] is what broke me out big to the world, and I kind of carry it with me everywhere I go, for good or bad.

[2012, on The Sopranos (1999)] That was a very, very daunting experience, to fly into New York and get in there and work with those guys. My acting coach and I worked our butts off getting in there, so I felt good about what I was doing, and it definitely paid off. Everybody in Hollywood watched The Sopranos (1999), so it was good for me to be seen on that show and show what I could do. [James] Gandolfini is one of the greatest actors I've ever worked with. Edie Falco, tremendous. A great experience.

[2012, on Lost (2004)] First time I'd ever been to Hawaii in my life. I flew in, and I remember them putting me up in a hotel. I had one scene to do. There was a missing finger, as I recall. I never watched the show, I didn't know who I was or what I was, but I committed to that part, too, and I think it worked. Hawaii was certainly great. I got to go to Pearl Harbor. They just called me up and said, "Hey, we want you to play this part; it's one scene, but you've got a nice monologue." So I said, "Sure, what the hell." And the young man that I had the scene with [Josh Holloway], a terrific guy, it turned out he was from Georgia.

[2012, on The Marine (2006)] I think it was at a point in my career when I really needed a job, and there it was. John Cena, good guy. It was a WWE film. Another archetype villain. I wanted to see what I could do within that genre. I had fun with it. I got to do some stuff with the director that he and I kind of concocted that I thought worked. It ended up being one of the most successful films that WWE ever produced. I gave it everything I could, man. That's all you can do. I committed wholeheartedly. I got to go to Australia and take the family, I remember that. And right after that, I think I went to work for David Mamet on The Unit (2006).

(On his cameo in Last Action Hero (1993)) I was doing ADR for an indie film when I got a call from Arnold. He went, "Robert, I want you to do the T-1000 cameo you did in Wayne's World (1992) for my movie". I think we even talked money, for Christ's sake. It was just, "You have to do it for me! You have to do it for me!"