Terminator star Linda Hamilton says ex-husband James Cameron "really fell in love with Sarah Connor"
By saying “Everywhere he’s convex, I’m concave,” Linda Hamilton has coined a top-notch phrase to describe any and all mismatched relationships. In her case, she details her own with director James Cameron in a recent The New York Times profile of the actress. In the piece, she acknowledges their relationship was a mystery to everyone—including both of them.
The pair met when they started filming the first Terminator movie in 1984 but began dating in 1991 after filming Terminator 2: Judgement Day. They wedded in 1997 but…terminated…their marriage two years later. Interestingly, Hamilton said that what brought them together wasn’t love, exactly, but her character, Sarah Connor. “I think what happened there is that he really fell in love with Sarah Connor, and I did, too,” she said. When asked for comment, Cameron agreed with this assessment. He told the Times, “I fell in love with her initially because I thought she was a little closer to Sarah than she actually is, but that doesn’t mean that much once you get to know somebody.” You know, the usual swoon-worthy stuff.
However, Hamilton also added in the interview that, though she was glad to be out of a relationship that required so much work, the split left her devastated for years. “When I broke up with Jim, I was completely devastated for years,” Hamilton said. “But I’m so glad to be free of that. I would never, ever put that much energy again into something that is not working.” She even took a step back from acting, appearing only in a handful of films and television shows like Chuck and Defiance.
Now, she returns to the franchise to reprise Sarah Connor for the first time in 18 years with Terminator: Dark Fate. Cameron produces the picture with Tim Miller in the director’s chair for the film, which releases on November 1. It also stars Mackenzie Davis, Natalia Reyes, Gabriel Luna, Diego Boneta, with Arnold Schwarzenegger returning to play a now-aging Terminator.