Arnold Schwarzenegger Fought James Cameron Over Saying ‘I’ll Be Back,’ Says Director Told Him: ‘Don’t Tell Me How to F—ing Write’

variety.com:

Zack Sharf Digital News Director It turns out The Terminator is no match for James Cameron. In Arnold Schwarzenegger’s new Netflix documentary “Arnold,” the actor and Cameron remembered clashing over the iconic “I’ll be back” line from 1984’s “The Terminator” (via Insider). “Sometime in the middle of the shoot, we’re doing this police station scene.

The line is, ‘I’ll come back.’ It wasn’t meant to be like a big moment at all,” said Cameron, who co-wrote “The Terminator” with Gale Anne Hurd. “It was literally meant to be, on its face, ‘No problem, I’ll come back.’ For some reason, Arnold didn’t say, ‘I’ll come back.’ I said, ‘Well, just say “I’ll be back.” Keep it simple.'” Schwarzenegger admits in the documentary that he thought “I’ll be back” sounded “funny” because he was playing a cyborg and thought “I will be back” sounded more “machine-like” and appropriate.

When Schwarzenegger made the suggestion, Cameron fired back. “And he says, ‘Are you the writer?'” Schwarzenegger said. “And I said, ‘No,’ and he said, ‘Well, don’t tell me how to fucking write.'” Cameron won the clash, and Schwarzenegger’s “I’ll be back” line went on to become the definitive moment of the “The Terminator” franchise and one of the most famous lines of movie dialogue in history.

Schwarzenegger now admits that Cameron was “absolutely right,” adding, “It became the most quoted movie line, I think, in the history of motion pictures.