OJ Simpson was 'nearly cast' as The Terminator but producers didn’t think he could be sold as a ‘killing machine’

OJ Simpson was nearly cast as The Terminator, however, producers didn’t think the audience would buy him as a ‘killing machine’.

Arnold Schwarzenegger has revealed in his new docuseries Arnold that the former NFL player was almost cast in the iconic titular role.

In the docuseries, Schwarzenegger is joined by The Terminator director James Cameron, who both recall how the film came to fruition.

Cameron said that Mike Medavoy, the cofounder of Orion Pictures, which distributed the film, initially wanted to have Simpson as The Terminator and Schwarzenegger as Kyle Reese, the Resistance soldier from Tech-Com.

Kathy Hutchins/ZUMA Press/Alamy

"I had been told by Mike Medavoy that the movie was all cast. 'I got this all worked out. OJ Simpson and Arnold Schwarzenegger,'" Cameron said.

"I said, 'Well, which is which?' Those two names just sounded so wrong to me."

However, Cameron noticed that the former bodybuilder instantly looked like a movie star on screen.

"I'm just sitting there watching him. It's like when the sound goes down, and I'm just seeing how the lights kicking off the glass windows is hitting his face when the door opens," he shared.

"I mean, I'm thinking, 'He's got a hell of a face'."

Schwarzenegger added that no one at the studio believed Simpson could be believable as a robot sent back in time to kill someone.

Orion Pictures

"During our conversation, it became clear no one was hooked to OJ Simpson playing Terminator because he could not be sold as a killing machine," he said.

Almost a decade later, Simpson would face the highly publicized 11-month trial for the killing of his wife, Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman.

The case attracted global attention, with around 150 million people watching it unfold.

In 1995, Simpson was controversially found not guilty of the murders.

However, a civil trial began the following year, and Simpson was found responsible for the deaths of Simpson and Goldman.

Their families were awarded $33.5 million ( £26.9m) in damages.

However, Simpson has always maintained his innocence.

He’s even gone so far as to say that he still has 'trouble' with Los Angeles as he fears he'll encounter his ex-wife and Goldman’s real killer there.

Not to mention, he also released a book in 2017 titled If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer, where Simpsons puts forth ‘hypothetical’ descriptions of the killings.