Why Linda Hamilton Didn't Want To Watch Terminator: Dark Fate

Sarah Connor will take on any Terminator you throw at her, but there's one thing she can't handle.

Terminator: Dark Fate star Linda Hamilton revealed that she was extremely reluctant to watch the flick for a simple reason: she hates seeing herself onscreen (via A.V. Club). In a lengthy interview, the actress also discussed her feelings about the other films in the Terminator franchise, and whether she could be coaxed back to Hollywood to take part in a Star Wars or Marvel movie.

Hamilton said that she has seen Dark Fate one time, but only because of her affection for her co-stars and director Tim Miller. "The only reason I watched it was because I loveTim Miller, and I love my actors, and I just thought I owed it to Tim to see what we had done," she said. "Because we would yell that back all the time while we were shooting. [Miller would say], 'Linda,' — over the bullhorn — 'You're going to see this movie?' [And] I'm like, 'I'm not! You're not the boss of me! You're the boss of me right now!' It was always a will-she-or-won't-she thing."

At the end of the day, though, Hamilton was proud of the work that she and her Dark Fate castmates did, and she thought she owed it to everyone involved to check out the end result. "I want to support the people I love," she said. "They are my dream team, truly. Mackenzie [Davis], Natalia [Reyes], and Tim. It was like Tim and his three muses, you know? And forged by fire, man. We put it all in everyday."

While Hamilton isn't too keen on watching her own performances, she did admit to feeling just a touch of possessiveness of her character, which is part of the reason why Terminator: Genisys — in which Emilia Clarke portrayed Sarah Connor — is the only film in the franchise she hasn't seen.

"I saw [Terminator: Rise of the Machines], and then I saw Salvation, but I did not see [Genisys]," she said. "I always had high — well, not high hopes, but good wishes — but didn't really care for number three and four, so I skipped number five... [being possessive of Sarah Connor might have contributed] to my reluctance to see it. But, you know, I didn't feel like I needed to keep watch over the character."

To illustrate this point, Hamilton expressed her appreciation for one of the most short-lived, lamented entries in the Terminator franchise, and the only other one to feature a different actress in her signature role. "I saw the first episode of Sarah Connor Chronicles," she said. "I love Lena Headey, and I think the worst thing in the world is to try to go and repeat someone's performance or participate in the later version of some iconic performance."

Of course, the star went out of her way to clarify that she didn't think of herself as an icon, saying, "I'm putting quote marks there, because that's the word that other people use about Sarah Connor." She's in the minority in that respect, though — and while the seemingly unstoppable Terminator series might finally be dead, it's safe to say that fans would love to see her return to kick ass in some other beloved franchise.

Of course, these days, when anyone says the words "big-budget franchise," Star Wars and Marvel seem to jump immediately to mind. Hamilton, though, is somebody who values her private life — she actually lives in New Orleans, and it's probably not a coincidence that she picked a city which happens to be really freakin' far from Hollywood to make her home. Asked if she would be up for the task if Disney came calling with a role in a Star Wars or MCU flick, the actress was pretty clear that fans shouldn't hold out hope.

"I'm not really big on the huge franchises," she said. "I'd much rather do work that is risky and different and that nobody sees. I mean, I'll do theatre for seven bucks a night for the rest of my career and be very happy. You know, I just want to do the acting part. I'm just a really lazy movie star."

While it's possible that Terminator and Miller could have coaxed her back for more installments in that particular franchise, the poor box office performance of Dark Fate has made that prospect extremely unlikely — so, Hamilton's fans would do well to keep an eye out for her in the kind of smaller flicks she referred to, the kind nobody would see if Linda Hamilton weren't in them. She may not be Sarah Connor anymore, but that doesn't mean she'll be hanging it up anytime soon.

"I love acting, so that's what has to remain very clear," she said. "I hope I always get to do it."