Michael Biehn on working with James Cameron & the Avatar role he didn’t get

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

When Michael Biehn's agent told him that he should read the script for THE TERMINATOR, a sci-fi film from a director he'd never heard of with only PIRAHNA II: THE SPAWNING under his belt, the actor wasn't overly impressed. But as we know, THE TERMINATOR would go on to become one of the most influential sci-fi franchises of all-time as well as the first of several projects Michael Biehn would undertake with James Cameron.

THR has a great feature on Michael Biehn in which the actor speaks of his collaborations with James Cameron. Although he went into THE TERMINATOR knowing little about the soon-to-be superstar director, Biehn quickly grew impressed with Cameron, particularly with his work ethic and openness to collaboration. Cameron would invite Biehn and other actors to go over the dailies, but after working such long days, Biehn just couldn't keep up. "I just worked a 12-hour day, running around the streets of L.A. without my shoes on, I've fallen down a couple of times. And I'm like, 'You know what Jim, I think I'm just going to go home,'" Biehn recalled. As soon as production wrapped on THE TERMINATOR, Biehn went home to get some sleep, but he was later awoken by a call summoning him to Cameron's house where he discovered that the director was already developing a sequel to Ridley Scott's ALIEN. "This guy is a machine," Biehn thought.

Michael Biehn was keen to play the role of Corporal Hicks in ALIENS, but was disappointed when it got back to him that Cameron wanted to go in a different direction. James Remar wound up landing the role of Hicks, but several weeks into filming, he was fired due to drug addiction issues, leading Biehn to finally get the call.

Before she finished the sentence, I said, 'Hell yes!' I got that call on a Friday morning. Monday morning, I was on the set in full makeup and wardrobe.

ALIENS went on to become an even bigger hit than TERMINATOR, but after his character was unceremoniously killed off in ALIEN 3, Michael Biehn refused to watch any of the sequels. "I've never seen anything past Aliens. I've never seen Aliens, 3, 4, 5. I didn't watch Covenant. I have no interest in anything like that," Biehn said. "Any movie I'm close to or movies I wanted that I didn't get, I just don't watch them. There's no reason to put myself through the pain of 'I could have done so much better than that.'"

After ALIENS, Michael Biehn would join James Cameron for THE ABYSS, but that serves as the actor's final collaboration with the director, at least for now. However, there was a time when Biehn believed he would have a role in Cameron's biggest film, AVATAR. "For nine months, I thought I was going to be playing the part Stephen Lang played in Avatar, and I ended up not getting it," said Biehn, who recalled that Cameron phoned him to say that he'd cast Sigourney Weaver in the film and didn't want to bring the association which would come from bringing the two stars of ALIENS together. "I understood," said Biehn."I'd been disappointed too many times to be depressed for more than 24 hours." Cameron confirmed this, but said that he never had a specific part in mind for Biehn. However, with four sequels to AVATAR on the way, perhaps there's room to bring Michael Biehn back. "It’s a good idea to put him into a performance capture character in Avatar 4 or 5, I’ll have to think about that," Cameron said. "But no promises. In any case, I do look forward to working with him again."