When Linda Hamilton agreed to return to the Terminator series for Terminator: Dark Fate as Sarah Connor she adopted quite the intense fitness and nutrition regime to get into killer shape.
However, it seems the star got too lean for the role, as she was forced to wear a fake butt during filming!
While appearing on Lorraine Kelly’s morning show, the 63-year-old revealed, “I had to work pretty hard [to get fit]. I’d gotten a bit chunky. So there were no carbs in my life for a year.
“I got so lean, when I arrived [on the Terminator: Dark Fate set] they had to build me a butt. I was like I don’t understand. … They added bottom, something you don’t ever see coming in your life.”
So, she legit worked her butt off.
“Time off was military training, Spanish lessons, scuba, we had to do it all. There was never a moment we weren’t learning something or acting,” she said of the busy schedule.
She jokingly added that she would fake her own death so she wouldn’t have to do another Terminator film, as they’re so grueling, “I’ve been threatening to fake my own death so I wouldn’t have to do the next one if there is one. It really was hard, it was the hardest and the greatest I’ve ever done.”
Co-star Mackenzie Davis agreed, “It was so hard making this god damn movie.”
Hamilton appeared on The Graham Norton Show and added, “I leaned out, worked for a year. Didn’t have carbohydrates for a year, then I show up on set and they were like ‘well we have to build you a butt’ – which is interesting after a year of working out and leaning down they had to actually add ass.”
While getting in shape, Hamilton was given hormones to try and add extra muscle mass, but it didn’t go as planned.
Speaking with CinemaBlend, the actress said, “In real time it’s 27 years later, and Sarah Connor is 27 years older… I worked out like a dog for a year hoping that I’d get the same results, but that does not happen without hormones.
“We actually put me on hormones for a little bit to try to get like five percent more muscle mass. And then I turned into like an angry man. My blood pressure was spiking, and if somebody pissed me off, I’d be like, ‘I don’t know why I’m so angry!'”
She decided to stop using them following a chat with her doctor and deciding that while the physical appearance of the character was important, so was the ability to actually be inside Sarah Connor’s mind for the performance.
Early reviews of the film compare it to Star Wars’ The Force Awakens, with some saying it’s the best film in the franchise since Terminator 2: Judgement Day.
Terminator: Dark Fate hits Aussie cinemas on October 31.