Following the lukewarm Terminator III: Rise of the Machines, audiences were kind of done with the Terminator franchise. However, when Christian Bale — the man well-known for his pickiness in choosing his roles — signed on, it seemed like an indication that there was something there to be excited about.

There was even more excitement when those first trailers dropped. It looked like we’d be getting a dark, grim, futuristic film with some real heft to it. Unfortunately, while that was definitely what they were going for, what we ended up with was a bleak, boring, and messy ride. It marked a rare miss for Bale, and is pretty much looked at as one of the weakest entries in the franchise.

Speaking with The Playlist, Bale reflected on his reasoning behind taking the role in the first place:

“I said no three times. I thought that the franchise…I went ‘Nah, there’s no story there.’ I’d seen the first one and enjoyed that back in England, I’d been to the movies and seen the second one.

“It was an unfortunate series of events involving the writers’ strike, involving Jonah Nolan, who was able to come on, and really start to write a wonderful script, but then got called away for a prior commitment that he had. And it’s a great thorn in my side, because I wish we could have reinvigorated [the franchise]. And unfortunately, during production, you could tell that wasn’t happening. It’s a great shame.

“There’s a perverse side to me, where people were telling me that, there’s no way on God’s Earth that I should take that role, and I was thinking the same thing. But when people started verbalizing that to me, I started to go, ‘Oh really? All right, well watch this then.’ So there was a little bit of that involved in the choice.”

But of course, Terminator Salvation wasn’t only memorable for its mediocrity. It was also well-known for the outburst it brought from Bale. If you’ve somehow missed that recording, check it out below:

In addition to him being a complete ass to one of the crew members, it was also a bit surprising because of how bad the movie ended up being. Bale also commented on that event, and clarified why he was particularly short on set that day.

“That was a very unusual occasion. Great learning lesson for me. Do you remember that scene with Linda Hamilton where she’s really going nuts in Terminator 2? We said, we’ve got to channel that at some point in the film, and that was the scene in which we were channeling it. Great lesson for me of, no matter how much you lose yourself in a scene, you do not allow yourself to behave that way. And yeah, of course I’ve got enormous regrets about it…”

What do you think of Bale’s comments? Do you think Terminator Salvation had the potential to reinvigorate the franchise, and do you think his outburst was justified? Let us know down below!

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SOURCE: The Playlist