Matt Smith recalls his bewilderment filming scenes for Terminator Genisys with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Released in 2015, the fifth installment in the Terminator franchise was directed by Alan Taylor, with Schwarzenegger reprising role as the iconic T-800. The film earned mostly negative reviews from critics but was a box office success. In addition to Emilia Clarke, Jason Clarke, and Jai Courtney, the Terminator Genisys cast also includes Smith as an advanced T-5000 Terminator named Alex, who is essentially the embodiment of Skynet.

In a recent video for Variety in which he is tasked with identifying lines from various projects in his filmography, Smith recalls his time as a T-5000 in Terminator Genisys.

Smith, amused, recalls a somewhat confusing experience making that movie, which involved Schwarzenegger wearing green spandex pants. Check out Smith’s full comment at 8:10 in the video above or read it below:

“My rather brief time in that world. It was quite strange, you know, when I’m filming. Like my first day was with Arnold Schwarzenegger and he was in just, like, a top half and green spandex, like green screen trousers. I was like, ‘What the f–k is going on, man?’ I’m playing a computer who… It was quite bizarre.”

Terminator Genisys’s Reception Explained

Did Genisys Kill Interest In The Franchise?

James Cameron’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day is widely considered one of the best sequels ever made, but the franchise has arguably only gone downhill since this seminal 1991 movie. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machine was a noticeable step down and neither Terminator Salvation nor Genisys were well-received. As seen in the chart below, Terminator Genisys is actually the worst-reviewed movie of the franchise on Rotten Tomatoes with a lackluster 26%.

While the 2015 film may have been a dud critically, it wasn’t a box office failure. After Terminator Salvation underwhelmed financially in 2009 with a box office gross of $371.4 million worldwide on a $200 million budget, Genisys was a marked improvement, earning $440.6 million on a $155 million budget. Despite being a commercial success, however, the film’s quality may have hurt what came next.

Terminator: Dark Fate was released in 2019, bringing back Schwarzenegger alongside other original star Linda Hamilton. Despite faring far better with both critics and audiences, the film was a major disappointment, earning only $261.1 million worldwide. Clearly, audiences were burnt out on the franchise, and it certainly seems like Terminator Genisys was a major contributor to this. For Smith, if nothing else, the movie seems to have been an interesting filming experience.

Source: Variety