Denzel Washington was offered the high profile role of Skynet creator Miles Dyson in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, but opted to turn it down. When it comes to iconic Hollywood actors of the last several decades, few are in the same league as Washington. While no actor gets through a whole career without having a few clunkers on their resume, Washington has shown a knack for mostly picking worthwhile projects to work on, and characters that allow him to flex his considerable abilities.
To date, Washington has won two Oscars for his acting, the first in 1989 for the Civil War drama Glory, and the second in 2001 for the crime thriller Training Day. In addition to those wins, Washington has been nominated for acting Oscars six more times. He’s also directed the films Antwone Fisher, The Great Debaters, and Fences, the last of which earned a nomination for Best Picture, as well as a nomination for his leading onscreen role opposite fellow Oscar winner Viola Davis.
Back when Terminator 2 was being put together though, Washington, while already a rising star, wasn’t yet the A-list powerhouse he is today. With that in mind, one might wonder why he decided not to take part in what would become the biggest hit of 1991.
Why Denzel Washington Turned Down a Role in Terminator 2
According to longstanding reports, Denzel Washington was offered the role of Miles Bennett Dyson, the man most personally responsible for Skynet’s creation, in Terminator 2. As played in the film by Joe Morton, Dyson became a popular supporting character, and is in many ways the most selfless person in the story. Not only is Dyson told that his life’s work will doom humanity instead of helping it, but that he now has to destroy it. Washington has played many sympathetic characters, and it’s easy to imagine him in the part.
Yet, when asked about why he passed, Washington has been quoted as saying “No offense to Jim Cameron, but when I read the script, I thought: All he does is look scared and sweat. I had to pass.” It’s unclear what the original source of that quote is, but it has been reproduced multiple times, and Washington has never denied its veracity. While Dyson does indeed do a lot of both looking scared and sweating in Terminator 2, Washington is either exaggerating for hyperbole’s sake, or he didn’t entirely understand the purpose of the character in the story. Morton managed to make Miles Dyson a franchise favorite, and Washington could’ve certainly done the same if he had been willing to try. Still, things ended up great for him either way, and Morton got his signature role out of the deal.
