Back in 2009 the Terminator franchise saw its fourth entry released, but for the first time without Arnold Schwarzenegger in the starring role.
While the then Governor of California had a cameo of sorts at the film’s conclusion, it was Bale who starred as John Connor in this post-apocalyptic story, which is actually set this year.
Following a poor box office taking and bad reviews, not to mention a viral recording of Bale’s on-set rant at the Director of Photography, the planned sequel was cancelled.
Now the star has spoken out on his regrets surrounding Terminator Salvation, from initially saying no to the project, to failing to prove people wrong that he could make the film a success.
Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused Podcast, Bale said: “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 and then got called away for a prior commitment that he had.
“It’s a great thorn in my side, because I wish we could have reinvigorated that, and unfortunately during production you could tell that wasn’t happening. It’s a great shame.
Bale added: “There’s also a perverse side to me where, people were telling me 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 verbalising 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, too.”