Terminator 2 is one of the best action movies ever made. Especially the villain of the film remains memorable. The actor used some clever tricks to appear as mean as possible.
Who is the actor in question? Robert Patrick plays an important role in Terminator 2 alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger. He embodies the Terminator model T-1000, which travels to the year 1994 to kill the ten-year-old boy John Connor. He faces the T-800, who suddenly becomes the hero – an idea that Schwarzenegger initially did not like.
The insidious thing about it: The T-1000 is essentially made of liquid metal and can change its shape depending on the situation. For example, it can slide through bars or crawl through holes that would be inaccessible to a normal person.
With a fixed gaze and seemingly unstoppable, it approaches its goal, showing no mercy. To appear even more intimidating, Robert Patrick trained hard. Among other things, he made a great effort to “switch off” an important function of his body.
The Transformation into the T-1000
What function is being referred to? What does a person do at least 14,000 times a day? The answer is blinking. Our human eye needs this reflex to stay adequately moist. It also uses it to protect itself from foreign bodies and to clean itself.
Blinking is something that we humans need, but a robot does not. For this reason, Robert Patrick trained to not blink during his scenes as the T-1000. His gaze was meant to be fixed and lifeless, and he should never lose sight of his target.
To do this, he trained up to four times a day. Additionally, there was weapon training, which Patrick describes as follows:
I had to work on pulling the trigger as fast as possible, keeping Arnold in sight at the end of the hallway, dropping the magazine without looking, and immediately grabbing a new magazine and reloading it, also without looking. I had to practice, practice, and practice until I got it right.
Robert Patrick via movieweb.com
Patrick also controlled his breathing: He clenched his jaw and breathed only through his nose. Nothing the T-1000 did was meant to look labored on screen.
The combination of all these elements truly creates the impression that you are dealing with a soulless killing machine.
The effort Robert Patrick put into the role paid off. Rarely has an antagonist been so frightening – which is particularly due to the terrifying precision with which the T-1000 approaches its victims. The fact that he looks like a human but does not behave like one adds to the effect. For Robert Patrick’s co-star, the film was particularly important for a specific reason: Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted to outdo his rival with Terminator 2 – but was stopped by the director
