James Cameron Had To Threaten Studio Execs In Order To Cast Tom Arnold In True Lies

Tom Arnold was a showbiz joke in the early 1990s.

The unknown actor suddenly became a gossip mag regular in 1990 as Roseanne Barr's publicity-hungry husband. When she brought Arnold in as a writer on her hugely popular sitcom, there was a sense of coattail-riding. When she cast him on the show, and, two years later, convinced ABC to give him his own sitcom, this sense curdled for some into fact. And when several prominent TV critics shredded the series, Barr created a PR crisis by firing off nasty faxes to the naysayers (including a homophobia-tinged screed to USA Today's Matt Roush that brought her bigotry to the fore decades prior to her Trump-era meltdown). It was all terribly ugly. Barr had more than enough Nielsen ratings juice to weather this storm, but Arnold's fame seemed to be nearing its fifteenth minute.

For those who didn't care about the media maelstrom, all that mattered was Arnold's ability — and though he was an awkward fit early on during his "Roseanne" run, he eventually found an agreeably goofy groove. He belonged. He poured this confidence into "The Jackie Thomas Show," which could've turned into a very good sitcom under less stressful circumstances.

Alas, Hollywood cared deeply about the controversy, which portended an ill outcome for Arnold's nascent career. And this is when one of the most powerful directors in Hollywood saved his showbiz life.

James Cameron was in shot-calling mode after the blockbuster success of "Terminator 2: Judgment Day." He'd made a transformative action film that ushered in a new technological era of filmmaking, and every studio on the planet wanted his next movie. This, amazingly, included 20th Century Fox, which took a box-office bath on "The Abyss." That film was a gamble without an A-list star. His new project, "True Lies," was an action extravaganza starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Cameron was getting his way no matter what unless he did something crazy and cast a PR nightmare like Tom Arnold in the third lead.

Much to Fox's consternation, he was dead set on Arnold for the part of Schwarzenegger's comedic sidekick. During an appearance on the "James Cameron: An Oral History" podcast, Arnold revealed that this decision did not go over well with the suits. "He went in there and said 'We found the third guy after Arnold and Jamie Lee' ...  And he said, 'It's Tom Arnold.' And they're like, 'That's horrible news!'"

Fox countered that Arnold was a tabloid distraction (and probably on the way out given his pending divorce with Barr). According to Arnold, "Jim said, 'No, I don't read the tabloids. But I wrote this and he is the guy.'"

Cameron ended the dispute rather emphatically when he threatened to take "True Lies" across town to Paramount. Fox quickly relented, and Arnold rewarded his director with a hilariously ingratiating performance that turned him into a highly-sought-after character actor. Arnold is still an incorrigible self-promoter 30 years later, but the general consensus nowadays is that we're happy to have him around.