Why Edward Furlong Didn't Return As John Connor For Terminator 3

James Cameron's 1991 action spectacular "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" felt, at the time, like the biggest movie imaginable. Cameron upgraded his low-budget 1984 original into one of the slickest, most visually innovative action movies made to date, featuring a robotic villain that could transform into a living blob of shape-shifting mercury-like metal. The villainous robot, the T-1000 (Robert Patrick), travels back in time from the future to kill the adolescent John Connor (Edward Furlong), destined to lead a resistance force against an army of machines. Yes, the future in Cameron's movies is bleak; robots will soon achieve consciousness and, almost instantly, detonate a nuclear bomb.

Luckily, John has his mentally unbalanced mother Sarah (Linda Hamilton) to look after him, as well as a "good" time-traveling Terminator robot (Arnold Schwarzenegger) reprogrammed to protect him. By the end of the film, it seems that the characters were able to close off several causality loops and seemingly stop the android war from breaking out. The 12-year-old John Connor could now grow up in peace.

Those themes were undone in Jonathan Mostow's 2003 follow-up, "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines." In that film, John was now an adult played by Nick Stahl, and the futuristic robots were still sending robotic assassins back in time to kill him. "Terminator 3" also saw the return of Schwarzenegger, while Hamilton's Sarah was killed off in-between films. Furlong, however, did not return despite being age appropriate for adult John.

In an episode of the "Inside You" interview show, Furlong talked about "Terminator 3" and admitted that he was dropped from the project because he was in the throes of a pretty intense cocaine addiction. Studio executives made him promise not to take drugs, but he ended up overdosing at a club the same night he signed his contract.

Furlong's personal struggles have been widely publicized over the years and many already know about his legal, financial, and substance abuse issues. He was targeted by a 26-year-old woman when he was only 16 and coerced into a years-long sexual relationship. The same woman sued Furlong for his earnings on several movies, leaving the actor broke. He notoriously drank too much and became addicted to cocaine and heroin, first entering rehab in 2000 at the age of 23. Through all of this, luckily, he continued to work, appearing in films liked "Before and After," John Waters' "Pecker," the acclaimed "American History X," and the rock comedy "Detroit Rock City." 

For "Terminator 3," though, Furlong knew he was being presented with a plum gig. A sequel to one of the biggest movies of all time? He was thrilled. He admitted, however, that he was a little too eager to celebrate and talked frankly about how signing the contract to "Terminator 3" led almost directly to one of his low points:

"The big one: when I lost 'Terminator 3.' Oh my God, dude. So much drugs in my life. That was the contract: They were like, 'We want you to not do any drugs.' Whatever, just sign a clause in the contract, no drugs. And it was a sweet deal. It was the best deal that I had ever gotten in my life. For 'T3,' it was like a lot of money, like millions. And I had never made that kind of money, so I called my friends and I'm like, 'Guys, I just signed this f***ing awesome contract, we're going to go to the club, we're going to get a bunch of blow, and we're going to ... that's it."

The celebration didn't go well.

Furlong admitted that it wasn't a pretty scene, adding that, when the lights went on, he realized he had taken too much. He continued:

"We made a whole thing, we went out to this club called Joseph's. I remember I poured some coke on the toilet, but too much fell out of the bag, and I was like, 'F***.' I didn't know what to do with it, so I was like, 'F*** it,' and I carved this huge f***ing horse rail and I just did it. And I remember walking out, and I'm like talking to this chick, and then all of a sudden I wake up and the lights in the club are on. People are standing around me, my buddy's crying, he's holding me."

It seems that Furlong had ingested so much cocaine, he passed out on the floor of the club and remained there for a long while. His friends called an ambulance. He had no memory of collapsing. His friends explained to him that he had had a seizure from a cocaine overdose. Furlong admitted to being merely embarrassed that he was taken to the hospital. Needless to say, he lost the "Terminator 3" gig. As he recalled:

"The news caught wind. And, of course, [the studio was] like, 'Yeah, you know, you lost the movie. We're not going to do it with you.' That was it. And I was like, 'I'm so sorry, oh my God,' but it didn't matter. I had just signed a contract saying that. [...] That was the worst luck or maybe the best luck ... I was already on a downward trajectory in a lot of ways, so maybe if I had had that it would've been worse." 

Furlong, as of this writing, has been sober six years.