Sarah Connor wears her heart on her sleeve, but Linda Hamilton wears her work on her head. The action movie icon, who first fought Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1984’s classic The Terminator and then teamed up with him in two follow-up films, sits down for an interview with The Hollywood Reporter wearing a beanie emblazoned with two words: Resident Alien.

“This is the only merch of anything I’ve ever done that I wear,” she says. “I just have to. I love this show.”

As the mother of humanity’s future savior against legions of killer robots, Sarah Connor would likely balk at General Eleanor McCallister, Hamilton’s character on the Syfy series, a hard-nosed officer who initially opposes and then later joins forces with Alan Tudyk’s titular alien. For the New Orleans-based actress, however, Hamilton sees something in McCallister that stands contradictory to the character’s tough exterior, and an opportunity to play in one of the most vibrant sandboxes she’s experienced yet.

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“When they were starting up and asked me to join, they showed me the pilot, and I was just floored,” she remembers of Resident Alien, which concluded its third season with a cliffhanger on April 3. “It was beautiful, poignant, sweet… I loved the whole tone of it. Lovely, funny, character-driven, but asking some deep and meaningful questions, and handling them all in a beautiful, light way. We need a little more of that in the world.”

While Resident Alien marks the latest television role of Hamilton’s career, it’s far from her last, as she’s next set for a recurring appearance in the final season of Netflix’s Stranger Things. With a career spanning multiple decades, and a defining role in a film series about the rise of artificial intelligence, Hamilton is uniquely positioned to remark on the industry’s arc. Below, she does just that when speaking with this writer, who has hundreds of bylines here at The Hollywood Reporter, but who, when faced with this childhood heroes, is just a kid all over again.

Thanks for taking some time to speak, and I apologize if I’m nervous. I was 7 years old when my parents made the mistake of taking me to see Terminator 2, and that’s basically why I’m here talking to you now. 

Seven is a little young. (Laughs.) But, look at you now!

Is it in the contract to wear the Resident Alien beanie?

No. I do not self-promote. I think it’s kind of embarrassing, wearing stuff. This is the only merch of anything I’ve ever done that I wear. I just have to. I love this show. I love going into Canada to shoot it. You go through immigration and they say, “Why are you here?” And I say, “Resident Alien … the show.” For being such a nice country, they’re a little tough at immigration, aren’t they?

You gave an interview recently where you said you used to watch Stranger Things, but can’t anymore now that you’re in it. Similar deal with Resident Alien, or do you watch this one still?

No, that’s right. I haven’t seen Resident Alien either. I get to read it, and I get to watch it at the table reads, but I just can’t bear looking at myself anymore. I just think … I don’t know. It’s all there. It’s done. What else is there to say? I just don’t like watching myself that much anymore.

Do you not watch your past work, either?

No, I don’t.

When was the last time you watched Terminator 2: Judgment Day?

Years.

Really?

Years. Yeah. I’m a reader. I don’t turn to the telly a lot. Certainly, I can watch something once, but I’m not watching something over and over again … the glory days? No. None of that.

You lived it.

I lived it.

Your career has spanned so many incredible projects, even just looking at television, from Beauty and the Beast in the ’80s to Resident Alien now and Stranger Things coming up. It must feel like a radically different landscape now.

It does, and it’s been kind of a pleasure to ride that long wave. I have seen things, and certainly can remark upon the changes in all areas of film and television, but mostly TV, I think. I’m not sure the studio system really has much longer. Things are changing faster now than they ever changed in the history of Hollywood, in terms of product and streaming and just so many new jobs that are created because of what we get to shoot. People who are contact lens specialists and people who are nail specialists when you do a show like Claws, and intimacy coordinators, and the sensitivity training, the HR, and then there’s the actual filmmaking and the special effects and the Volume for all the special effects, which is now on Stranger Things. I’m like, “What the hell? Where am I?” It’s like, okay, we’ll do a scene and then [you hear], “ball and chart,” and it’s some special effects magic that they come in and do at the end of every shot. So yes, it’s changing.

Is it jarring at all, coming from a world of practical effects?

Not particularly, because I’ve grown through so many phases. It was blue screen way back when. Then it was green screen. Maybe they’re going back to blue screen here. If you keep your favorite shoes, in 20 years, they’ll be back in style. It’s very interesting to watch and absorb. I’m in over my head trying to read the schedule for Stranger Things. I’ve never actually looked at a schedule before and said, “I have no idea what this means. What is 501 point B part two?” They’ve sent me schedules and I still don’t understand them. I need a whole person to explain the new world to me.

We’re in all-new territory with conversations around AI and its implications for the industry, which I was curious to hear your take on, coming from the Terminator universe…

I really can say no more than this: it’s just the way it is. There will always be upgrades in our systems that we have to push that button and just keep clicking that button, otherwise our equipment won’t work at all. So I like learning. I think that in terms of AI, we’re just going to see how that plays out. I can’t really imagine them ever writing what people write and making it matter. I just can’t imagine that. But it’s not just the filmmaker and the artistry and the tools that are changing, but sort of the whole approach. It’s much more corporate level now. Corporations are running these studios, and I do feel that something has been lost. There seems to be a whole lot inserted in between the creative. The actor now goes through this person… there’s just so much there now, and there might be a little diminishment in that. Then again, we have writing that’s so much better now than the network television in my heyday, which I would never speak ill of it, but there is just so much smart and wonderful and fresh material available, and that makes me happy to see that somebody’s doing that and making great shows. 

Is that what defines your choices, the writing?

Yes. Even if it’s a small part. If the writing is there in the script, I want to be a part of it. I want to serve a good project. I don’t need to be the star. I don’t need to be anything more than having good words in front of me to act out. I really am just an actor. I never wanted to direct, I never wanted to produce and control. I don’t want to be the boss. I don’t think that brings out the best in most people. I really just love acting. My dreams have been well met.

And they keep coming, with Stranger Things coming up next.

I literally felt like I was an actress getting my first meaningful part [with Stranger Things]. It’s funny, how it recycles. It’s not that I felt forgotten, but I was actually talking about retirement, not because there isn’t enough to do, but just I’m tired of being tough. My hip was hurting for a couple of years and I was like, “I’m just so tired of being tough, and I just want to be able to make plans and make sure I can be there,” because actors never, ever can be there when they say they’re going to be there. So I had complained to my agent. I was getting ready to do season three of Resident Alien. I was like, “Dude, I don’t even know if I’m going to get there. I hurt.” (Laughs.) And he’s like, “Oh, you don’t mean that.” When I said retirement, cut to two weeks or so later, Stranger Things called him and said, “Is Linda Hamilton available from June to June?” And he went, “Yes.” He didn’t even ask me.

When Stranger Things calls, you can’t really say no.

I’d come out of retirement to do it, yeah. And I think that’s going to give me another 15 minutes with a new audience, which is cool. And Terminator, that’s still going to be the big trump card for most everything. That fan base is fantastic, because they actually treat me like I saved the world.

I mean … you did.

(Laughs.)

My brother cried when I told him I’m talking to you. He’s 40. You’ve been our hero forever.

There you go. Not a bad mantle to be carrying around, right? (Laughs.)

Stranger Things is an interesting case in nostalgia and how everything old becomes new again. Here in 2024, it’s the age of the reboot and the decades-later sequels. Why do you think there’s such a longing in our pop culture right now? Is it because 2024 is not so cool?

That’s a good jumping off point! All the stressors on people growing up today… but, I don’t know. I don’t look back at the ’80s and go, “You know, that was a cool time.” Young actors and actresses will come up and say, “I’m just starting out. What do you recommend?” And I say, “Never go on film in the ’80s.” The hair. The shoulder pads. I would say to myself, “You are so going to regret the hair.” (Laughs.) But it’s a different world now. I lived through the ’80s and I remember them in my own personal way. I don’t look upon them as such a great time. People look at the ‘50s as sort of a final innocent time as humans before everything, but if we say that about the ‘80s, someday, they’ll be saying that about 2024, how those were some innocent times.

Oh, no. That doesn’t sounds great.

We’ll be looking back and saying, “Oh, 2024! What a fantastic year.”

What’s likelier, you returning as Sarah Connor, or AI writing the next Terminator movie?

AI writing the next Terminator movie. And they kill me off before we start. That’s the best scenario.

Dark Fate was it, then? You’re done.

Shoot me. Shoot me! I’m very glad I did it, but…

With the benefit of some time, are you happy with it, or do you wish you hadn’t revisited the character?

I don’t do a lot of regret. I think in the end, it holds true that we regret what we didn’t do, not what we did. I’m very glad I went back. I loved [director Tim Miller], I love my ladies [Mackenzie Davis and Natalia Reyes], and while I can’t say I love the film, that’s because I was so attached to it. I only saw it once. I felt like it was too fast. But we did so much good work, and it was the greatest time of my life, and the worst time of my life, all rolled into one film. I was 63 or whatever I was, and it was the hardest shoot. Every day it was like a triathlon: “Now we’re going to swim for two hours and then we’re going to run for two hours.” I read 40 books on that show. That’s all I could do, lie down and read, send my mind somewhere else and rest my body.

What do you still want to do, since Stranger Things prevented your retirement?

I used to want to do a Western. I could be the matriarch of a family. I’d love to do a little more period drama, you know? My costume for 40 years in this business has been blood and tangles. More blood, more tangles. I have people come up to me my entire career saying, “You’re so pretty in person!” And they’re confused! You never see me smile on film. But those are just funny little things. I’m really happy. I’m really happy with the work I’m getting now. It’s not just Resident Alien and Stranger Things. I’m getting some good movie roles that allow me to not be the military person. I really just love the challenge. I just love acting.

Again, thanks for taking the time. I have interviewed so many folks that I don’t really have a bucket list anymore, until I sat down across from Sarah Connor and am reminded that apparently, I do!

Oh, precious. Say hi to your brother, too.

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