Shaquille O’Neal is a man of many talents, including in front of the camera. The Diesel has starred in several films over his prestigious career as an athlete, and he wants to keep doing more. Shaq recently asked action legend Arnold Schwarzenegger if he could continue his acting legacy by being in his Netflix series FUBAR.
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While commercials have been the four-time NBA Champion’s main squeeze over the last decade, his career in Hollywood is a little bigger than some care to remember. He famously played the lead in Kazaam, and the DC Comics blockbuster Steel. Both are hailed as awful films, but at least fun ones because of Shaq. He also appeared in Scary Movie 4, Good Burger, Blue Chips, He Got Game and dozens of other movies in smaller roles.
But now Shaq wants to share the screen with one of Hollywood’s biggest superstars of all time, Arnold. “So I need you to put on your producers and your writers hat. If you were to give me a CIA role in FUBAR season 3, what would that role be?” asked Shaq to the now 77-year-old film icon during an episode of his podcast.
The Twins star joked that he would make The Diesel someone he had to call when the odds were stacked against his character. “And then you and I would be kicking some serious a**,” said Schwarzenegger.
“If you need me for season 3, I am available,” stated Shaq, which delighted Arnold. “I will immediately tell them. I’ll say Shaq is in, we have to use him,” he responded. As exciting as that was, Shaq also revealed what his financial compensation would be on the project.
“Tell them my fee is $1. Anything for you, you know that,” chirped the Hall of Famer. In case you didn’t know, Shaq has more money than he knows what to do with. The $1 salary was also very similar to what he got paid yearly as a reserve police officer in Miami. When you have a brand as big as Shaq does, money just won’t cut it anymore.
Shaq claimed he tried to be in Terminator 3
The Terminator and The Diesel are not new friends. They’ve known each other since the early 1990s. O’Neal brought this up during this same interview with Arnold and revealed to him that he tried hard to be in one of his early 2000s blockbusters.
“Speaking of movies, did you know that I was trying to be in Terminator 3?” Shaq asked, before following it up with another question. “And, if I was allowed to be in Terminator 3 would you make me a villain or would you make me a hero?”
“I’d make you a hero, even though you would make a great villain,” responded Schwarzenegger, who went on to explain his Terminator arc started as a heel before he eventually turned babyface in T2.
Shaq is by no means a Dave Bautista as an actor, but the Terminator franchise would actually have been perfect for him. He could have just been a cold, expressionless killing machine, and would not have had to do much to really sell that.
No actor in the world was more perfect for the Terminator than Arnold, but the Shaq-Fu Master might have given the famed Austrian a run for his money. Unfortunately, we’ll never find out. But with how often Hollywood does recycle franchises, perhaps it’s not entirely out of the question yet.
