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Judgment Day Hits Early For Actress

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By SCOTT COLLINS, Los Angeles Times

Published: January 21, 2008

HOLLYWOOD - Maybe you don't have to be buff to play one of the iconic female characters in contemporary science fiction. But having a tough hide certainly helps, as Lena Headey has discovered.

Headey is the 34-year-old British actress who plays the heroine in Fox's "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles." The series opened last week to solid ratings and continues at 9 tonight.

Headey plays the same role made famous by Linda Hamilton, who in the 1991 feature "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" became a butt-kicking inspiration to millions of women by working out, pumping up and taking down all those nasty cyborgs.

Such an inspiration, in fact, that some who worship at the Altar of Sarah Connor detect heresy in the casting of Headey, who's healthy-looking and attractive but not exactly Ms. Olympia. One Web site devoted to female empowerment chose stronger words, such as "emaciated."

"The film had the luxury of more money and more time," Headey said. "If they were gonna give me a month and a trainer every day and a chef, then it would be fantastic. ... It's a TV show, for God's sake!"

The biceps debate may seem like sweating the small stuff, but it's just one more hurdle encountered by the "Terminator" franchise on its way to the small screen.

"Sarah Connor" faces the same dilemma stared down this season by NBC's critically drubbed "Bionic Woman": How do you revive a beloved sci-fi franchise without alienating its core base of rabid fans? Michelle Ryan, the British actress who plays the title character in "Bionic Woman," also caught flak for not meeting fans' expectations.

Neither the films' director James Cameron nor star and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who guided the cyborgs-versus-humans series to cultural phenomenon status, is involved with the TV show.

Obviously, the TV version won't be able to match the movies in terms of costly special effects, to say nothing of the actors' gym time. So the creative team is taking pains to develop the relationship between Sarah and her now 15-year-old son, John (Thomas Dekker, previously of NBC's "Heroes"), whom she must protect from robots sent from the future to kill him. If you're not familiar with the "Terminator" mythology, the backstory is complicated and involves time travel and other willing suspensions of disbelief.

There's also a new character, Cameron (Summer Glau, who became a virtual goddess to sci-fi fans for her work on the cult series "Firefly"), John's school friend who turns out to be a cyborg dispatched to help the Connors.

"This is not about trying to assimilate or copy the 'Terminator' films, which we could never do, but it's a good starting-off point for what the next step of the Sarah Connor story will be," director David Nutter said of the pilot.

The producers finished shooting the season-ending ninth episode in November, so Fox, at least for the moment, doesn't have to worry about a strike-related interruption.

But one gets the feeling that "Sarah Connor" hasn't heard the last from doubters. Among those is Kym Lambert, a spokeswoman for the Sarah Connor Charm School, which describes itself as "an art project focused on physical feminist empowerment."

Many women "found Hamilton's 'T2' physique very inspiring and a lesson or reminder that women can be strong," Lambert wrote in an e-mail. "That the makers and Headey both seem to be constantly trying to claim that she is not actually thin, that she is very tough and such just makes us feel like they think we're completely stupid. We can see. This is not our Sarah Connor, and we do feel that the fans do matter. ... I do think that someone who continues a franchise does owe the original fans consideration."

Headey says the fans should get over it. It's been years since Hamilton filled out that role.

And so far, fans aren't complaining about the petit, svelte Glau playing a cyborg when she has none of Schwarzenegger's bulk.

The main point is that in "Sarah Connor," Fox has sunk its teeth into a massively popular franchise. And skeptics aside, it may be one that has staying power, on the small screen as well as the big.

"There's a real hunger for this show," Nutter said. "Not since 'The X-Files' has Fox had a show like this."

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