All the actors have input as far as story editing and writing. We don't just show up and say the lines. We are involved in writing the show.
I am much more involved in the filmmaking experience on Mag Seven. I'm much more involved in story elements, casting decisions, the writing of the show, the blocking of the scenes.
I don't have a computer. I don't know anything about that. I don't even know what a website is.
I grew up in Arizona and have a lot of buddies that are cowpokes.
I had a weird situation were someone used my name to extort money from a woman. He took her for 60 or 80 thousand dollars. He is in prison now. It was on Sally.
I kind of wanted them to have us on the air for a while before running bloopers.
I was feeling real good and real manly. Until a real cowboy walked by and told me I had my hat on backwards. So much for my career as a cowboy.
I would say that one of the things that we are proud of is that we are attracting very interesting guest stars. One is Tyne Daly, who has done a wonderful job.
I'd rather have a small part in a good film with good people than play the lead in something I don't really care for.
Right before Mag Seven I did a movie called The Bull Rider.
They gave me the chaps and hat and everything. I looked like a real cowboy. I walked around the rodeo and thought, I am a real cowboy and thought everyone thought I was a real cowboy.
We do running, jumping, fighting, riding. But anything that is real stunt - windows falling, etc., none of us do.
Well, uh, I practiced when I did Tombstone, and a man named Thel Reed taught me some of those moves and it is kind of a thing like rodeo.
What I like about working on this show is that we get to help craft the scripts.
When I was a kid everyone used to call me pork 'n.
[About not spending much time with Arnold Schwarzenegger on the original Terminator]: "I saw him around, you know. He was doing his thing, I was doing my thing, but I didn't really get to talk to him because Linda and I spend the entire film running away from Arnold."
[Talking about the chase scenes in the Terminator]: "Looking back on it, I realize we were really going at some high speeds those nights. One night, my adrenaline was running so high I actually tore the steering wheel off, and I just looked over at Linda [Hamilton] and said 'Here, you drive!'"
I do a lot of research on most of my roles and before I start a role when I read a script I know all of the beats in the script and I know exactly how to do it because I've read about such a character or experienced similar things myself or had the same sort of relationship with people. So, when I go in to act it it's mostly technique. I'm not an actor who just lets things happen in front of the camera.
I know why they think of me as intense. It's because on the set I'm very concentrated. I don't just walk on and do my thing and walk off. I'm very intense when I'm working. I know exactly what I'm doing before I get in there.
A sense of insecurity, I think. It really comes down to not really having a full understanding of myself and my sense of self and having a real confidence in myself as a person. I seem to be able to have more confidence in some characters I play, knowing right down the line exactly the way that I feel about things about the character whereas in real life I'm more insecure. I don't really know the answers.
I do firmly believe that I've been overlooked, especially in "Terminator." Jim Cameron was saying to me at the time, "I don't know Michael why you are not being offered more movies now. All of us expected it, you know?" But now, five or six years later, when everyone has seen the movie five or six times on video people are beginning to realize how good it was and what a good performance it was. But I have to say I don't feel shortchanged and I don't resent anything. I think it's best in the long run. Look at the Brat Pack: Those guys got so much so fast that they were never allowed to really struggle and know what good chances they had in much of the work they were doing. So, even though I felt that some of my work was overlooked at times I know that it has made me stronger and better and it has made me work harder to get other jobs and be good in them. (from a 1989 interview)
Frequently works with James Cameron.
Has played a Navy SEAL 3 times: The Abyss (1989), Navy Seals (1990), and The Rock (1996).
In James Cameron's The Terminator (1984), Michael Biehn gets bitten on the hand by another character. He has suffered the same on-screen injury in every James Cameron film he's been in.
Replaced actor James Remar as Corporal Dwayne Hicks in Aliens (1986).
He almost didn't get the role of Kyle Reese in The Terminator (1984) because at his first audition he spoke in a Southern accent. He had just come another audition for a stage production of "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof" and had not been able to shake the accent, and the producers didn't want the character of Reese to seem regionalized. After calling and talking with Biehn's agent, they gave him another audition and he got the part.
Attended the University of Arizona on a drama scholarship. He left school two years early to pursue his career in Hollywood.
Has played a soldier 10 times in films.
Children with Carlene Olson: twins, Devon and Taylor, born 1984.
Children with Marsh: Caelan Michael (b. 1992) and Alexander (b. 19 March 2003).
Was nominated for best actor at the 1986 "Saturn Awards" for Aliens (1986) and won a special award at the 1989 "Saturn Awards" for The Abyss (1989).
Said that he didn't get to interact with Arnold Schwarzenegger very much while filming the original The Terminator (1984). Ironically, fans often ask him what it was like to work with Arnold.
Has to turn down the role of McManus in The Usual Suspects (1995) as he was already contracted to William Friedkin's Jade (1995).
Was cast as Peter Parker/Spiderman in James Cameron's abandoned "Spiderman" in 1994. The film was deemed too technically challenging at the time, and Cameron opted to make True Lies (1994) instead.
James Cameron considered using him as the T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), which would have been a reversal of the roles Biehn previously had with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the original. Eventually, however, Cameron decided against the idea on the basis that it would have been too confusing for the audience.
Filmed a cameo in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) in which Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) fantasizes a meeting with him, but the scene was cut from the theatrical release; it later became available in the director's cut. Biehn said in an interview that he wasn't surprised that the scene was cut, seeing as how it had little to do with the film's overall story.
Has appeared in 5 films with Bill Paxton: The Lords of Discipline (1983), The Terminator (1984), Aliens (1986), Navy Seals (1990), and Tombstone (1993).
Surname pronounced "Bean"
Is a member of the Sigma Nu Fraternity
Has been in two movies with Ed Harris, in both of which he played a Navy SEAL: The Abyss (1989) and The Rock (1996).
A shot of him as Kyle Reese in the movie The Terminator (1984) was reproduced as the cover-art of the video game Metal Gear (1987) (VG). Biehn was chosen as a model as he was then at the peak of his fame, and would be the ideal actor to play Metal Gear's protagonist Solid Snake had Metal Gear been an action movie.
The studio pushed hard for an Academy Award nomination for Biehn as best supporting actor in James Cameron's The Abyss (1989) - an award he ultimately didn't win or even got nominated for.
Cites not being asked to reprise his role as Corporal Dwayne Hicks for the third Alien film as one of the biggest disappointments of his career.
Partner is actress Jennifer Blanc.
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