‘True Lies’: Tom Arnold Teases Callbacks to Original Film in Guest Spot
Preview
Omega Sector is getting some help from one of their own, a retired operative played by none other than Tom Arnold, who starred in the original True Lies film on which the CBS series is based, in the April 26 episode.
For Arnold, the only major concern was scheduling, which they were able to work out. “Of course, I wanted to do it,” he tells TV Insider. And while he was expecting it to be a small cameo, once he read the script, he realized, “Holy hell, they’ve really worked their butts off of it. This is not a cameo. The episode’s about me and my ex, and there’s all kinds of action.”
While he’s not playing the same character he did (Omar Miller is the show’s Gib), “If you watch the movie, you’ll be like, ‘What is that guy going to be doing in 29 years?’ And they answered the question in this episode,” Arnold says.
In “Bitter Sweethearts,” he plays retired operative Arnie, who must team up with his ex Sharon (Kate Vernon), along with Harry (Steve Howey) and Helen (Ginger Gonzaga), to find a mysterious assassin who killed members of their former team.
To say Arnie’s reluctant to team up with his ex would be an understatement. “I go, and I sincerely mean it, ‘I would rather die and take my chances,'” Arnold previews.
Tom Griscom/CBS
In fact, it’s with Sharon that there’s a callback to James Cameron’s film. “One of the first things I noticed was, there’s a line I said in the original movie about ‘What kind of sick bitch takes the ice cube trays out of the freezer?'” Arnold shares. “I’m saying that to the young guys, to Steve and Ginger, as I’m talking about the old days at Omega sector where we were spies and I’ve been away from Omega sector for a while, and this episode answers the question is what kind of a sick — I say witch — witch takes the ice cube trays out of the freezer because she’s in it and she still wants to kill me.”
Another nod comes with this version’s Gib. “He was yelling because he doesn’t get out of the van — he’s got this really cool van; the technology has improved quite a bit. — and I said, ‘Oh, I always like getting out of the van,'” he continues. Miller “owns [his version of Gib]. In [that scene about the van], he just laid into everybody. And I thought, ‘That’s different because that’s not something that my character would do.'”
So how has Arnie been handling life after Omega? Not well. After a mission went sideways, he’s been holed up in his place, alone, with trip wires around the property. “It got to him. … The way my house is set up out in the country is it’s like a guy that used to be in the CIA,” Arnold says. When Harry and Helen show up, he gets into a fistfight with the former. “By the way, Steve is bigger than Arnold [Schwarzenegger]. He’s six-four, he’s a giant, very sweet guy. And Ginger is smaller than Jamie Lee [Curtis] — the juxtaposition of those two — and she’s the boss.”
This allows Harry and Helen to see what life is like after Omega. “I think we’re terrified, and its also very accurate,” Gonzaga says. “I think if you’re living the life of a spy for so many years, I’m not sure you’d handle that very well, especially going from an intense job to not working anymore.”
And for Howey, having Arnold guest star “was really special. … He’s brilliant in the movie and he’s brilliant in the episode. He was so funny on screen and off, and he gave me a stamp of approval. He told stories from the movie about how James Cameron fought for him, how the studio didn’t want him, and James Cameron was like, ‘Nope, he’s the one.'”
It’s possible that we could see Arnold again. “The episode was left where you’re like, ‘What is going to happen next time? Where are these people?'” he says. (There was a draft where Arnie died.) “They intentionally left it open, and I could see how you could see more of this guy.”
True Lies, Wednesdays, 10/9c, CBS
