Returning to 'Terminator: Dark Fate' real 'gift' for Linda Hamilton

Actor Linda Hamilton who is returning to the silver screen with her iconic character Sarah Connor in 'Terminator

"There is a real gift in that so much time has passed, and that gives me so much more to explore with the character. Sarah Connor is the same person but I wanted to see how the difference in events have changed her and shaped her and send her forward," Hamilton said in an exclusive interview with Entertainment Weekly.

She added, "It's a woman who has a different mission, a different story, so I wanted to see what we could do with that."

Speaking about the time when Tim Miller, the film's director, called her up for the role, she recalled, "He called me three times before I even called him back. The third time, he was like, "It's about work," and I'm like, "Oh, hey, what's up?" But, even with that and his big sell, it took me weeks to decide that I really could go there and might have something new to say."

The upcoming film is a sequel to 1991 film 'Terminator 2: Judgement Day'. Hamilton, when asked about her preparations for the role, said, "One assumes if you put in the same hard work, you get the same results, so I went straight back into training really hard and it's like, 'Oh my god, you need hormones to put muscle on!'"

Besides all the physical appearance, it was about building the character's "backstory" and "figuring out where she's been and who she is today".

She added further, "You have a character but so many things have impacted her in the last 30 years that it was like starting over, and yet, there is an echo of the younger Sarah Connor in everything that I had to create."

After an intensive training of one year and exploring the character, Hamilton felt "overwhelmed with a sense of obligation" and said, "By the time we started, I felt ready, but a year-plus before that, I was pretty overwhelmed with a sense of obligation and duty and love for the character."

Later, the 62-year-old actor described her character as one having a "thirst for vengeance" which makes her alone with no team.

"She's still a wildcard, but a wildcard without a real true mission is a lot more unpredictable. Basically very hard for her to find her humanity, so once again we get to take a journey on that level, to have some deep things that need to be rediscovered for her survival," Hamilton explained.

Other than Hamilton, the film also stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mackenzie Davis, Natalia Reyes, Diego Boneta, and Gabriel Luna.