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Yes, but not necessarily in a positive way. I was afraid to mess it up. I was afraid to come back and have it not have the impact (I was hoping for). If I did it, I felt like I owed it to the character of Sarah to be great.

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You didn’t call Jim back until after the third call. How did you react when you finally spoke?

I was shocked (that he wanted her to come back), but then it was about whether I wanted to go into that deep, dark hole again, because that’s what it’s like to play Sarah. I also had to weigh whether I wanted to give up my privacy. I’ve built a lovely, normal life in New Orleans. So it still took me six weeks to make up my mind to decide if I wanted to be in.

What kind of Sarah are we meeting in Dark Fate?

Her mission has changed. Well, let’s say her mission hasn’t changed, but there are certain conditions of her life that have changed, which I’m not at liberty to discuss. She’s very much a woman adrift with no country. She’s still fighting the machines, but she’s also not a real fan of humanity either. She’s bitter, she’s broken, and she’s an island. But she’s also a woman looking for a cause.

With you, Jim and Arnold once again reteaming, there’s a lot of anticipation for this new Terminator story. What kind of film will this be for the fans?

It’s a trimmed-down story, with characters that you can care about. I think that was the missing element of the three in the middle. They had all these effects and the largesse and the money … but it didn’t pare down to a human story with characters that you could care about. There were too many characters, too many effects and it just sort of blasted out there without the humanity. That is our main goal this time. I don’t mean to say there aren’t special effects. There are HUGE action sequences. But really, as impressive as they can be, those can’t speak to characters and old-fashioned storytelling, and that’s what we’re trying to make a return to.