Linda Hamilton Considered Retirement Before “Stranger Things” Role Due to Hip Pain: 'I'm Tired of Being Tough'

The 'Terminator' alum said she was ready to quit acting before the Netflix series called

Linda Hamilton says that she considered retiring from acting before her upcoming role in Stranger Things' fifth and final season.

“I was actually talking about retirement, not because there isn’t enough to do, but just I’m tired of being tough,” Hamilton, 67, told The Hollywood Reporter. 

“My hip was hurting for a couple of years and I was like, ‘I’m just so tired of being tough, and I just want to be able to make plans and make sure I can be there,’ because actors never, ever can be there when they say they’re going to be there,” she continued.

She said she was on the verge of beginning filming season three of the SyFy comedy-drama Resident Alien when Hamilton said she told her agent, “ ‘Dude, I don’t even know if I’m going to get there. I'm hurt.’ And he’s like, “Oh, you don’t mean that.”

“When I said retirement, cut to two weeks or so later, Stranger Things called him and said, ‘Is Linda Hamilton available from June to June?’ And he went, ‘Yes.’ He didn’t even ask me," Hamilton recalled.

The actress, who trained for a year to get into shape for Terminator: Dark Fate, told the outlet that her days of hunting killer cyborgs are over.

Related: Paulina Porizkova Shows Scars from Hip Replacement Surgery, Says She Will 'Accept Them' as 'Reminder of Old Pain'

“I’m very glad I did it,” Hamilton told The Hollywood Reporter about the 2019 film, but it’s more likely to have “AI writing the next Terminator movie. And they kill me off before we start” before she considers returning to the franchise.

“It was the greatest time of my life and the worst time of my life, all rolled into one film,” she said of the last Terminator film, which she shot at age 63. “Every day it was like a triathlon: ‘Now we’re going to swim for two hours and then we’re going to run for two hours.’ ”

“I read 40 books on that show. That’s all I could do, lie down and read, send my mind somewhere else and rest my body,” Hamilton remembered

Since she’s put retirement on the back burner now, the star told The Hollywood Reporter she wants to look at film roles that aren’t “blood and tangles.”

Related: Alec Baldwin Details 'Incredibly Painful' Hip Replacement Recovery After Delaying Surgery for 2 Years

“I have people come up to me my entire career saying, ‘You’re so pretty in person!’ And they’re confused! You never see me smile on film,” Hamilton explained.

“I’m really happy with the work I’m getting now," she continued. "It’s not just Resident Alien and Stranger Things. I’m getting some good movie roles that allow me to not be the military person. I really just love the challenge.”

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