LOS ANGELES—Joseph McGinty Nichol, aka McG, is a little defensive when asked if he was the right person to direct the big-budget action epic Terminator Salvation, which opens May 21. In a Los Angeles hotel room, he says he was concerned about being the “Charlie’s Angels guy” until James Cameron—who directed Terminator and its sequel, Terminator 2: Judgment Day—gave him the confidence to take on public perceptions.

“Cameron told me that when people heard he was directing Aliens and following in the footsteps of [Alien director] Ridley Scott, they said: ”˜What does this guy who made Piranha [Part Two: The Spawning] think he is doing following the great Ridley Scott?’ But I do believe it’s the privilege of the public to put people in boxes. They weren’t excited by the idea of the guy who directed Charlie’s Angels [and its sequel, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle] making a Terminator movie, and, respectfully, why would they be? What have I done that would suggest that I am the right guy? So you take a step back and you work that much more diligently and you let the film do the talking.

“I think that if you take the body of material that anyone has been a part of, you draw conclusions. I mean, who would have guessed that a guy with a ridiculous name like Johnny Depp who was in 21 Jump Street would go on to become one of the great entertainers of our time? You have to earn your stripes and pay your dues, and I am certainly willing to earn mine. Fortunately, I am most comfortable in this genre. These films [the Terminator movies] are the films I grew up on. Action films were my film school and ignited my passion, so I am very comfortable working in this world. I think you just sort of take the good with the bad and take your lumps along the way.”

The fourth episode in the film series that made Arnold Schwarzenegger one of the world’s biggest movie stars has Christian Bale playing John Connor, who in 2018 is a leader of the resistance against machines out to take over the world. McG says he felt that the story would be most compelling if it showed a world where there was little racism or sexism, one in which people were judged on their abilities alone.

“I think the film tries to suggest a secondary gain of this war between man and machine. There is no more ageism, there is no more racism, and there is certainly no more sexism. Everything is ability-based. If you know how to get the helicopter running, get it running; if you know how to fix a broken leg, then go fix it. No one is hung up on the minutiae and the ridiculousness of what we are hung up on today. I didn’t shine a lantern on it, but you will notice that attitude is very prevalent in our picture.”