No Special Treatment For Shirley Manson On 'Terminator'

While some may look at the additions of Brian Austin Green from the original "90210" and rock artist Shirley Manson as stunt casting, Friedman says there's far more to it, and they had to go through the same auditions as everyone else to land their roles.

"I've known Shirley well cor a couple years, and known her off and on for many years as she's a friend of my wife," Friedman told reporters during a conference call Thursday that included SyFy Portal. "Personally, I've always enjoyed her and known her as a performer. And as we were doing the show last year, I used to joke with her about coming on the show and doing one episode or something like that because she never acted. I said for her to come on and be a scary Terminator for an episode, and she would say, 'Yeah, yeah.'"

But as casting began for the second season, Friedman found himself looking for someone to play the mysterious Catherine Weaver, a tough executive who runs a company trying to develop the Turk technology featured last season.

"She just has an incredible charisma," Friedman said. "She was given no extra points for being Shirley Manson. In fact, she was probably given minus points by people who thought a singer couldn't do this."

Manson makes her premiere the same time "Sarah Connor's" second season kicks off Sept. 8 at 8 p.m. ET on Fox. Also making his first appearance since becoming a cast regular is Green continuing his role of Derek Reese, uncle to John Connor and a hardened veteran of the FutureWar.

"John was always looking for father figures, and it was nice to have one around that is blood-related," Friedman said. "Derek represents the future face of the FutureWar and the cost of it. He is this sort of damaged war vet, and when he's in the scene, you always have this sense of the stakes of what they're fighting for, because you don't want to see someone become like Derek."

Lena Headey, who plays the title character in the Terminator series, says there is a lot of emotions that flow through Sarah Connor, and just one of them is anger.

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