Tom Arnold is back within the “True Lies” universe — this time on the small screen.
Arnold, 64, guest-stars in Wednesday night’s episode of “True Lies” (10 p.m. on CBS) as Arnie, an ex-Omega operative living off-the-grid who, along along with his onetime Omega flame, Sharon (Kate Vernon), is being targeted for murder years later by a former colleague.
Arnie and Sharon, who’s living a quiet suburban life, are still bitter over their long-ago breakup; they (comically) bicker backwards and forwards in front of Harry and Helen (series stars Steve Howey and Ginger Gonzaga), the husband-and-wife Omega agents trying to avoid wasting their lives.
The series, which premiered March 1, is predicated on the hit 1994 tongue-in-cheek spy movie “True Lies” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis as Harry and Helen and Arnold as Albert “Gib” Gibson, Harry’s teammate and Omega partner.
James Cameron, who directed the movie, is an executive producer on the CBS series (wherein Omar Miller plays Gib).
“There was actually a sequel to the movie that was written,” Arnold told The Post. “This was 2001 and [the sequel] was excellent except it had Arnold and I coming up on a submarine that got here on shore at the bottom of the Twin Towers, after which that terrible thing happened … and Jim Cameron said, ‘I’m just not in a position to make terrorism funny for some time’ after all. I assumed [this role] was going to be a cameo and I used to be going through the script and I used to be like, ‘Oh, no, it is a whole thing.’”
Arnold said that the writers of Tuesday night’s “True Lies” episode, “Bitter Sweehearts,” slyly allude to his role as Gib within the 1994 movie.
“Within the movie I said a line, ‘What sort of a sick b**ch takes the ice cube trays out of the freezer?’ I used to be going through a divorce with Roseanne [Barr] on the time and she or he did take the ice cube trays out of the freezer in my house. I remember coming to work and telling Arnold and Jim Cameron in makeup about that and Jim said, ‘Say that in the subsequent scene.’
“In order that was an actual thing, and what’s great about [Wednesday night’s episode] is that it answers that query, because she, on this case Sharon, still desires to kill me,” he said. “I assumed it was pretty funny that they connected the 2.”
Arnold shares his scenes with Howey and Gonzaga, and noted their off-camera interactions with the forged and crew.
“They’ve great chemistry,” he said. “Steve Howey is a giant dude and Ginger is a small person. You watch people after they’re not [in front of the cameras]. She’s like in command of the entire operation, helping individuals with personal issues — and Steve was very apprehensive because he thought he had ‘back fat.’ He has the very best body and I used to be like, ‘What are you talking about?’ and he’s like, ‘No, from doing the show I haven’t been in a position to do one hundred pc of my workouts and I’ve got a bit of back fat here.’
“I’m like, ‘Dude, I don’t even know what to say.’”
Arnold, who’s appeared on ABC’s “The Rookie: Feds” (as Miles Butkus), will reunite (form of) with Schwarzenegger in “FUBAR,” his spy series premiering May 25 on Netflix.
“My role [in ‘FUBAR’] is actually weird and quirky,” he said. “I play the guy who tortures people. He’s with the CIA. Arnold, within the series, has moved on from torture … but they wrote a extremely fun character for me. It’s like, ‘Oh, that guy will likely be back because he’s so weird.’ I look ahead to that [series] being an enormous success and coming back on and doing stuff with Arnold because I’m not in a scene with him.”
“FUBAR” will make a pleasant bookend to Arnold’s appearance on “True Lies” — and, who knows? — Arnie could reappear in one other episode of the CBS series.
“They said, ‘We’re going to maintain [Arnie] alive, we would like to do that again,’ in order that’s all the time excellent news,” Arnold said. “It was weird seeing the script and seeing ‘True Lies’ in the identical font. I used to be thrilled they did what they did [with the series].
“It just shows you that, should you stick around long enough something might occur — and that hopefully, when the circle comes around, you’re still available.”
