James Cameron

James Cameron
Biographical Information
Born	August 16, 1954
Birth Name	James Francis Cameron
Nationality	Canadian
Gender	Male
Eye Color	Blue
Hair Color	White
Height	6’2
Career
Years Active	1978–present
Avatar Role	Director, Producer, Writer, and Editor
Academy Awards	Best Picture (Titanic) Best Director (Titanic) Film Editing (Titanic)

I’m not trying to build an empire here, I’m just trying to make some cool movies.

James Francis Cameron, who goes by the nickname Jim, is a Canadian film director, producer and screenwriter. He is also a visual artist and has his own artbook called Tech Noir. He has written and directed films such as Aliens, The Terminator and Titanic. In total, Cameron's directorial efforts have grossed approximately US$2 billion in North America and US$6 billion worldwide. After a string of landmark feature films, Cameron turned his focus to documentary filmmaking and the co-development of the digital 3-D Fusion Camera System.

He returned to feature filmmaking with the science fiction film Avatar, which makes use of the Fusion Camera System technology. Avatar was released on December 18, 2009 and it was praised for its 3-D technology.

Cameron has also contributed to underwater filming and remote vehicle technologies. On March 26, 2012, Cameron reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the ocean, in the Deepsea Challenger submersible as the third person in history. His passion for the ocean led him to direct Avatar: The Way of Water in 2022.

Background

Cameron was born in Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada, the son of Shirley, an artist and nurse, and Phillip Cameron, an electrical engineer. He grew up in Chippawa, Ontario (now part of the city of Niagara Falls) and attended Stamford Collegiate in Niagara Falls, Ontario. His family moved to Brea, California in 1971. Cameron enrolled at Fullerton College, a 2-year community college, in 1973 to study physics. He switched to English, then dropped out before the start of the fall 1974 semester.

After dropping out of Sonora High School, he went to further his secondary education at Brea Olinda High School. After graduating, he worked several jobs such as truck driving and wrote when he had time. During this period he taught himself about special effects: "I'd go down to the USC library and pull any thesis that graduate students had written about optical printing, or front screen projection, or dye transfers, anything that related to film technology. That way I could sit down and read it, and if they'd let me photocopy it, I would. If not, I'd make notes."

After seeing the film Star Wars in 1977, Cameron quit his job as a truck driver to enter the film industry. When Cameron read Syd Field's book Screenplay, it occurred to him that integrating science and art was possible and he wrote a ten minute science fiction script with two friends, entitled Xenogenesis. They raised money and rented a camera, lenses, the film stocks, studio and shot it in 35 mm. To understand how to operate the camera, they dismantled it and spent the first half-day of the shoot trying to figure out how to get it running.

Early Career

As Cameron continued educating himself in techniques, he started as a miniature model maker at Roger Corman Studios. Making fast, low-budget productions enabled Cameron to pick up the pace efficiently and effectively, soon becoming an art director in the sci-fi movie Battle Beyond the Stars (1980), and he did special effects work design and direction on John Carpenter's Escape from New York (1981). He consulted on the design of Android (1981), and acted as production designer on Galaxy of Terror (1981).

Cameron was hired as the special effects director for the sequel of Piranha, entitled Piranha II: The Spawning in 1981. However, the director left the project and Cameron was hired by Italian producer Assonitis to take over, giving him his first directorial job. He worked with producer Roger Corman. The interior scenes were filmed in Rome, Italy while the underwater diving sequences were shot at Grand Cayman Island.

The movie was to be produced on Jamaica, but when Cameron arrived at the studio, he discovered his crew was comprised primarily of Italians who spoke no English and the project was under financed. Under duress, Cameron says he had a nightmare about an invincible robot hit man sent from the future to kill him, giving him the idea for The Terminator, which would later catapult his filming career.

Selected Filmography

• Xenogenesis (1978)
• Piranha II (1981)
• The Terminator (1984)
• Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)
• Aliens (1986)
• The Abyss (1989)
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
• True Lies (1994)
• Titanic (1997)
• Dark Angel (2000–2002)
• Avatar (2009)
• Sanctum (2011)
• Alita: Battle Angel (2019)
• Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)
• Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
• Avatar 3 (2025)
• Avatar 4 (2029)
• Avatar 5 (2031)

Awards

Cameron received the Bradbury Award from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1991 for Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

But, being primarily thought of as a genre filmmaker, he did not receive any major mainstream filmmaking awards prior to Titanic. With Titanic, Cameron received the Academy Awards for Best Editing (shared with Conrad Buff and Richard A. Harris), Best Picture (shared with Jon Landau), and Best Director. He also won a Golden Globe for best director for the film.

In recognition of his contributions to underwater filming and remote vehicle technology, the University of Southampton awarded Cameron the honorary degree of Doctor of the University. Cameron received his degree in person at the graduation ceremony in July, 2004.

He also received an honorary doctorate in October 1998 from Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, for his accomplishments in the international film industry.

In 1998, Cameron attended convocation to receive an honorary doctorate of Laws from Ryerson University, Toronto. The university awards its highest honor to those who have made extraordinary contributions in Canada, or internationally.

In 1999, Cameron received the honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from California State University, Fullerton, where he had been a student in the 1970s. He received the degree at the university's annual Commencement exercises that year, where he gave the keynote speech.

In recognition of his contributions to underwater filming and remote vehicle technology, the University of Southampton awarded Cameron the honorary degree of Doctor of the University. Cameron did not attend the Engineering Sciences graduation ceremony in July 2004 where the degree was awarded but instead received it in person at the National Oceanography Centre.

On June 3, 2008, it was announced that he would be inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. On December 18, 2009, the same day Avatar was released worldwide, Cameron received the 2,396th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. After the release of Avatar, on February 28, 2010, Cameron was also honored with a Visual Effects Society (VES) Lifetime Achievement Award.

For Avatar, Cameron won numerous awards as well, including: Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture - Drama (shared with Jon Landau) and Best Director. He was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director and Best Film Editing (shared with John Refoua and Stephen E. Rivkin).

On September 24, 2010 James Cameron was named Number 1 in The 2010 Guardian Film Power 100 list. In a list compiled by the British magazine New Statesman in September 2010, he was listed 30th in the list of "The World's 50 Most Influential Figures 2010".

Avatar series

Pre-Avatar

The concept for the first Avatar film stems back to a dream James Cameron had when he was 19, and at Fullerton Junior College. According to Cameron, the dream featured a bio-luminescent forest, with "lizards that didn't look like much until they took off." When he woke up, he drew it. Reportedly, the drawing has saved Cameron from about ten lawsuits pertaining to the film.

James Cameron concept, c. 1976

The look of the Na'vi was inspired by a dream that Cameron's mother had, long before he started work on Avatar, in which she saw tall blue women with six breasts. Cameron tried drawing one of them but noted, "the six breasts thing didn’t come out looking as good as it sounds." Cameron painted a similar character to Neytiri around 1976. He stated in an interview, "Her name wasn't Neytiri and it was in a completely different context, but I was already thinking about it then."

Avatar itself was in development since 1994 by Cameron, who wrote a 114-page scriptment for the film. Previously, he wrote a script called Xenogenesis featuring a bioluminescent world.

Avatar

Yunjin Kim as Neytiri in the ILM Prototype.

Filming was supposed to take place after the completion of Titanic, and the film would have been released in 1999, but according to James Cameron, "technology needed to catch up" with his vision of the film. Motion capture and CGI were not that advanced yet, so Cameron had to wait another decade until around 2005. At that point, he thought he would create Battle Angel first and then Avatar, however, upon being asked to create a demo for a scene from the movie, he realized Avatar had better material to work with, with the scene of Jake and Neytiri meeting in the forest being chosen as the scene. This became known as the ILM Prototype. Cameron and Jon Landau then both agreed to do Avatar first.

Cameron directing Sam Worthington as Jake Sully.

In early 2006, James Cameron developed the script, the language, and the culture of Pandora. When Cameron showed his script to 20th Century Fox executives, they asked him to tone down the "tree-hugging, Ferngully stuff" in it. However, Cameron stood his ground, saying the environmental conscious themes were integral to the storyline of Avatar, and he was determined to create a mainstream movie focused around it. For example, the destruction of Hometree is meant to symbolize the damage of Earth caused by humankind. Avatar was greenlit in early 2007 and filming began that year.

Cameron had an argument with a Fox executive who begged Cameron to shorten the film. Cameron was reluctant and replied, "I think this movie is going to make all the fucking money. And when it does, it’s going to be too late for you to love the film. The time for you to love the movie is today. So I’m not asking you to say something that you don’t feel, but just know that I will always know that no matter how complimentary you are about the movie in the future when it makes ALL THE MONEY. You can’t come back to me and compliment the film or chum along and say, ‘Look what we did together.’ You won’t be able to do that." The executive "went bug shit" on Cameron and Cameron told him to get the fuck out of the office.

The Avatar sequels

Disney announced in September 2011 that it would adapt Avatar into Pandora: The World of Avatar, a themed area at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. James Cameron assisted with the project.

After Avatar was released, even though Fox wanted at least two immediate sequels to the film, Cameron decided to hesitate on them because he was unsure if he wanted to commit to the enormous workload and having to attempt to be on par with the impact of the original, especially financially. To focus on his own happiness and interests, he spent the next 3 years exploring the oceans to the Mariana Trench and returned in 2012. Cameron admitted the decision to create more sequels was a difficult choice and wondered, "Do I even want to make another movie, let alone another Avatar movie? Because I was having so much fun." When Fox began announcing the sequel would be released in December 2014, Cameron admitted, "I never really believed in any of the dates that they amused themselves by announcing."

James Cameron with Indigenous people.

There were also two other factors motivating Cameron to make more sequels. After the first film was released, he was approached by Indigenous leaders who enjoyed that the story was echoing their struggle and that it was being portrayed to a mainstream audience. Cameron wanted to create more sequels to help spread the environmental and emotional themes in Avatar. He also stated that he simply enjoyed working with the film's cast.

Cameron eventually decided to commit to Avatar; he spent his time after writing down 800 pages of notes and story ideas for the sequels, threw it at a writer's team in 2013 and told them to "do your homework" and that everyone would meet next week to discuss. He also gave a lot of leeway for Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver to co-write The Way of Water and Avatar 3. Josh Friedman and Shane Salerno also helped write Avatar 4 and 5, respectively.

Cameron at the production studio of The Way of Water.

The writing process for the four sequels took four years and was done by 2017, since he did not want to begin filming Avatar: The Way of Water until the full story was fleshed out. He also said it was important for filming reasons, saying “I wanted to map out all the stories and then get the economy of scale of capturing the actors across multiple films and then filming the live action. The thinking was we could consolidate the different stages of production together—performance capture, live action and then post-production.”

The comic Avatar: The High Ground features story ideas by James Cameron originally meant for The Way of Water. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the film industry by a year as well.

Cameron has stated that he would commit to making a hypothetical Avatar 7 if the world demanded them enough, but admits he will not be making Avatar movies forever due to his age and the amount of energy required. He has thought about training a successor as a director to take over the film franchise.

When asked if he ever thinks about doing anything else, Cameron replied "I have found a deep vein that I can mine here, a connection with global audiences — why squander that?" The Avatar movies are a platform for images he ever wanted to see on screen and for spreading his conservationist messages. "I made a decision that the best use of my skill set and my voice was to do what I’m doing right now."

Personal Life

James Cameron has produced many artworks; pictured here is Neytiri

Cameron has been married five times: Sharon Williams (1978–1984), Gale Anne Hurd (1985–1989), Kathryn Bigelow (1989–1991), Linda Hamilton (1997–1999, one daughter), Suzy Amis (2000-, one son, two daughters). Cameron is very distantly related to actress Joanna Cameron who starred as Isis on television in the 1970s.

Cameron is a member of the NASA Advisory Council and is working on the project to get cameras on the pending manned Mars mission. Cameron has also given speeches and raised money for the Mars Society, a non-profit organization lobbying for the colonization of Mars.

Although Cameron has lived his entire adult life in the United States, he remains a Canadian citizen. Cameron applied for American citizenship but withdrew his application after George W. Bush won the presidential election in 2004.

In late October 2007, Cameron, along with singers Olivia Newton-John and Tanya Tucker, were ordered out of their Malibu homes due to the pending threat of the Witch Fire in Southern California.

In 2009, Cameron produced A Message from Pandora, a documentary feature about the Belo Monte Dam in Brazil.

In June 2010, Cameron met in Washington with the EPA to discuss possible solutions to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon (BP) oil spill. Later that week at the All Things Digital Conference, he attracted some notoriety when he stated, "Over the last few weeks I've watched...and been thinking, 'Those morons don't know what they're doing'." Reportedly, Cameron had offered BP help to plug the oil well, but they declined. The oil spill was eventually stopped using techniques similar to those Cameron recommended.

On February 2, 2012, the Associated Press said Cameron would be moving to New Zealand to film Avatar.

Cameron is not religious; he once called himself "Converted Agnostic", but later said "I've sworn off agnosticism, which I now call cowardly atheism". As a child he described the Lord's Prayer as being a 'tribal chant'. He believes people should be prepared in case there is no afterlife, saying, "I’ve come to the position that in the complete absence of any supporting data whatsoever for the persistence of the individual in some spiritual form, it is necessary to operate under the provisional conclusion that there is no afterlife and then be ready to amend that if I find out otherwise.” Despite this, he still finds the mythology of religions such as Hinduism an interesting subject which served as inspiration on Avatar.

The Avatar Plant Based Cookbook

In 2012, Cameron and his children became vegans. He mentioned in 2022 that he is healthier than he has ever been, and said regarding meat; "It's not a biological mandate that we have to eat this stuff. It's a choice, just like any luxury choice." Cameron commented, "Eating meat is not only killing us, it’s killing the planet. The environmental impacts are enormous." He assisted with creating the Avatar Plant Based Cookbook for the crew members of The Way of Water and did not want meat to be served on set due to not wanting to promote the meat industry and create a hypocritical environment when the Avatar series has themes of environmentalism, with The Way of Water expanding to themes of animal rights due to the tulkun slaughters.

Cameron and his wife helped produce the 2018 Netflix documentary The Game Changers, about athletes with plant-based diets. To help the vegan market, Cameron and his wife once built a pea-protein facility in Saskatchewan, Canada, although they eventually sold it. He dislikes anti-vegan jokes like "punch a vegan" and because the term "vegan" has negative connotations among many people, he created the term "futurevore". He believes killing animals for food will be seen as outdated practice someday, saying, "We’re eating the way people will eat in the future. We’re just doing it early."

Criticism

Avatar and Cultural Appropriation Accusations

Over the years, some have called the Avatar movies racist because they feel the Na'vi "culturally appropriate" Indigenous imagery. James Cameron responded to this, saying there is a "fine line" to walk when it comes to celebrating existing cultures without appropriating them, but believes Avatar has always tried to honor minorities and not oppress them, featuring many actors of color such as Zoe Saldaña, Michelle Rodriguez, Wes Studi, CCH Pounder, Cliff Curtis, and so forth. He commented, "I hope they see the intention, which is to celebrate the wisdom keepers. I see the Indigenous people that still remain in our world today as the people who are more connected to nature than we are in our industrialised urbanised civilization, and we need to learn from them. The movie is intended to celebrate those philosophies, that spirituality." He has apologized to anyone offended by the films and mentions he does not invalidate hurt feelings, saying, "If we offend anybody in the process, I can only apologise, but we're doing the best we can." "It is not up to me, speaking from a perspective of white privilege, if you will, to tell them that they're wrong. I have to listen. I have to say, "If that's what you're feeling, that's what you're feeling."

Regarding Avatar popularizing the trope of the "white savior", Cameron views the first movie as an allegory for a white man making amends for what settlers did to Indigenous peoples. He believes The Way of Water has moved away from white savior themes due to Jake Sully becoming more submissive and stepping down from his positions of power, becoming protected by Tonowari.

Temper Accusations

Cameron has had a reputation for having a strong temper in the past and being hard to work with. For example, he would wear a hat with "HMFIC" (head motherfucker in charge) and threatened to nail phones to a wall if he heard them going off during takes. The British newspaper The Independent described his directing as tyrannical: "[James Cameron]...is a nightmare to work with. Studios have come to fear his habit of straying way over schedule and over budget. He is notorious on set for his uncompromising and dictatorial manner, as well as his flaming temper. " After working with Cameron on the set of Titanic, Kate Winslet decided that she would not work with Cameron again unless she earned "a lot of money." She admitted that Cameron was a nice man, but had too much of a temper. He has been described by one collaborator, author Orson Scott Card, as selfish and cruel. When asked about working with Cameron on the novelization of The Abyss, Card said the experience was, "...Hell on wheels. He was very nice to me, because I could afford to walk away. But he made everyone around him miserable, and his unkindness did nothing to improve the film in any way. Nor did it motivate people to work faster or better. And unless he changes his way of working with people, I hope he never directs anything of mine."

In recent years, Cameron has claimed he has changed and has admitted he regrets his attitude in the past, seeking to become a healthier and more positive director. He commented, "A lot of things I did earlier, I wouldn’t do — career-wise and just risks that you take as a wild, testosterone-poisoned young man." Kate Winslet worked with Cameron again two decades later to portray Ronal in the Avatar sequels, and commented, "I loved doing Avatar with Jim—he is much more calm now. In those days there was no space for him to say, ‘It might not work.’ He had to make it work. There were all those conversations about this huge film, Titanic. I can’t imagine the pressure. As we get older we learn how to say, ‘I made a mistake.’ We all get better at that, don’t we?"

Dolphin Show

Cameron attending the controversial dolphin show

During the promotion of The Way of Water, Cameron attended a show in Japan where dolphins performed and sarcastically said during it, "I'm sure everybody asked their permission to be in the show." His attendance caused controversy because many Avatar fans felt it was antithetical to the themes of the series to use animals as entertainment.

He clarified a week later about how he felt uncomfortable but did not want to seem rude to the Japanese people putting on the show for him: "There was zero mention of a dolphin show. I literally found out there was a dolphin show AS we were walking out on stage. We were already out in the lights and fans were cheering. I said something snide on-mike like, 'I’m sure the dolphins were all asked for their consent to be part of the show' or something like that. I was seething. But I didn't want to create a big public incident. Maybe I should have, in retrospect. But my instinct is always to meet people where they are. Which is the whole point of Avatar: The Way of Water. To shift consciousness." Cameron blamed Disney for being blindsighted to the dolphin show, commenting "When you see the movie you’ll see that it’s all about saving whales, and treating them with empathy as equals. It’s the pivotal message of the film, so there’s obviously no way I would have agreed to standing up in front of a show based on captive dolphins.. I wanted you to know this was a faux pas outside my ability to foresee or prevent, and that I’m sorry about it."

He also said if people don't want to be hypocritical and instead wish to help dolphins and animals, they should "put down the damn tuna melt", stop eating meat and fish entirely, and stick to plant-based proteins as he has for over a decade.

Quotes

• "I’m not trying to build an empire here, I’m just trying to make some cool movies."
• "I don’t think I need a theory, I think anybody that’s seen the movie knows why; it’s a fucking gigantic adventure that’s an all-consuming emotional experience that leaves you wrung out by the end of the movie. And it was groundbreaking visually, and it still holds up today. So I don’t think I need a theory." (when asked to theorize why the first Avatar is successful at the box office)
• "I don’t define success and wealth as things, but as experiences between people and between us and nature and places — things that really feed you."
• "I don't think anything one does artistically in life should be determined by the trolls and the naysayers."
• "My tastes are so kind of blue collar and general. They're not esoteric, my personal tastes. If I like my movie, I know other people are gonna like my movie. It's very simplistic, really, ultimately."
• "[Avatar] asks us to open our eyes and truly see others, respecting them even though they are different, in the hope that we may find a way to prevent conflict and live more harmoniously on this world. I hardly think that is a racist message."
• "And I said "You know, I've been kind of thinking about this stuff for a while and I didn't frankly need your dumbass idea in order to make this movie, and 11/11 lawsuits went away." (regarding the lawsuits disappearing after he showed his original artwork and scripts)
• "I can tell you one thing, they’re gonna be bitchin’. You will shit yourself with your mouth wide open." (regarding the Avatar sequels)
• "Put up your hand if you thought there was enough of Neteyam in the movie. Okay, so presumably, put up your hand if you thought you wanted to know him better. Okay. Alright. Well, he's dead."
• "Matt, you’re kind of like one of the biggest movie stars in the world, get over it." (about Matt Damon regretting declining the role of Jake Sully)
• "Ducks can be aggressive, geese are worse, but ducks can fuck you up. I have a hard time imagining duck-sized horses fucking me up, what are they going to do, rear up and kick me in the ankle?"
• "I like hard science fiction more than I like fantasy. Which is not to say I don't enjoy watching Harry Potter."
• "I like cats and I like dogs, I just don't like them at the same time."
• "The single biggest thing that an individual can do to combat climate change is to stop eating animals."
• "If Papyrus resonates with the issues of Indigenous cultures in the public consciousness, then that fits well with Avatar, so I'm not losing any sleep over it."

Trivia

• James Cameron said the Na'vi are supposed to represent the better aspects of humanity (caring for the environment, respecting animals, trying to create a peaceful world, etc). He hopes audiences will aspire to be more like the Na'vi. He denies he is anti-human, saying most audiences have figured this message out, and said people who don't understand this message by now are pseudo-intellectual boneheads. He also mentions the fact that the Avatar films are successful at the box office is evidence people understand the message, and gives him faith in humanity.
• His movies frequently being successful with audiences, as well as performing well at the box office, has resulted in a popular saying among people: "Never bet against James Cameron"
• He regrets saying "I'm the king of the world!" at the 1998 Oscars, finding it cringe. He wishes he appeared more humble, even if he was quoting Titanic.
• In 2022, he left a building surrounded by autograph scalpers. He walked straight to the car, and when people in the crowd began boo-ing and shouted "Fuck Avatar!", he rolled down the window to give them the finger.
• In 2022, he said "A lot of things I did earlier, I wouldn’t do — career-wise and just risks that you take as a wild, testosterone-poisoned young man. I always think of [testosterone] as a toxin that you have to slowly work out of your system.” This offended people and caused the hashtag "#testosterone" to trend on Twitter.
• He was adapted into South Park where his character says: "James Cameron doesn't do what James Cameron does for James Cameron. James Cameron does what James Cameron does because James Cameron is... James Cameron!"
• He has admitted he only really cared about making Titanic in order to fund an expedition to the wreck site.
• He has visited the wreck site of the Titanic over 30 times.
• The Futurist: The Life and Films of James Cameron is a biographical novel written by Rebecca Keegan that covers his filmmaking career up to and including Avatar.
• He thinks too many people are techno-optimist, thinking it will be theirs and the planet's salvation and that it's a dangerous outlook. For example, instead of Elon Musk trying to get people to make expensive carbon removal machines, Cameron thinks people should stop deforestation and just plant more trees.
• His favorite films include:
  • The Wizard of Oz (1939) - James Cameron mentioned it is his number one
  • Dr. Strangelove (1964)
  • Wait Until Dark (1967)
  • 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
  • Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
  • The Godfather (1972)
  • Jaws (1975)
  • Taxi Driver (1976)
  • Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1976)
  • Alien (1979)
  • Resident Evil (2002) - More of a guilty pleasure movie, notes “Watching Michelle Rodriguez in that film, moving like this feral creature, is joyful.”
  • Borat (2006)
  • Inception (2010)
  • The Woman King (2022)
  • George Lucas’ Star Wars films
  • Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings films

External Links

• James Cameron at the Internet Movie Database

References

See the image gallery for James Cameron