James Cameron look straight into the eyes, speak clearly, seek conversation and complicity. He has thin arms and moves them harder when he talks about the ocean. He gets up to say hello, shakes hands tightly and pays attention to every detail. “They want me to back up a bit so we can improve our shot,” he asks in a low voice. He motions for this reporter to identify the position of the camera and to lift his head higher so that the light reaches its target. Even if he plays the interviewee, He doesn’t stop being a director for a second.
“From Argentina? How many hours of travel?” James Cameron asks before filming begins.The following is the 9-minute speech he gave clarion, only medium Argentinian invited to see, before its premiere, Avatar: The Path of Water, in London and, of course, to interview him.
It’s 4:25 pm, it’s already dark outside and the cold is making itself felt and it hurts the skin. London lights up with the colors of Christmas and everywhere there are posters with the face of Queen Elizabeth and the words “1926-2022”. It’s Cameron’s 1,000th interview of the day bro round tables and solos.
“You and two others stayed,” confirms a girl on staff who says “Pooola” and walks briskly with notebook and headset through the corridors of the first floor of the Corinthia Hotel, which is one block from the Thames and five from Big Ben. .
Cameramen with flashes, microphones and tripods also pass along that green-carpeted corridor, make-up artists with huge fanny packs from which brushes of various sizes and shapes hangand waiters coming and going with juices, coffees, and mineral water.
The preparation for these 9 minutes is at the level of the Hollywood star in question and provides, in the post-Covid era, two swabs, one in Buenos Aires and the other in London. But one-on-one with James, director of two of the highest-grossing films in history and winner of three Oscars and two Golden Globes– leave another feeling.
Cameron, who is 68 and has four children, is formal but extremely down-to-earth. Were it not for the accompanying structure, the cameras and their operators, the lights, their publicist, and a woman who warns when it’s three, two, and one minute until closing, this meeting might seem anything but. For a chat – with a cultured and interesting recontra – in the living room of a house.
Director of titanic and terminator He listens, he is silent to think and only then does he answer about his love for the ocean and its fusion with cinema, about the challenges of underwater shooting, about the technological innovations of the new film, about the link between his most successful titles and the Pressure of pre-release.
Y He even agrees to answer about his personal life: He talks about his inspiration while writing, his identification with some characters, his role as a father and also as a son.
Cameron’s path with water
“I have spent thousands of hours underwater, freediving, submarines, I love the ocean, I have loved it since I was a child. Like this It wasn’t a huge leap to transfer my love of water to my other love, which is making movies.Cameron says. He has combined his two passions in one the abyss (1989), titanic (1997) and in this film he reviews the director, who does nothing halfway. Neither with his films, nor with his madness for the sea.
In 2012 he achieved the world record in deep diving solo of 10,908 meters in the Pacific. Color data? He used a water vehicle of his own design. He also developed the lighting and 3D camera equipment for filming in the ocean.
And now for the new one Avatars and for the first time in the history of cinema, convinced (and pitched) a cast to perform underwater. “When I’m casting I don’t ask ‘are you a diver?’. I know I can teach them what they need to know,” says Cameron, who built a giant tank for this film and simulated the waves with the help of two propellers.
Even if he clarifies that it is not easy, because they have to act in those conditions and learn “to hold their breath”.
The first Avatars It took place in the tropical jungle, “now we move the story to these islands where people live in communion with the ocean, in a whole new culture. And a lot of bad things happen.”
In the new film, which lasts 3 hours and 12 minutes, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) become parents. His arrival in the seas of Pandora, where characters such as Ronal, played by Kate Winslet, appear in an attempt to protect his family from a new threat. He has fantasy, action and emotion.
-What role did your family play in the creation of this film? Do you feel similar to Jake Sully as a father?
-(Laughs) There’s a lot of me in Jake, even if I’m not as tough as him. But then again, they’re not at war like Jake, trying to keep his people alive. I can write about that character, but it doesn’t mean he’s that person. At one point in my life I was like Lo’ak (one of Jake and Neytiri’s sons), the misunderstood teenager, who has an overbearing father.
I wrote about things I knew, about experiences I observed and because of this I think the film feels like a true story. The family is everywhere, a parent’s job is to protect, and for this reason parents are sometimes a bit strict.
-What were the main challenges during the making of the sequel?
-Many challenges. One was imagining this world with these new creatures, and I was able to figure that out because I had a great team of artists. Another was the dramatic part. Water is always a challenge. And the size: we had 3,250 special effects shotsthere are many and we were faced with the challenge of scale and maintaining quality.
Cameron says he paid close attention to the graphics and took advantage of technological improvements. In this film “everything is clearer, more real, sharper, we put a lot of time and energy into it, because there was no point in explaining to the actors what was best for the film if we couldn’t adapt their computer-generated images to the character,” he points out Cameron.
How do you think the public will receive this film? How do you handle the pressure after the huge success of the first one?
-You know that I can work with the technical details at the microscope level, but I can’t tell you how the film will come out on the market, we will have to wait. Will they love her? Will they like some parts and not others? Maybe they don’t like it or like it less than the first one, who knows? And as for the pressure, I have some good advice: If you don’t like pressure, don’t direct a film.. And that goes for both small and big movies.
When James says “great movies,” from off-camera, the woman in the ad shows three fingers.
-What can you tell us about the following movies? Is there any possibility of considering Argentina as a filming location for another part of Pandora?
-Here is the great irony of Avatars: It was filmed in New Zealand, one of the most beautiful places in the world, beautiful mountains and forests… Guess how much of the movie was filmed on location? Zero. Everything was done in the studio. We didn’t go to Brazil for the rainforest, that’s not how we make these movies. And guess how much was filmed at sea, on real ships. Zero. Everything was in the studio.
-And about upcoming movies, what can you tell us?
– Nothing (laughs). They will be different places, different cultures, different creatures, but they will follow the same characters.
-What connection do you find between your movies “Titanic”, “Terminator”, “Avatar”…
Well they are all different. For me connection has to do with ties, ties. Whether it’s love, revenge, father-son relationship, sense of duty, sacrifice, these are the important values for me. I think you’ll see thematically that it’s the human stories that connect these films.
The woman with the ads has already marked two and then one with her hand and is now moving her forefinger in a circle and another and another. It’s the last question.
-The film has strong messages, what is the most important for you?
-Family is the most important thing. The second is the responsibility towards nature and towards the oceans, to change who we are, to change the way our civilization works so as not to destroy it. I think that’s a strong message from the story.
-An ecological message…
-Yes, the environmental message in this film is about the oceans and also about indigenous cultures, it’s not just about the natural world, but also about the people who live close to nature.
Time runs out and the camera cuts off, but the speech continues during the second handshake. Have you ever been to Argentina? “No, I’d like to go,” Cameron says. When asked for a photo, he smiles and replies two, “for being a part of this and for coming so far.”
Special Correspondent. London.
POS
Source: Clarin
