The Wildest Takeaways from James Cameron’s New Career-Spanning Interview

In the list of badass directors who deliver on their promises, James Cameron might be at the very top. The guy has consistently delivered the top-grossing movies of all time…movies that build stunning worlds, and that tap into the cultural lexicon.

In the world of blockbuster filmmaking, there is James Cameron, and then there is everyone else.

His newest film, Avatar: Fire and Ash, hit my top 25 for 2025, and hits theaters wide this Friday.

The director sat down with The Hollywood Reporter for a career-spanning deep dive into the future of Pandora, the threat of AI, and his relentless pursuit of “Ferrari-level” cinema.

I thought Cameron delivered some truths that filmmakers need to hear, so let’s unpack them below.

Here are the best quotes and takeaways from the interview.

1. He Once Got Trapped 12,500 Feet Underwater

James Cameron is an adventure director. The guy sort of goes method when he wants to get a shot, like actually visiting the Titanic for the opening of the movie and getting into the massive tubs for Avatar.

Long before the Titan submersible tragedy of 2023, Cameron experienced his own “spooky” brush with death. While exploring the Titanic wreck in a Russian sub, a vortex pinned the craft to the ocean floor.

“We had been caught in a vortex on the downwind side of the wreck that kept driving us back to the bottom,” he said.

So what did the famed director do? Well, he didn’t panic.

Cameron did what he calls “working the problem.” He sat in freezing darkness for thirty minutes to conserve battery life, waiting for the currents to shift so they could attempt a resurface.

His takeaway? Stress relief for him is solving hard engineering problems. He even refuses to use GPS while driving because his “wreck-diving sense of direction” never fails him.

That nose for where to go has taken him to some of the most important and greatest movies of all time. And it’s a reminder for all filmmakers to follow their gut when necessary.

2. The “Bullsh*t” Myth of Performance Capture

What Cameron and his team have achieved with the Avatar movies has revolutionized filmmaking. But it’s a shame most audiences don’t fully understand what they’re doing and why it matters.

If you think Avatar is just a bunch of digital puppets, Cameron has a choice word for you: “Bullsh*t.”

“On a live-action set, you’re laying track in front of a moving train,” Cameron says. “On a performance-capture set, we take as long as we need to. There’s no worrying about the camera, about the lighting; I’m not coming in with a shot list. For me, it’s about getting to the emotional core of the scene. They say it’s not ‘real acting’ — that’s the most bullshit thing in history, [as if] ‘real acting’ is stage acting where you’re whispering loud enough to be heard 30 rows back.”

Cameron scoffs at the idea that stage acting is the only “real” medium, calling the performance capture on Fire and Ash the most “emotionally core” work an actor can do.

‘Avatar’ Credit: Disney

3. Avatar 3 is a “Coin Toss” for His Future

I would not describe James Cameron as a particularly vulnerable guy in a ton of interviews, but in this one, we really peeled back the layers to see what he plans for his future.

And how that’s kind of up in the air.

Cameron revealed that the future of Avatar 4 and 5 hinges entirely on the box office performance of the upcoming Fire and Ash. He cut the movie and says it answers most of the questions for the audience. If it bombs… well..he’ll just make something else.

Part of him wants it to be a massive success, but another part wonders if a “just-enough” failure would finally justify him doing something else.

Cameron says, “This can be the last one. There’s only one [unanswered question] in the story. We may find that the release of Avatar 3 proves how diminished the cinematic experience is these days, or we may find it proves the case that it’s as strong as it ever was — but only for certain types of films. It’s a coin toss right now. We won’t know until the middle of January.”

4. He is Reviving Terminator (Without Arnold)

My favorite Cameron movies are the first two Terminators, and I have long wanted him to maybe return to the franchise to make something totally him. Well, Cameron confirmed he is “plunging into” a new Terminator project that will not star Arnold Schwarzenegger.

He said, “It’s time for a new generation of characters. I insisted Arnold had to be involved in [2019’s] Terminator: Dark Fate, and it was a great finish to him playing the T-800. There needs to be a broader interpretation of Terminator and the idea of a time war and super intelligence. I want to do new stuff that people aren’t imagining.”

Cameron wants to move away from fan-friendly callbacks and instead solve the “narrative problem” of how to keep science fiction ahead of our real-world AI reality.

While it’s not expected that he will direct the new Terminator, it’s good to hear he’ll be heavily involved.

5. He Flat-Out Wrote Point Break

There has been long speculation that James Cameron worked on Point Break for his then-wife, Kathryn Bigelow, to direct. At the time, he was secretly working on the script, and now he’s embracing that rumor.