Avatar: The Way of Water opens in theaters in less than a month, and almost nobody has seen it. That’s a real rarity this time of year, when awards contenders with December release dates like Babylon or Glass Onion screen widely for critics on both coasts in order to make it in for awards consideration. Much like its 2009 predecessor, the Avatar sequel is set to open at nearly the last possible moment to be eligible for this year’s awards race, only bolstered by the air of secrecy that surrounds it.
But you do have to make sure people know your movie exists, so without big promotional screenings or much more than some trailers, The Way of Water has one more secret weapon: its director, James Cameron. Across a string of interviews this fall, from promoting the theatrical rerelease of Avatar in September to an expansive GQ profile this week, Cameron has dropped a string of one-liners (“Whitewater rafting? Fuck that”), sarcastic retorts (“Oh, I don’t know, maybe that it looks good? Come on!”), and grandstanding statements (“I think this movie is going to make all the fucking money”) that are frankly awe-inspiring. For someone who nearly didn’t make the first Avatar movie because he was “having too much fun” doing underwater exploration, Cameron has returned to the movie publicity machine with relish—and, seemingly, entirely on his own terms.
It’s not just his absence of self-doubt (“I don’t think I’m hardwired with that”) or well-earned confidence in his success (“Titanic paid for [this building], so I get to do this,” as he told a group of Fox executives). It’s the sense that all this maniacal hard work and faith in creatures called Na’vi will be in the service of something truly spectacular. Cameron’s confidence is clearly infectious, both for the actors he works with (the story of Kate Winslet learning to hold her breath for seven and a half minutes is already famous) and the audience eager to line up to see what marvel he’s created next. For all the skepticism that’s emerged around Avatar in the years since its historic box office run, Cameron is entirely clear-eyed—and correct—about what made it so huge: “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.”
Below, a few more recent highlights from Cameron’s glorious press tour, from recounting old disputes with another underwater explorer to a shot fired at Marvel and DC. Avatar: The Way of Water will be in theaters on December 16, which means we hopefully have many, many more weeks of Cameron interviews to enjoy between now and then.
On exploring the wreck of the Titanic, as recounted by explorer Victor Vescovo: “I said, ‘I watched Titanic at the Titanic.’ And he actually replied: ‘Yeah, but I made Titanic at the Titanic.’ ”
On just how much money The Way of Water has to make: “How expensive? ‘Very fucking,’ according to Cameron, who told [GQ] he’d informed the studio that the film represented ‘the worst business case in movie history.’ In order to be profitable, he’d said, ‘you have to be the third or fourth highest-grossing film in history. That’s your threshold. That’s your break even.’”
On his New Zealand farm: “I’ve never really checked this out, but I’m told we’re the biggest supplier of organic brassicas in New Zealand, which is a niche of a niche, granted.”
On his dreams: “I have my own private streaming service that’s better than any of that shit out there. And it runs every night for free.”
On his uneven gait: “I remember my first wife, when we were just first dating, she said, ‘Walk ahead of me on the sidewalk.’ And I said, ‘Why?’ She said, ‘I want to study your walk.’ And I turned around and I said, ‘Why?’ She said, ‘Well, I think I can correct it.’ Fuck you!”
On working with Ron Howard on the visual effects for Apollo 13: “I’m like, ‘I’m a total asshole compared to Ron Howard.’”
On the hat he used to wear on set that stood for “head motherfucker in charge”: “I would either wear that hat on the first day of a new shoot, or I would wear my T-shirt that says ‘Time becomes meaningless in the face of creativity.’ Just to shake up the studio a little bit. I don’t think I [wore] the HMFIC hat on the new Avatar. This is the kinder, gentler me. This is the mellow, Zen nice guy, sensitive to everybody’s needs and emotional requirements. No microaggressions here. Which is usually good for about the first two weeks.”
On superhero movies: “I also want to do the thing that other people aren’t doing. When I look at these big, spectacular films—I’m looking at you, Marvel and DC—it doesn’t matter how old the characters are, they all act like they’re in college. They have relationships, but they really don’t. They never hang up their spurs because of their kids.”
