Stars recall ‘thrilling’ experience filming James Cameron’s Avatar
The stars of James Cameron’s 2009 sci-fi film Avatar recently shared what they remembered best about filming what would become the “biggest Hollywood blockbuster of all time.”
During a recent virtual presscon and based on production notes to promote the film’s theatrical return, in the lead-up to the sequel Avatar: The Way of the Water, the main cast opened up on their on-set experiences — from climbing “floating mountains,” to “flying banshees” to having infinite imagination — some 12 years ago.
For Sam Worthington, how Cameron’s set permitted a sense of play was unforgettable. He even described the Avatar set as a big play pit.
In the film, he essays the role of a crippled Marine, Jake Scully, who is dispatched to a moon called Pandora for a special mission. He gets reborn as an avatar, a remotely controlled body that allows him to blend into the resident Na’vi community. Not part of the equation though is falling in love with Na’vi Princess Neytiri and learning to call the “alien world” home.
“One of the strongest memories was just the sense of play that we had. Every day is problem-solving on a film set, but in this one, the problem is how do I ride a banshee? How do I climb floating mountains? How do we do this kind of intergalactic stuff, that we’re trying to do in a soundstage in the middle of wherever we are? And it’s like that sense of play is what you need to get through that,” he said.
“And, you know, you kept pinching yourself ‘cause I didn’t really think this was ever gonna come out or be a movie. I just thought it was like a bunch of fun and I was allowed to experience it. So, that’s what I remember most.”
He also shared that though their characters are “big and blue,” they “looked like us.”
“I think Jim (Cameron) always made us that promise that even though you’re gonna be big and blue, it’s you. It’s the technology and the performance captures. He described it once to me as it’s the next level of makeup. And I was always a bit worried that the subtlety that you could act wouldn’t really translate.
“But I remember, you know, seeing Sigourney blue and Zoe blue and
myself blue. And, you know, it was us. Every pore, every detail. Whatever got translated from the Volume of our performance through all the computers, it kept that essence. It was the truth. And that was the promise that he made me, and that’s what came out.
“That detail of our acting wouldn’t be overshadowed. It was just there. And that’s the essence that I saw,” he happily noted.
Sigourney Weaver who, as Dr. Grace Augustine, runs the Avatar program, shared, “I just remember my first day in the Volume, which is where we do the work. We make the scenes. I was in my little capture suit. And my first scene was actually to play Dr. Grace Augustine’s avatar.
“And there is a screen over on the side where you can see a roughed-out version of what it will look like in the movie. In other words, I don’t look like me in a suit. I can see a roughed-out version of Grace’s seven-foot-tall avatar with her tank top on in this jungle world.”
Seeing her own avatar on screen thrilled the actress. She said, “That gave me a thrill, a great sense of relief that maybe this would work. But also this idea that from this little room, we were gonna be able to create this other world that was so fantastic. The only way you can go to Pandora is by going to the theater and seeing it in 3D. That’s the rocket ship. And I got that.”
Zoe Saldaña, who plays the princess of the Navi community, said that her most unforgettable part was when Cameron called her up and said he wanted her to portray Neytiri.
She also felt excited and grateful because she was going to work with her idol Cameron, “like, the creator of Sarah Connor (of Terminator) and Ellen Ripley (from Alien film series).”
Plus, the film’s themes affected her personally because up until that point, she hadn’t thought about having intense conversations around the environment and Mother Earth. Doing the film, she noted, became her “initiation of that consciousness.”
“And I got to play, like what Sam is saying. I’m telling you that my imagination was never as infinite as when I was there. The last time I remember that was when I was a child. So, it really repurposed me in terms of, like, being super-proud about what I do. I felt like if I take this seriously, if I put all these tools, I can be a part of something truly magnificent and contribute something really significant,” Zoe said.
As for Michelle Rodriguez, Avatar was a memorable film experience because of the sets and the attention to detail, the opportunity to work on a James Cameron movie, and “the genius” that went into the film — from the engineers, the special effects guys, to the digital team.
“I’m just fascinated by the family structure of it. The fact that Jim is the captain, he is always pushing for people to be better at what they do,” said Michelle who, in the film, plays a chopper pilot who transports scientists to Pandora.
“If there’s anything I could take away from shooting an Avatar movie with Jim, it is the openness of my horizon. My perspective shifted. You know, nos don’t mean no to me. Nos mean I have to work harder to get around a problem. You know, the resiliency, the example of leadership,” she further said of Cameron.
Stephen Slang, on the other hand, could say the same thing about working with Jim. In Avatar, he’s head of security in a human combat fortress in Pandora.
“First of all, he (Cameron) encouraged me to be as free and as improvisatory as I felt I needed to be. He was giving me permission to take authority over this room. And that was important because it was a room filled with people. And so he was seating authority to me… I was fortunate to be able to do that,” he said.
Avatar opens in Philippine cinemas today, Sept. 21, for a limited run. The theatrical comeback is expected to drum interest in the sequel Avatar: The Way of Water, which opens in Philippine theaters on Dec. 14.
It welcomes back to the big screen returning cast members, namely Worthington, Saldaña, Weaver and Lang, who appeared on stage with producer Jon Landau during the Disney fan event, D23 Expo. The original stars were joined by the new-generation cast members Jamie Flatters (Neteyam), Jack Champion (Spider), Bailey Bass (Tsireya) and Trinity Jo-Li Bliss (Tuk).
As the synopsis puts it, Avatar: The Way of Water, is set more than a decade after the events of the first film. The Way of Water begins to tell “the story of the Sully family, the trouble that follows them, the lengths they go to keep each other safe, the battles they fight to stay alive and the tragedies they endure.”
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