The film ‘Avatar’ is one of director James Cameron’s major successes—and it showed at the box office, as well as through a new fanbase sharing a love of 3D movies. Over a decade after the premiere of the first film, 13 years to be exact, the anticipated sequel will be hitting theaters this weekend.
But, the quest to the second edition of the film wasn’t exactly an easy decision. Cameron, along with some of the cast and crew of ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ spoke about the explosive sequel at a global press conference, and the director discussed what went into the tough decision to make a sequel.
“It seems obvious to everyone: ‘Oh, you just made a bunch of money, do a sequel,’ right? Well Stephen Spielberg didn’t do a sequel to ‘E.T.,’ the highest grossing film in its time, right? It’s not a no-brainer,” Cameron explained. “Do you want to call down the lightning strike again in the same spot? You know, it’s a lot to live up to.”
The director also went into the fact that even though this sequel honors the first, it’s there to also throw audiences for a bit of a loop in terms of what to expect.
“There are a lot of surprises in terms of where the story goes in this film, that we’re not putting into the trailers and the TV spots and all that. You kind of have to experience it. But it also goes a lot deeper, in terms of the heart and the emotions,” Cameron continued.
Producer Jon Landau also echoed his sentiment in terms of the emotional heartstrings ‘The Way of Water’ will pull on. One of the lines in the native tongue of the film is translated to “I see you” and that’s how those who worked on the film want the audience to feel.
“Themes are what you leave the theatre with, and this movie has heart, has emotion, and it also has, you know, a message again about our world, not just the environment, [but] about people, [and] about accepting people for their differences,” Landeau says.
This new film in the franchise features some returning cast, including Sigourney Weaver (yes, they figured out a way to bring her character back) plus Steven Lang, Zoe Saldaña and Sam Worthington. And just like the actors went through life changes in their personal lives, so did the characters, and Cameron penned an in-between film or, “Avatar 1.5” as Worthington called it to help fill in the gaps.
“That you know, unto itself is amazing and detailed, and full of what they’ve kind of gone through over that gap. And I think it was part of, you know, Jim [James Cameron] realizing that story was about them being warriors, and taking on the battles of the clans and things like that,” Worthington explained.
Both Worthington and Saldaña were able to bring more of their personal life into the roles they were coming back to. Both actors also became parents in the time between films, and that changed some perspectives.
“Neytiri and I, in a way, we’ve lived parallel lives. There’s a level of fearlessness and rebellion that I have, I guess as a person, that Neytiri had as herself,” explains Saldaña.
“Also fear. In my personal life, when I became a parent, fear entered my realm. The fear of losing something that you love so much, you know? And you just spend a great deal of your time creating these hypothetical scenarios that [are] just unimaginable. When I read the second script, that was her, that was Neytiri. But I didn’t see it then. I see it now… because my job wasn’t to see it, my job was to be it.”
Among the new cast-members comes a reunion for Cameron and Kate Winslet, and this one takes a story to do with water in a bit of a different direction than their original film, ‘Titanic.’ Knowing who the director was, and also, what he provided for women, was a strong pull for Winslet.
“Jim has always written for women, characters who are not just strong, but they are leaders, they lead with their heart, with integrity, they stand in their truth, they own their power. They have physical power that is admirable, and to be part of that, and included, it was just so flattering that Jim asked me, because Jim does not suffer fools,” Winslet explained.
And the cast certainly couldn’t be fools with the intense water training, acting and rehearsals that went into creating this world. Some days on set had the actors holding their breath for minutes (Winslet reportedly was the best with her efforts running over seven minutes) while other actors such as Weaver went to high school classes to observe teens in their natural environment to try and make her character’s speech patterns, mannerisms, and posture as realistic as possible.
And with such a tight knit crew—even the crowd scenes tend to use the same group of about ten people placed in different locations—seeing the full picture come to fruition is a true treat for those who worked on it, and for audiences.
“Everybody’s mighty in this film, in their own ways,” Cameron finishes. “I look at this, and I’m not only proud of the work, [though] you’ve got to start with that, right? But I’m also proud of the entire downstream team, over 1,000 people who preserved [the world] so eloquently and so subtly.”
Catch ‘Avatar: The Way of Water‘ in theaters Dec. 16.
