James Cameron: “The end of Avatar: The Way of Water represents a big gamble” [interview]

Avatar 2 arrives unencrypted on television, two years after its triumph in theaters. When it was released, Première met its creator.

Two years after its triumph in theaters, which raised it to the rank of 3rd biggest box office hit of all time, Avatar: The Way of Water arrives unencrypted on television, at the end of the weekend and the start of the Christmas holidays. Our enthusiastic review is worth reading here.

We had met James Cameron just before the film's release, when the success of the sequelAvatar was still uncertain. To wait until this sequel is broadcast on TF1, at 9:10 p.m., here is this interview, accompanied by his previous interviews in our magazine to talk aboutAvatar. You can also find all the information on his upcoming films, including Avatar: Fire and Ashexpected in theaters in December 2025, by clicking there.

Avatar told by James Cameron in Premiere [partie 1]

FIRST: When we publish this interview, at the end of December, Avatar: The Way of Water will either be on track to become the biggest hit of all time, or… well it won't be. What kind of importance does this have for you?
JAMES CAMERON: We started working on the film in 2013, so nine years ago. And at the time, we did not have the objective of “beat” lth first Avatarwhich was a real phenomenon. So we said to ourselves that if we made two thirds of our success, we would already be pretty good. Today, a decade later, we live in another world, the post-pandemic world, where the cinema market has contracted considerably. Today's audiences feel comfortable at home streaming movies. And then we worry! Because if Avatar 2 doesn't make enough money, there won't be anyAvatar 4 and 5 – I remind you that 3 has already been shot… I just tell myself that these films are interesting, and that we want to live with these characters. People are worried, but these worries are way above me and my salary. I can't do much more than the films I'm capable of. The other forces, I do not control them. We are lucky to go out to China, it is very important in terms of business. We're going to be released on approximately 60,000 screens there. This is a difficult scale to consider. When the first film was released in China, at the time there were only 300 3D screens and the majority had been installed six months earlier, precisely for the release ofAvatar. Another time…

From the outside you seem like a director “hardware”very attached to technologies and tools. But the mystical and dreamlike side of The Way of Water is reminiscent of other dream sequences in your other films. You are also a real “software” ?
Yes ! Quite. But why choose between the two? We use our whole brain, all the time. I can be very, very technical, with one half of my brain, but the other half, very instinctive unconsciously, is very emotional. That's how I communicate with actresses and actors, and they don't care about technology. We don't have to choose. For me, a complete human being is capable of anything. When I dream, I don't dream “technically”. I dream of colors and emotions, I dream surrealist. Besides, the surrealist movement did not want to interpret visions, it was about putting them on paper. Anyway, there are technical problems, artistic problems, and narrative problems, and I happen to enjoy solving them all. Why should I choose?

The Way of Water focuses a lot on archetypes: there is the mother, the father… Does this reflect something deep in you?
I think our brain structure, our consciousness, evolved so that we could connect with each other. And that art is a way to bring out this inner dream state, to project it outside so that someone else can recognize themselves in it – and connect to it. It’s a question that fascinates me a lot: what is art? Why do we need it so much? It’s one of the first things we did as human beings. Cut stones, fire, and then, bam, the cave paintings. It makes sense, yes, but which one? Today I believe that art is a way of communicating between subconscious minds.

Precisely, your latest film uses voice-over less than the previous one: not only because there is less to explain, but because everything seems more obvious…
Yes. It’s a choice made from the start. You know, making a film like this means designing an absolutely mind-blowing number of details! We are at an infinite level of detail. But when we contemplate the final result, the definitive image, the satisfaction we experience is indescribable. Hey, did we do this? We ? It's always better than we thought. The gap between what we initially imagined and what we ultimately achieved is truly surprising. I actually surprised myself: I enjoyed watching my own movie. I have seen it thousands of times, in bits and pieces, but as it is designed to be shown in the cinema, only a few times. And I only saw it finished last week [l’interview a eu lieu le 2 décembre 2022]. In 3D. I was a little nervous. What if I didn't love him? (Laughter.)

And did you like it?
It works, almost. (Laughter.)

Besides, you know a thing or two about how to make a good sequel…
However, I was at war with myself over a lot of decisions, believe me, especially since right in the middle of the film, we take a turn and we go completely elsewhere… Jake and Neytiri disappear for thirty minutes and we focuses on kids. It's a completely different journey than the one we thought we'd take. A film, and especially a sequel, should always offer the unexpected, but not by losing the audience. Furthermore, and without spoiler tags, I find that the end of The Way of Water represents quite a gamble. It's not a big happy ending. It's very bittersweet. When you make a film of this magnitude, at this budget level, there is a tendency to play it safe, especially when it comes to the ending… And there, well I don't think that's the case!

Avatar told by James Cameron in Premiere [partie 2]