Hollywood has seen its fair share of demanding directors, Kubrick made actors do a scene 127 times, Tarantino nearly set Uma Thurman on fire, and Hitchcock? Well, let’s just say he had peculiar directing methods. But none come close to James Cameron, a man so dedicated to his craft that he practically asks his cast to breathe underwater.
From Titanic to Avatar, Cameron has cemented himself as the king of the deep, the blue, and the technologically mind-boggling. He’s not here to make his actors comfortable, he’s here to make a masterpiece. If that means actors are cold, wet, and on the verge of hypothermia, so be it!
And yet, despite all the legends surrounding Cameron’s notoriously grueling sets, some actors still sign up and then, complain? Zoe Saldaña, a woman with no time for whiners and a very specific threshold for distress, missing limbs, has something to say about them.
Zoe Saldaña vs. the Titanic tears
If James Cameron movies were a theme park ride, the entrance would have a sign saying, “You must be this brave to enter.” And Zoe Saldaña? She’s been first in line, strapped in, and loving every second.
Saldaña, best known for turning blue in Avatar and green in Guardians of the Galaxy, has dealt with some of the most intense film productions Hollywood has ever seen. Motion-capture suits? Sure. Hours in a makeup chair? No problem. Hanging from wires for weeks at a time? Walk in the park. So when she hears actors moaning about how difficult it is to work with Cameron, she tells Closer,
That’s for weak people. I’m not going to personally diss on anybody, but if you can’t hang, then don’t sign on for it. It’s a f***ing sinking ship. You mean to tell me you’re going to be frustrated because you’re wet for three months?
Her words, delivered with the energy of a drill sergeant who moonlights as a life coach, are basically a cinematic survival guide. Wet for three months? Too bad! Cold water? Deal with it! She’s not here for the pity party, she’s here for the epic filmmaking.
And, to be fair, she has a point. It’s not like Cameron is hiding his methods. The man lives for pushing the limits of filmmaking, and if that means his actors need to spend months shivering in a tank of water, then they should’ve read the fine print.
The James Cameron experience
James Cameron’s directing style can be summed up in three words, extra, extra, extra. This is the guy who dove to the actual Titanic just to prepare for a movie. The guy who waited over a decade to make Avatar because the technology wasn’t ready yet.
The guy who, when filming The Abyss, allegedly forgot that human beings require things like oxygen. So if you’re working with him, expect to suffer a little. Scratch that, expect to suffer a lot.
For the actors of Titanic, that suffering was mostly of the waterlogged variety. Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, and the set became less of a movie production and more of an extended ice bath from hell.
The stories from behind the scenes are legendary, actors getting sick, crew members storming off, and let’s not forget that mysterious PCP-laced chowder incident. But Zoe Saldaña? She was built for this. In her interview with Closer, she said,
But that’s the kind of person that I am. I will cry wolf when I’m missing a limb, but so far I’ve got my four limbs. My thing is that there were moments in which I felt overwhelmed, because this character had gotten so much into my skin and this was so alive to me.
Until then, suck it up, buttercup. This is the Cameron experience, and if you can’t handle it, maybe find a nice, cozy rom-com instead. So the next time an actor thinks about complaining that a James Cameron set is too intense, maybe they should take a page from Saldaña’s book, stop whining, start acting, and for the love of Hollywood, bring a dry towel.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
