Sam Worthington, best known as Jake Sully in James Cameron's Avatar films, reveals his initial reaction to the idea for the original movie. Avatar landed on the big screen with a bang in December 2009, drawing in audiences with its incredible visuals and state-of-the-art CGI. The film, which was Cameron's long awaited follow-up to then-current box office king Titanic, broke many of Cameron's own financial records, and thanks to numerous re-releases has continued to hold the #1 highest grossing title worldwide. In addition to being a moneymaker for 20th Century Fox, Avatar also boosted the careers of actors such as Worthington and Zoe Saldaña, and jump-started a franchise that will continue with this winter's Avatar: The Way of Water.
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One of the difficulties that Cameron faced in creating Avatar was bringing an entire cast and crew onboard with the wild, unbelievable visuals and lore of the world of Pandora. Almost the entirety of the production took place against blue screen technology, with actors such as Worthington, Saldaña, and Sigourney Weaver doing motion capture work, and the entire Na'vi language being engineered to give depth to a culture that didn't exist. The production, as with the subsequent sequels, took several years, corresponding to growing technologies and the depth of Cameron's vision for the story. Signing up for an Avatar movie involved more information, background and extraneous elements than most projects, and for some, the onset of entering Pandora can be extremely daunting.
Speaking at a recent press conference that Screen Rant attended, Worthington talks about the first time he heard the pitch for Avatar, and how he was initially overwhelmed by the scope of Cameron's vision for the project. Worthington, who's promoting the recent 4K theatrical rerelease of Avatar, emphasizes the trust he and his fellow cast members put in Cameron in order to act alongside visuals and creatures that didn't entirely exist yet. Check out the full excerpt below:
"Well, when I first read it, there are things like floating mountains, there are things like Thanators, there are things when I have no idea what this man's talking about. And least of all, I had no idea how we're gonna do this. My biggest memory is when you're in that Volume was the sense of play. That's how we did this thing. It was Jim [Cameron] every day saying, 'Look, I'm gonna build something and create something that will translate to be the floating mountain, and I need you to jump off it. And I'm gonna have guys coming at you, attacking you, and they're gonna symbolize, later on, Viperwolves.' And you just dove in."
Worthington's account of production speaks to Cameron's much-discussed dedication as a director. Stories still periodically emerge from the shoot of Titanic where, amidst delays, setbacks and breakdowns, Cameron would literally keep the ship afloat and inspire the best performances in his actors. This also explains the thirteen-year wait in between Avatar and The Way of Water, stagnated in part to help Cameron wait for several computer graphic technologies, including water design, to advance to the point of believability. This level of dedication also led Kate Winslet, who hasn't worked with Cameron since Titanic, to reunite with the director for a major role in further Avatar projects.
Ultimately, Worthington's view of Cameron as the calming force in a nebulous filming environment enhances the experience of both Avatar and, eventually, its sequels. With all the spectacular visuals, intriguing character designs, and indescribable elements of the world of Pandora, it's easy to forget that these elements were unbeknownst to the actors and performers that made Avatar possible. Knowing that, it's equally impressive that Cameron was able to direct his actors to accurately exist in a world they couldn't even see, and thereby had to imagine to the best of their abilities. With all the achievements Cameron has reached as a blockbuster director, Academy Award winner and influential producer, perhaps his greatest accomplishment is continuously guiding his cast and crew, almost blindly, through the world of Avatar.