Entertainment
Avatar: Fire and Ash” director James Cameron on generative AI: “That’s horrifying to me
Much of what we see from the Earth-like moon of Pandora, the fantastical setting for the “Avatar” franchise, comes from a soundstage in Los Angeles, where scenes from the second and third movies were filmed. “We had to build an ocean,” director James Cameron said. “We could make a two-meter swell. We could make a wave crash up on a shoreline if we built the shoreline.”
Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldaña and other actors shot their underwater scenes in the nearly 250,000-gallon tank. Digital artists then took those shots, called performance captures, as a template to render the final versions of the characters we see on screen.
“So, performance capture, we use a whole bunch of cameras to capture the body performance of the actor,” Cameron explained. “And we use a single camera (or now we use actually two) to video their face. They’re in a close-up 100% of the time. But there’s a beautiful thing about being in a close-up 100% of the time. It’s very much like theater rehearsal.”
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“Avatar: Fire and Ash” is the third film in the series. It tells the story of the indigenous Na’vis’ fight to defend their paradise from colonizing humans.
Cameron created these stories and this world. He’s always been a dreamer, even as a kid in rural Canada. “I lived in a world of my imagination – it was comic books, it was science fiction. I read a lot. There were movies, TV shows,” he said. “I mean, I had a pretty fertile imagination.”
20th Century Studios
Cameron moved to Los Angeles with his parents as a teen. He briefly attended community college, where studies included marine biology, before dropping out and picking up odd jobs, including truck driving.
So, how did he go from blue collar to Hollywood? “Watching ‘Star Wars,'” he said. “I used to put my headphones on and listen to fast electronic music and imagine space battles, hyperkinetic space battles with all kinds of maneuvers and energy weapons, and people going through debris fields and all that. If the things I’m seeing in my mind can be the same things that are in a movie that’s the number one movie in movie history, then I’ve got a salable imagination.”
He returned to school, although not in an official capacity. “I started to study visual effects, and the way I did it was, I didn’t have the money to go to USC or anything like that. So what I used to do is, I’d go down to USC, I’d go bury myself on a Saturday, when I wasn’t driving a truck, in the stacks. And I’d read everything I could find on optical printing and front-screen projection and, you know, sodium process traveling mattes. All self-taught. I’d Xerox all these scholarly papers, put them all in binders. And I had this shelf full of black binders that had essentially a graduate course in visual effects and cinematography.”
He found jobs in visual effects departments and production design, rising through the ranks quickly due to his technical knowledge.
Then, in the early 1980s, Cameron, inspired by a literal dream about a robot exoskeleton, co-wrote and directed “The Terminator.” The movie put him on the map, and proved he could turn his imagination into reality.
But CGI wasn’t available at the time; the effects were done largely through puppeteering. “We just figured out how to do it all practically,” Cameron said.
He showed us around his private museum in Los Angeles, full of movie props from his films, including “Aliens,” where puppeteers brought Sigourney Weaver’s powerlifter – and the Alien Queen – to life. Of the Alien Queen, Cameron said, “Her head had, I think, seven or eight different axes of movement that were controlled by cables that went basically out her butt. And we had to hide all that stuff, so there was a lotta steam and smoke and backlight and things like that.”
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Cameron’s first use of CGI came with the science fiction movie “The Abyss,” It was also his first cinematic foray into another one of his fascinations: the deep sea. His second venture into an oceanic film? “Titanic.” It became the then-highest-grossing movie of all time. Cameron took home three Oscars himself.
But the film itself was never the priority for Cameron: He said he wrote the script in order to explore the wreck of the Titanic. “It was a little bit of a means to an end, you know?” he said. “I thought, ‘I can just go do this. All right, I need a story. Okay, ‘Romeo and Juliet.’ You know, young, doomed love on the Titanic.’ Boom! Like, instantaneous.”
He found a way to use Hollywood to invest in his passion for scientific exploration. “Yeah, exactly,” he said. “And then I had so much fun on my expedition that was to shoot Titanic for the movie, that I basically took an eight-year hiatus from Hollywood, an eight-year sabbatical. And I did subsequently six more expeditions for a total of seven, before I started ‘Avatar.'”
Cameron wrote the treatment for “Avatar” before “Titanic,” but it wasn’t until 2005 that he thought the current technology could support his vision. And even then, he wasn’t sure the business of Hollywood would go along. “For years, there was this sense that, ‘Oh, they’re doing something strange with computers and they’re replacing actors,’ when in fact, once you really drill down and you see what we’re doing, it’s a celebration of the actor-director moment,” he said.
“Now, go to the other end of the spectrum, and you’ve got generative AI, where they can make up a character,” he continued. “They can make up an actor. They can make up a performance from scratch with a text prompt. It’s like, no. That’s horrifying to me. That’s the opposite. That’s exactly what we’re not doing.”
Cameron’s “Avatar: Fire and Ash” opens next months.
So, how does he feel a few weeks from the premiere? “Nervous!” he laughed. “Are you kidding? Always. Always.”
Despite the uncertainty, Cameron is still undaunted, and enamored by the unknown. “I’m attracted, in case you haven’t noticed, by things I don’t know how to do,” he said. “Because you grow and you learn. If I’m still making movies when I got an oxygen tube up my nose and I’m 87 or whatever, should I be that lucky, I want to still be doing things I don’t know how to do.”
WEB EXCLUSIVE: Watch an extended interview with James Cameron (Video)
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Story produced by John Goodwin. Editor: Carol Ross.
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FROM THE ARCHIVES: James Cameron on deep-sea exploration (YouTube Video)
The Oscar-winning director of “Titanic” long had a fascination with life on the ocean floor. With cameras and deep-sea submersibles, James Cameron has brought the extreme environments of Earth’s oceans to movie screens in the documentaries “Ghosts of the Abyss” and “Aliens of the Deep.” In this Jan. 30, 2005 “Sunday Morning” story, Jerry Bowen talked with Cameron, along with marine biologist Djanna Figueroa, seismologist Maya Tolstoy, and astrobiologists Tori Hoehler and Kevin Hand, about how exploring our planet’s most hostile landscapes can help in planning future manned missions to Mars and beyond.
Entertainment
Ashton Kutcher says ex Demi Moore ‘killed it’
Ashton Kutcher is making it clear that admiration and respect still define how he views his ex-wife Demi Moore, especially when it comes to her recent work.
While promoting his upcoming series The Beauty, the actor openly praised Moore’s performance in The Substance, calling it one of her strongest yet.
Speaking to Entertainment Tonight in an interview published January 14, Kutcher acknowledged comparisons between his new project and Moore’s film, but quickly shifted the focus to her achievement.
“Demi’s performance in The Substance, obviously, she got extraordinary accolades,” he said. “I’m so proud of her.”
He then summed up his feelings simply and directly, adding, “She killed it.”
Kutcher, 47, and Moore were married from 2005 until their divorce was finalised in 2013. Since their split, he has largely avoided discussing their relationship publicly, making his recent comments stand out.
Rather than revisiting the past in detail, his words reflected genuine appreciation for Moore’s success and her Oscar-nominated performance.
In earlier interviews, Kutcher has briefly touched on the emotional aftermath of their breakup.
During a 2018 appearance on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast, he shared how isolated he felt after the divorce and how he sought clarity by spending a week alone in the mountains of Big Sky, Montana.
He explained that he disconnected completely, surviving on only water and tea, without food, devices, or conversation.
That period of solitude led him to reflect deeply on his personal life. Kutcher revealed that he wrote letters to people from past relationships where unresolved feelings remained.
He described the process as a way of letting go of regret and emotional weight he had carried for years.
Moore, now 63, has also spoken candidly about the end of their marriage.
While promoting her 2019 memoir Inside Out, she told Good Morning America, “I lost me. If I were to look back, I would say I blinded myself and I lost myself.”
Her words highlighted how deeply the relationship and its ending affected her sense of identity.
Today, both actors appear to be in very different places.
Kutcher shares children Wyatt, 11, and Dimitri, 9, with his wife of ten years, Mila Kunis, while Moore continues to reflect on her past through her work and writing.
Kutcher’s recent comments, however, show that despite everything, he still holds genuine respect for Moore, and isn’t shy about applauding her success when it’s deserved.
Entertainment
Pamela Anderson reacts to seeing Seth Rogen at Golden Globes
Pamela Anderson is opening up about an uncomfortable moment she experienced at the Golden Globes.
The actress revealed that seeing Seth Rogen at the event brought back lingering feelings tied to the controversial Pam & Tommy series made without her consent.
Speaking on SiriusXM’s Radio Andy, the Golden Globe nominee explained that although it appeared she left the awards show early, her exit was intentional and emotionally driven.
“At the Golden Globes, for instance, I didn’t leave early. I left after my award, and I went right to bed,” she said, clarifying that being in close proximity to Rogen made her uneasy.
The tension stems from Hulu’s 2022 limited series Pam & Tommy, which dramatised the theft and distribution of Anderson’s private 1995 tape with ex-husband Tommy Lee.
Rogen served as an executive producer on the project and also portrayed Rand Gauthier, the man who stole and sold the tape.
Anderson emphasised that she was never consulted about the show, a fact that continues to bother her years later.
“Seth Rogen, he did that [miniseries] on me without talking to me, Pam & Tommy,” she said. “How can someone make a TV series out of difficult times in your life? And I’m a living, breathing human being over here, hello.”
Anderson noted that Rogen was seated nearby during the ceremony.
“He was in the pit at the Golden Globes, so we were close,” she explained. “I just felt like, ‘I’m not chopped liver over here.’ I felt a little bit weird about it.”
While Anderson said she has been staying busy professionally, working on five films over the past year, she admitted that moments like this can still hit unexpectedly.
She shared that she hopes Rogen may one day acknowledge her feelings. “Eventually, hopefully he will reach out to me and apologise. Not that that matters.”
Reflecting more broadly, Anderson expressed frustration over how deeply personal experiences are often turned into entertainment.
She said the “darkest, deepest secrets or your tragedies in life shouldn’t be fair game for a TV series,” adding that the situation “pissed me off a little bit.”
Rogen, meanwhile, had a successful night at the Golden Globes, where his Apple TV+ series The Studio won Best Television Series — Musical or Comedy, along with Best Actor in the same category.
Despite the accolades, Anderson’s comments highlight that for her, the emotional impact of Pam & Tommy is far from over.
Entertainment
Teyana Taylor, Leonardo DiCaprio Golden Globes drama sees new twist
Teyana Taylor is clearing the air about Leonardo DiCaprio’s animated Golden Globes moment that took over social media, revealing that the viral clip didn’t quite unfold the way fans initially thought.
The actress and singer addressed the buzz during her appearance on The Tonight Show on Wednesday, Jan. 14, where she continued celebrating her first-ever Golden Globe win.
The clip in question, shared on the ceremony’s official TikTok page, showed DiCaprio laughing and gesturing enthusiastically during the broadcast, leading many viewers to assume he was chatting with Taylor.
She admitted she initially thought the same.
“Okay, so look, yesterday, I thought I broke the Da Vinci Code, right?” Taylor told Jimmy Fallon, referencing her earlier comments that suggested they were bonding over KPop Demon Hunters during the show.
Taylor explained that her excitement stemmed from the fact that her daughters, Iman “Junie” Tayla Shumpert Jr., 10, and Rue Rose Shumpert, 5, are huge fans of the Netflix animated film, which won Best Motion Picture (Animated) and Best Original Song that night.
At first glance, she assumed DiCaprio was reacting to her.
“So when I first seen it, I didn’t watch the whole thing. So I was like, ‘Oh you’re talking about Kpop Demon Hunters, he’s talking about me,’” she said.
But after watching the full clip, and seeing fans attempt to lip-read the exchange, Taylor realised she needed answers.
She picked up the phone and called her longtime friend.
“I was like, ‘You can’t be talking to me, were you talking to me?’ Because I already told people you was talking to me,” she admitted.
According to Taylor, DiCaprio had apparently discussed KPop Demon Hunters more than once that night.
“So apparently he had two KPop Demon Hunter conversations that night, so KPop Demon Hunters was just in his mouth all night,” she joked.
The situation sparked some playful jealousy on Taylor’s part.
“Who else is you chewing your invisible gum with?” she teased, adding that DiCaprio didn’t even remember who he had been talking to at the table.
Despite the confusion, the moment only added to the buzz surrounding their film One Battle After Another, which picked up four Golden Globe wins, including Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy) and Taylor’s award for her role as Perfidia Beverly Hills.
Both stars are now heading into the 2026 Actor Awards on March 1 with individual nominations, proving that even a misunderstood viral moment can end on a high note.
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