James Cameron says he cut ten minutes of gunplay action scenes from Avatar: The Way Of Water

"Violence and action are the same thing, depending on how you look at it," Cameron says

By Gabrielle Sanchez | December 27, 2022 | 7:22pm

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James Cameron forcing James Cameron to film the gun scenes and then subsequently cut them Photo: Chung Sung-Jun

What up everyone, this is your daily dose of “Things James Cameron Says,” where we go in-depth on every quote he’s said throughout the ongoing promotion of Avatar: The Way Of Water. In today’s tidbit, Cameron takes on gun violence in America.

In an interview with Esquire Middle East, Cameron says he cut out “about ten minutes” of The Way Of Water due to the scenes’ depiction of gun violence.

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“I actually cut about 10 minutes of the movie targeting gunplay action,” Cameron says. “I wanted to get rid of some of the ugliness, to find a balance between light and dark. You have to have conflict, of course. Violence and action are the same thing, depending on how you look at it. This is the dilemma of every action filmmaker, and I’m known as an action filmmaker.”

Cameron has built his name on making action films such as Terminator, True Lies, and Aliens. Now, looking back, he says he probably would not have made the gun-forward flicks he built his name on.

“I look back on some films that I’ve made, and I don’t know if I would want to make that film now,” Cameron says. “I don’t know if I would want to fetishize the gun, like I did on a couple of Terminator movies 30-plus years ago, in our current world. What’s happening with guns in our society turns my stomach.”

The Canadian-born filmmaker chooses to look on the bright side in all this—he doesn’t live in America.

“I’m happy to be living in New Zealand where they just banned all assault rifles two weeks after that horrific mosque shooting a couple of years ago,” Cameron adds.