James Cameron fulfilled a lifetime dream of leaving the United States for greener pastures.
Cameron, 71, admitted that the coronavirus pandemic heavily impacted his decision to uproot his family from the states and move across the world to New Zealand.
During a sit-down on “In Depth with Graham Bensinger,” the “Titanic” director confessed that he’s not so much interested in the scenery of the area, but more so invested in the country’s “sanity.”
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The “Avatar: Fire and Ash” creator and his wife, Suzy Amis Cameron, moved to New Zealand roughly five months into the pandemic. During a visit to the Christchurch area in the ’90s, the director remembered falling in love with the country and making himself a promise that he would live there “one day.”
After building a family with Amos, they decided that once “Avatar” was completed, they would relocate to the 12,000-acre farm they purchased in 2011. However, a global health crisis prompted a change of plans.
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“After the pandemic hit … [New Zealand] had eliminated the virus completely,” Cameron explained. “They actually eliminated the virus twice. The third time when it showed up in a mutated form, it broke through. But fortunately, they already had a 98% vaccination rate.”
“This is why I love New Zealand. People there are, for the most part, sane, as opposed to the United States where you had a 62% vaccination rate, and that’s going down – going the wrong direction. Are you kidding me?”
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Cameron weighed the two options and asked, “Where would you rather live? A place that actually believes in science and is sane and where people can work together cohesively to a common goal, or a place where everybody’s at each other’s throats, extremely polarized, turning its back on science and basically would be in utter disarray if another pandemic appears.”
When Bensinger noted how “stunningly beautiful” New Zealand is, the award-winning director didn’t mince words.
“I’m not there for scenery, I’m there for the sanity,” Cameron said.
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“Avatar” made $2.74 billion at the box office worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of all time in 2010, when it surpassed “Titanic.” It kept the record for the highest-grossing film ever for nine years, before “Avengers: Endgame” took the top spot in April 2019, making $2.79 billion.
While discussing his thoughts on climate change last year, Cameron slammed President Donald Trump and said the country was “going backwards” without solutions to the global issue.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Cameron described Trump as the “most narcissistic a–hole in history since f—ing Nero.” He added, “Yeah, you can quote that.”
Cameron warned that he sees environmental decline, artificial intelligence and shifting movie-going habits as emerging threats to humanity and Hollywood.
“Who’s to say we wouldn’t be going backwards even faster if it wasn’t for these films? There isn’t an alternative Earth without ‘Avatar’ we can point to and say, ‘It made this measurable difference,’” Cameron said, adding that he believes his films are on the “right side of history.”
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