The Two Words Avatar: The Way Of Water's Costume Designer Uses To Describe James Cameron - Exclusive
As the writer and director of two of the three biggest global box office blockbusters of all time with "Avatar" and "Titanic," there's no question that James Cameron possesses some special qualities that set him apart from most other filmmakers. Luckily for costume designer Deborah L. Scott, she's worked with Cameron consistently for more than 25 years, and as such, has gained rare insight into what makes the filmmaker tick.
Scott, who first worked with Cameron on 1997's "Titanic" and reunited with him in 2009 for "Avatar," is back as the costume designer for the film epic's new sequel "Avatar: The Way of Water." Tasked with designing the costumes not only for the film's "human" subjects but also for the performance capture actors who played the inhabitants of Pandora above and below the surface, Scott was thrilled to once again work with Cameron on what may be the filmmaker's most ambitious movie to date.
"Avatar: The Way of Water" is set roughly 12 years after the original film, where it's revealed that Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) — now a full-fledged member of the Na'vi — and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) have started a family. Their peaceful existence is interrupted, though, when they discover Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) had his personality and memories harvested before his death a dozen years before and is back in a genetically engineered Avatar body to exact revenge on Sully for betraying his command. Fleeing the forest tribe in a desperate bid to stay alive, Jake, Neytiri, and their kids seek refuge on a different side of Pandora, where in addition to the looming threat of Quaritch finding them, they must also gain the trust of the Metkayina — a clan of water people who live a much different lifestyle from that of Neytiri's tribe.
While anyone who has worked with Cameron could easily list dozens of reasons why they love to work with the writer-director, Scott was able to boil down the essence of the filmmaker in two powerful words in an exclusive interview with Looper.
Cameron is 'passionate' and a 'genius,' Scott says
Discussing her work with James Cameron on both "Avatar" films as well as "Titanic" — where her Oscar for best costume design was among the 11 statuettes the film captured — Deborah L. Scott gave Looper her thoughts about the attributes that define the filmmaker. Asked to sum up the writer-director in a word, Scott said Cameron was no doubt "passionate," but she needed to add another descriptor because of what's going on in his mind to drive that passion.
"I also think that — everyone says it, and it sounds trite — but he's a genius. He really is. He has an incredible imagination," said Scott, whose impressive list of credits also includes "E.T. the Extraterrestrial," "Back to the Future," and "The Amazing Spider-Man 2." "He relies on a lot of his technical abilities because he's so smart and he's done so much, and he's been an inventor, and he's been all these things. But he's very much of an artistic genius as well, and his imagination is absolutely boundless. He sets the bar so high for all of us, all the crew, and he supports us to get to that level."
Also starring Sigourney Weaver, Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, and Edie Falco, "Avatar: The Way of Water" is new in theaters in both 2D and 3D.