Avatar director James Cameron took a shot at President Donald Trump in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter published Wednesday, arguing his Avatar films are on “the right side of history.”
Cameron spoke about rising concerns about artificial intelligence and the environment in his new interview, as well as the impact his movies have had on them. While addressing this impact, he described the president as the “most narcissistic a**hole in history since f***ing Nero,” telling the interviewer he could be quoted on this.
“I’m not frustrated that Avatar isn’t solving it,” Cameron told the Hollywood Reporter when discussing the Avatar franchise’s impact on environmental issues.
“I’m frustrated because the human race seems to be delusional about what they think is going to happen next. We are going backwards. But 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.’ What we can say is the Avatar films are on the right side of history.”
Cameron also criticized how AI tools are created for “the average person,” and that they aren’t being created to help visual effects artists in Hollywood. The director said he will “investigate some development” in this area to address it.
The third Avatar film, Fire and Ash, will be released on Friday. Cameron has plans for two more movies, but said this new film “can be the last one,” and the release of future films will depend on how well the film does financially.
“We won’t know until the middle of January,” Cameron said.
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Last week, Trump signed an executive order limiting states’ regulation of AI, touting how the United States is leading in the industry and that it needs a “central source of approval” to maintain its lead. Trump compared his ban on state regulation of AI to China’s centralized process on the topic.
Time magazine listed AI architects — ranging from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, xAI founder Elon Musk, among others — as the recipients of its annual Person of the Year award.
