As it turns out, James Cameron didn’t want to limit the way of the Na’vi to the big screen. The “Titanic” director had gone vegan for some time before the making of “Avatar,” but it was while making the sci-fi fantasy adventure that Cameron made a big move that would take his crew by surprise.
On an interview with Deadline, Cameron shares the big moment. “I sat down with the entire crew,” Cameron says. “And I said, ‘These films, we’re not just doing them to make money or to make cool, imaginative images and doing amazing animation. We’re doing them for a higher purpose because they mean something. And we have to walk the walk … So we’re all going to eat vegan on this production.” Talk about avoiding hypocrisy. He reportedly brought this policy back onto the set of “Avatar: The Way of Water” and its future sequels.
Cameron’s push for plant-based diets is not only thanks to their proven health and environmental benefits, but ultimately to preserve the ideas behind his own work. As he tells Deadline, “Between the lines, these movies are about our relationship with nature … If we’re really going to be caretakers of this planet we have to eat like we give a d***. And most of us don’t.”