James Cameron is considered one of the greatest directors of all time. His extraordinary talent for developing compelling and engaging characters left an indelible mark on the film industry. Cameron’s movies have featured the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, and other A-list Hollywood actors. Some he made A-listers.
On the other hand, he has not been quiet about his dissatisfaction with the cultural climate of Hollywood, especially concerning the representation of women in movies.
James Cameron: A Radical Feminist
James Cameron has long identified as a staunch supporter of women’s rights. He’s famous for populating his works with heroic figures of both sexes. Cameron is famous for casting women in traditionally male roles in his action films. This was one way he felt he could differentiate himself from other directors.
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Cameron explained to Vulture that he is “basically a pretty hardcore feminist.” Because of his regard for women in Hollywood, he has “no problem writing a script” where women are in the lead.
“I’m basically a pretty hardcore feminist. I have no problem writing a script in which the males become subservient to the females, which is what happens in Aliens… It’s up to Ripley to win the day. There aren’t too many male writers and directors who feel comfortable doing that. I guess it’s deeply hard-wired.”
James Cameron believes it takes more than just changing the gender of a male character to create a strong female protagonist.
Collaborating with Sylvester Stallone
James Cameron has collaborated with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, two of Hollywood’s biggest action stars. Since both he and Schwarzenegger have contributed to The Terminator series, they have worked together extensively.
Meanwhile, the impact of his collaboration with Stallone has been minimal. Rambo: First Blood Part 2 resulted from a minimal collaboration between the two, with James Cameron contributing as a writer. Stallone later rewrote Cameron’s script extensively, but the result was a movie that the filmmaker hated.
James Cameron said in a LA Times interview that even though he admired the movie’s success, the script he “wrote was pretty violent, but not in such an amoral way.”
“I admire the film’s success and I’m happy for everybody involved, but I always have to distance myself from it because it’s not the film I wrote – it was substantially rewritten by Sylvester Stallone. The script that I wrote was pretty violent, but not in such an amoral way.”
Cameron felt that the film’s nuance and morality had been lost in Stallone’s edit. He also thought the final film’s violence was “amoral” or devoid of any sense of right or wrong. James Cameron is widely regarded as one of Hollywood’s finest directors, so his opinions on the business tend to carry weight.
Source: LA Times
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