Before it was knocked off course by The Hurt Locker at last night’s Producers Guild Awards, James Cameron’s Avatar was a blockbusting Golden Globe winner on a collision course with Oscar’s Best Picture — so why on Pandora weren’t motion-captured thespians Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana nominated for anything at Saturday’s SAG Awards? “I don’t see how we could be on lots of people’s best-of lists and in the running for numerous best-picture awards if the acting wasn’t there and wasn’t top-notch,†Cameron told us on the red carpet before the PGA awards. “Because actors are one of the biggest elements of a film.â€
Cameron worries that the narrow-mindedness of technophobic, carbon-based actors worried about being replaced by computers could be to blame for the snub: “I think it is more about a lack of information about the process, which causes a misunderstanding and makes it easy for voters to dismiss. I don’t think they understand that we don’t embellish or make up portions of the performance. It’s not just a voice performance. The animators don’t create the physicality [while the] actor sits in a booth somewhere for two days and reads lines.â€
He continued: “Unfortunately, I think there’s a sense that CG opens a door to an after interpretation. Which is not how I work. My moment of interface with the actors is on the set. When we leave the set, that’s it. If I didn’t get what I wanted, I’m out of luck. I do not fill in performance.â€
Cameron feels that Zoe Saldana, seen in the film only in computer-generated Na’vi form, is especially worthy. “Every second of the performance is Zoe. To carry a film on her shoulders and to step up every day for over a year is no small task. If you think about it, she did many things for this role, from mastering an accent and learning a language to intense physical training, that are the kinds of things that earn people Oscars. And she did it all in a blank room.â€
Additionally, says Cameron, it’s not actors who need to worry about his technology putting them out of work — it’s makeup artists. “It’s replacing five hours in a makeup chair,†he told us. “Actors walk in sleepy-eyed, we slap a helmet on their head, do a little range of motion calibration and, boom, they’re acting in fifteen minutes.â€
“Also, leotards are more comfortable than corsets or loin cloths,†added his wife, Suzy Amis, who evidently has it in for costume designers.