James Cameron Once Told A Studio Exec To “Get The F*ck Out” (Photo Credit – Instagram)
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Never get between James Cameron and his creative process unless you want to incur his wrath. Cameron once had unkind words for an exec who dared take issue with the controversial long runtime of his 2009 blockbuster Avatar.
In 2009, The multi-Oscar-winning director’s film Avatar broke the record for the longest run time at 162 minutes. Before the film reportedly hit theaters, a Fox executive supposedly “begged” James Cameron to make the movie shorter.
In a 2022 GQ interview, James Cameron recounted the incident that prompted him to use stern words. Cameron recalled the unnamed executive approaching him in his office with a “stricken cancer-diagnosis expression” following an early screening of Avatar.
James Cameron said that after the exec asked him to cut the run time down, he said, “I think this movie is going to make all the f*cking money. And when it does, it’s going to be too late for you to love the film. The time for you to love the movie is today.”
The exec allegedly began to flip out after Cameron’s acerbic response. Cameron recalled after the exec “flipped out and went bug s*it on me”, he told him to “get the f*ck out of my office.” Cameron added, “And that’s where it was left.”
It appears the executive’s concerns were all for nought. Avatar went on to gross $2.9 billion worldwide. James Cameron’s sequel, Avatar: Way of Water, had a longer runtime than the prequel. The 2022 film, with a 3 hr 12 m runtime, also went on to become a blockbuster hit, grossing $2.3 billion worldwide.
