James Cameron has broken his silence after attending a “dolphin show” as part of the Avatar: The Way of Water publicity tour.
The director, who went vegan a decade ago, said he had no idea he was attending such a show. And, that he was “seething” about the situation while on stage.
The incident occurred earlier this month. He was promoting the new film in Tokyo, Japan, alongside stars Jon Landau, Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, and Stephen Lang.
As part of the press conference, they all watched an Avatar-themed show at a marine park. Cameron introduced the proceedings, saying “Welcome to Pandora” (referring to the fictional world the movies are set in).
Cameron has long been a vocal voice in the vegan community, so his attendance at the show was met with backlash.
‘I was seething’
In an email apparently written by Cameron and sent to ocean photographer Brian Skerry, who he previously worked with, Cameron said he hadn’t known about the show until the last minute.
The email, which was shared to Facebook, reads: “We were on a whirlwind publicity tour for Avatar: The Way of Water across multiple countries, and I was getting whisked along from one appearance or interview to another for a week straight, literally doing twenty or thirty interviews a day.
“I got handed a schedule that showed, as my first of six stops of the day, a fan event at an aquarium. I was visualizing something like the Monterey Bay Aquarium, with its great science and conservation programs. There was zero mention of a dolphin show. I literally found out there was a dolphin show AS we were walking out on stage. We were already out in the lights and fans were cheering.
“I said something snide on-mike like, ‘I’m sure the dolphins were all asked for their consent to be part of the show’ or something like that. I was seething. But I didn’t want to create a big public incident. Maybe I should have, in retrospect. But my instinct is always to meet people where they are. Which is the whole point of Avatar: The Way of Water. To shift consciousness.”
The dolphin show
The show featured a number of dolphins performing “tricks,” and one appearing to dance with a trainer. After applauding the show, Cameron seemed to claim that the dolphins themselves agreed to be in it.
He said: “I love these animals, I love their intelligence. I love their sociability, their ability to connect with us and to interact with us and learn from us. And I’m sure everybody asked their permission to be in the show.”
Backlash
Animal rights organization PETA criticized the director’s decision to attend the show. Speaking to Plant Based News (PBN) at the time, PETA US Senior Vice President Lisa Lange said: “James Cameron waited 13 years for the development of the right technology to bring the underwater world of Pandora to life. So why on Earth didn’t he pause for just five minutes to consider whether he should have allowed himself to be seen as endorsing the cruelty of marine parks?
“Confining far-ranging dolphins to concrete tanks and using them as surfboards – riding on their faces in circus-style shows – is something the villains of Avatar would do. PETA urges him to reject such animal misery outright and encourages everyone to shun these cruel parks.”
Activist Bailey Mason (@warriorforanimals) also slammed the filmmaker. Mason told PBN: “James Cameron, as a high profile environmentalist, should never associate himself with the captivity of dolphins. Dolphin shows are cruel, not conservation.”
Is James Cameron vegan?
The video came as a shock to some of the vegan community, as the director has long been an outspoken advocate for animals.
Cameron was also an executive producer of the 2018 Netflix film The Game Changers, which looked at the health benefits of a vegan diet.
Cameron first adopted a plant-based diet in 2012. He recently announced that he now refers to himself as a “futurevore,” rather than vegan, in reference to his belief that it’s the diet of the future.
This article was original published on December 13, 2022. It was updated on December 22 to include James Cameron’s response to the backlash.
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Obviously this is a mistake – but what good does it do trawling someone who has been vegan for 10 years (longer than the author, you may note) on the vegan news site?! He probably didn’t want to attend this but was made to by the studio – many of us find ourselves in similar situations at the whim of our employers – give the guy a break!!
Zeb Cameron is an incredibly influential figure. And a director. You can seriously expect to believe that he would not have known about what was planned.
Not to mention he’s meet Ric O’barry, he didn’t work on the cove. If he was a legitimate animal advocate this prom stunt would never have been allowed! he has worked on other doc and damn well knows about the fact most dolphins come from Taiji & how cruel captivity is, so do most of the others. See my above links I forgot to add I was to irked.
Well this take aged well…! Yes, yes I can seriously believe that he would not have known about what was planned because he clearly didn’t!! Perhaps a little perspective next time and some more articles dragging some of the terrible carnivores out there (lord knows there are enough of them!) before we turn on our own!?
You should be more upset with PBN and their endless stories on the Kardashians as pseudo vegans. Sick and tired of seeing them be promoted on a vegan news page, enough is enough PBN!
Agreed!
It’s disappointing to see someone who has committed to doing their best for so long, be brought down on an action that some of us may not agree with. Doing one’s best will never be perfect.
My buddy’s mother makes $50 per hour working on the computer (Personal Computer). She hasn’t had a job for a long, yet this month she earned $11,500 by working just on her computer for 9 hours every day.
Read this article for more details… http://www.Payathome7.com
Well, as it goes, a person’s principals can easily be reconfigured when it becomes somehow inconvenient to hold onto them. It’s called “situational ethics” and in this case, the motivator was, of course, money …. at the expense of both these lovely sentient beings and his earlier stated pseudo-vegan ethics. So sad but so typical. Bless the beasts and the children……
And actually, all of them there in attendance should feel ashamed to support this cruel abuse of animals, not just Mr. Cameron alone. You don’t have to be a vegan to abhor the captivity & jailing of these poor creatures. So darn selfish and self interested.
I hope I’m wrong — and it’s bad enough, the way it reads: as pure sarcasm — but it may be even worse. When he said, “And I’m sure everybody asked their permission to be in the show,” that means, grammatically and syntactically, he was sure everybody asked the DOLPHINS’ permission for THEM — the “everybody” in question — to be in the show. DOUBLE snark, double disrespect, and double cruelty (or disregard). As I said, I hope I’m wrong; it’s easy to get words tangled when speaking off the cuff. But what a slip!
These multi-million dollar celebrities are such hypocrites. “Situational ethics” is the correct term to describe the ethics of these people. ‘
“In fact, if one person is unkind to an animal it is considered to be cruelty, but where a lot of people are unkind to animals, especially in the name of commerce, the cruelty is condoned and, once large sums of money [or politics] are at stake, will be defended to the last by otherwise intelligent people.”― Ruth Harrison, “Animal Machines”
This is way too judgemental for my taste. I clicked on this because I was thrilled to see that James Cameron is a vegan. That should be celebrated. I don’t see any good coming out of this kind of mud slinging. This is the kind of thing that keeps people away from veganism. That said, I do appreciate all the good work you all do at Plant Based News. Do keep it up (but without the, you know, mud slinging stuff 😉)!
And, by the way, I don’t approve of catching dolphins and making them perform shows, but that’s another matter.
Incredibly disappointing to see, and somewhat unsurprising. Cameron’s vegan advocacy in the past has focused primarily on diet and not as a philosophy, a way of living that extends to diet.
Moreover what’s heartbreaking is that this is not the first instance of hypocrisy when it comes to the abuse of animals for making Avatar. Unfortunately, horses were also needlessly abused for motion capture to simulate the direhorses in the film, when alternatively, these creatures could have been created using CGI without the need to abuse real horses.
Horses abused for Mocap:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CN70sDzpui5/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=0432275d-01e6-4a72-9c34-9a6ef4a7218d
Cinamablend article stating the needless use of horses for mocap:
https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2566253/avatar-2-set-photo-reveals-adorable-motion-capture-james-cameron
Okay so here’s my thoughts: he is a director of a movie, not a press tour planner, so start using your brains. He gets told by people from the studio HE WORKS FOR where he needs to be to promote the movie he made. There is most likely a CONTRACT between the studio and him about the attendance of the tours, meaning he probably couldn’t just tell them “Im not showing up to that”, and considering all the places they have traveled, he probably wasn’t told before showing up. To me he looked really uncomfortable and he made a point by asking if they had the dolphins permission to perform – and as we all know: they don’t. They’re captive. I think people are too quick to judge and blame people and cancel people. I’m not saying I agree with the show, I don’t, but you can’t blame Cameron when you don’t know the full story. He was there, but doesn’t mean he’s to blame, especially when you think of his “track” record about animals and the planet. There once was a thing called “Innocent until proven guilty”. There also used to be a thing called “seeing things from different perspective”.
You say that you are vegan??
I don’t believe you!
It was despicable heartbreaking!
Barbaric disgusting!
A true vegan don’t do this kind of behavior!
I will never haver in my life!
Will see a film from you l
Hipocrit!
Fame calls and ethics go out the window.
Cameron didn’t work on The Cove. He worked on Game Changers in later years with Louie Psihoyos, who directed The Cove.
JC did not work on The Cove it was a different doc & their all hypocrites for not stopping that promo stunt by speaking up for the animals they supposedly love. All of their influence could have stop the slaughters & end captivity in a matter of days 🌎 ⚖️ 🏡 🥊
http://www.dolphinproject.com/blog/open-letter-to-james-cameron-and-avatar-crew
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt1313104/fullcredits
I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps he hadn’t thought it through. Now that it has been brought to his attention that these shows are not ok, he will stop attending, I would hope. I appreciate PETA’s work in making this clear to him.
Glad he apologised for it and I hope he does everything he can to make sure this doesn’t happen again. I did notice the sarcastically snide comment about asking the dolphins’ permission to be there.
That is why it wasnt a mistake, he willingly chose to support animal cruelty because of PR reasons, he cared more about public opinion than the dolphins
I unintentionally purchased a plant based product that contained honey, that was a mistake, he intentionally remained at an animal abuse event
There is a still long long way to go if Avatar is supposed to be fighting for animals rights. Fish that get killed in this one don’t even get the marks of “respect” terrestrial animals would in Avatar 1. Fish get a right to be protected only if they are amazingly intelligent and human/na’vi like. All the rest of ocean life is used as tools and instruments. The “bond” they create with the flying fish is merely slavery, with no respect for the animal’s previous bonds and needs. The ocean is not just a place of beauty for us to swim around and use as we would a mall, which is the essence of what the film advocates we should do (or to exploit and ruin which is what really happens). It is a place where sentient creatures live and interact. Respect would be to see them for what they truly are, even if they don’t look like us, and just leave them in peace.
For me JC could say more than sarcastic comments at that moment, it was clearly anti ethical action, he choose money obviusly, in fact why is he promoting Avatar un Japan? Where everyone knows they hunt whale and are so cruel to animals in some many ways, oh its because they paid him a lot of money, i loved Avatar but its just so sad that he doesnt have coherencia in what he shows in camara, the Message of the movie and what he does with animals Rights, he sold his moral, hope he regrets and really think deeply in order to change and help dolphins soon 🐬💕🙏
Astonished!! I would just have left, not being there to promote such horrendous performance.