James Cameron Marvels at How Sigourney Weaver Played a Teen in “Avatar: Fire and Ash”: She Was 'a Different Person' (Exclusive)
- - James Cameron Marvels at How Sigourney Weaver Played a Teen in “Avatar: Fire and Ash”: She Was 'a Different Person' (Exclusive)
Tommy McArdle, Jack SmartDecember 19, 2025 at 12:41 AM
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Pascal Le Segretain/Getty
Sigourney Weaver and James Cameron on Dec. 4, 2025 -
James Cameron is sharing how he and Sigourney Weaver tapped into their younger selves for their third Avatar movie together, Avatar: Fire and Ash
"I'd say, 'Well, emotionally you're 15.' And so am I, by the way, I think we all are to some extent," Cameron jests of his longtime collaboration with Weaver
Avatar: Fire and Ash is now in theaters
James Cameron is opening up about how he and Sigourney Weaver embraced their younger years while making the Avatar movies.
With the series' third installment, Avatar: Fire and Ash, now in theaters, the Oscar-winning filmmaker, 71, is addressing his decision to have Weaver, 76, portray a teenaged Na'vi character, Kiri, in 2022's The Way of Water and its new follow-up after she played Dr. Grace Augustine in the 2009 original.
"She was 70 and 71 across that period where she was capturing Kiri," Cameron tells PEOPLE of Weaver's performance as the mysterious character, who plays a major role on Pandora in the two Avatar sequels. "I mean, she can capture Kiri tomorrow. Nothing's changed. She's a little bit older now, but she just came in a different person. She came in lighter and more open. I mean, she literally looked like she had gotten younger."
The filmmaker notes that Weaver took on the task of portraying a teenager "as maybe one of the biggest acting challenges of her career" across The Way of Water and Fire and Ash, which were filmed back-to-back several years ago. "Because in her mind, she had taken herself back to her 14, 15-year-old self. And by the way, it wasn't all fun and light. It was the darkness of an anxious teenager," he says.
courtesy of 20th Century Studios
Sigourney Weaver in Avatar: Fire and Ash
"She can [answer] these questions better than I can, but [Weaver] talks about being gawky and awkward and feeling unseen, and she channels all that as well," he says of Weaver's take on life as a teenager.
Weaver, who first worked with Cameron on 1986's Aliens, told Empire in November that she "was such a miserable" teenager at ages 14 and 15. "I was so insecure — and funny, so I managed to survive high school — but I didn’t have any real confidence," she said at the time, noting that playing Kiri gave her "an opportunity to go back and re-enter that state of mind, be in it and trust myself in a different way [with] that character."
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courtesy of 20th Century Studios
Sigourney Weaver in Avatar: Fire and Ash
While speaking with PEOPLE, Cameron describes Weaver's performance as "younger, more alive, more vivid" in the first Avatar movie when her original character Grace took on a Na'vi body in an avatar state.
"I thought, 'Wow, if we could do that, what if Sigourney played her own daughter, or at least the daughter of her avatar self?' " he recalls. "I said, 'Sigourney, are you up for this? You want to try playing a 15-year-old?' And we'd joke about it. I'd say, 'Well, emotionally you're 15.' And so am I, by the way, I think we all are to some extent."
Avatar: Fire and Ash is in theaters Dec. 19.
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