Avatar: The Way of Water(2022).Photo: Avatar/Youtube
James Cameronsays that his new filmAvatar: The Way of Wateradds to the female-empowerment space in a way that hasn’t quite been done before.
“Everybody’s always talking about female empowerment,” Cameron, 68, toldRobert Rodriguezin a recent conversation forVariety’s Directors on Directors series. “But what is such a big part of a woman’s life that we, as men, don’t experience? And I thought, ‘Well, if you’re really going to go all the way down the rabbit hole of female empowerment, let’s havea female warrior who’s six months pregnant in battle.’ "
Expanding further onKate Winslet’s character, Ronal, he said, “It doesn’t happen in our society — probably hasn’t happened for hundreds of years. But I guarantee you, back in the day, women had to fight for survival and protect their children, and it didn’t matter if they were pregnant.”
Cameron went on to note that “pregnant women are more capable of being a lot more athletic than we, as a culture, acknowledge.”
“I thought, ‘Let’s take the real boundaries off,’ " he added. “To me, it was the last bastion that you don’t see.Wonder WomanandCaptain Marvel— all these other amazing women come up, but they’re not moms and they’re not pregnant while they’re fighting evil.”
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Kate Winslet as Ronal inAvatar: The Way of Water(2022).20th Century Studios
He explained, “I mean, she was Miss Israel, and she was wearing a kind of bustier costume that was very form-fitting. She’s absolutely drop-dead gorgeous. To me,that’s not breaking ground. They hadRaquel Welchdoing stuff like that in the ’60s.”
Avatar: The Way of Wateris about Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri’s (Zoe Saldaña) family and “the trouble that follows them, the lengths they go to keep each other safe, the battles they fight to stay alive, and the tragedies they endure,” according to an official synopsis.
Speaking withEntertainment Weeklyfor an interview published last week, Winslet, 47, said she thought it was “just so cool” for her character to be pregnant in the film.
“Jimhas so much admiration for women and pregnant womenand what pregnant women are capable of, and how pregnant women are actually much more resilient and physically capable than I think often people give us credit for or would expect,” said the Academy Award winner, who is also mom to daughterMia, 22, plus sonsJoe, 18, andBear, 9.
“The things we can achieve, I mean, my God, I don’t know a single pregnant woman who found out she was pregnant, sat down and did nothing,” Winslet added. “You just become kind of bionic; youfeel like you are absolutely superhuman. And so for Jim to really harness that quality and ability and put it into its Na’vi form, it was just amazing. I loved that so much.”
Avatar: The Way of Wateris in theaters now.
source: people.com
