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James Cameron praises Sigourney Weaver’s dedication to her craft and their shared pursuit of perfection in filmmaking
Weaver portrayed a teenage Na’vi character in the Avatar sequels, a role Cameron calls one of her biggest challenges
Cameron says Weaver channeled her teenage self to play Kiri, capturing both youthful energy and teenage anxiety
James Cameron and Sigourney Weaver‘s friendship has endured for decades.
The director, 71, and actress, 76, first began working together with 1986’s Aliens and continue to collaborate on the Avatar franchise, most recently in 2025’s Avatar: Fire and Ash.
After reflecting on their time working on Aliens in a conversation with PEOPLE at the 53rd Annual Saturn Awards on Sunday, March 8, Cameron says, “Sigourney and I are on great terms.”
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“We just really get along just as two humans and as two coworkers,” he says.
Sigourney Weaver (left) and James Cameron at the ‘Avatar’ premiere on Dec. 16, 2009
Credit: Jeff Vespa/WireImage
Cameron admits that Weaver is “just very serious about her craft. I’m very serious about my craft.”
“We kind of meet in that sort of quest for perfection,” he says. “She’s amazing. She always brings it every time. I mean, you look at her character in the Avatar sequels. She’s playing a 15-year-old at the age of 70-ish, 70 plus, and flawlessly.”
Weaver portrayed a teenage Na’vi character, Kiri, in Avatar: Fire and Ash and 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water, following her role as Dr. Grace Augustine in the 2009 original.
Sigourney Weaver as Kiri in ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’
Credit: 20th Century Studios
Cameron previously told PEOPLE that Weaver was “70 and 71 across that period where she was capturing Kiri.”
“I mean, she can capture Kiri tomorrow. Nothing’s changed,” he told PEOPLE in December 2025. “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.”
According to Cameron, the role was “maybe one of the biggest acting challenges of her career.”
“Because in her mind, she had taken herself back to her 14, 15-year-old self,” he said. “And by the way, it wasn’t all fun and light. It was the darkness of an anxious teenager.”
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“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,” continued Cameron.
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