Zoe Saldaña is now an Academy Award winner, and director James Cameron couldn’t be prouder. The “Avatar” filmmaker shared his reaction to her achievement, stating, “I was so happy to see Zoe acknowledged as the world-class performer we, in the ‘Avatar’ family, have always known her to be. Her acceptance speech was a noble reminder of what immigrant families bring to the U.S. and to Hollywood.”
During her Oscars speech, Saldaña proudly referred to herself as the “proud child of immigrant parents” while also celebrating her historic win as the first American of Dominican descent to receive an Academy Award.
“And I know I will not be the last. I hope,” she added. “The fact that I’m getting an award for a role where I got to sing and speak in Spanish—my grandmother, if she were here, she would be so delighted. This is for my grandmother.”
Cameron, who directed Saldaña in 2009’s “Avatar” and its 2022 sequel, “Avatar: The Way of Water,” has been one of her strongest advocates.
Currently in post-production on the third “Avatar” film, he has long praised Saldaña’s performances.
After her Golden Globe win earlier this year, she revealed that Cameron was among the first to reach out and congratulate her.
“I was sitting in the audience, and I received a message from James Cameron, who’s somewhere in New Zealand right now, cutting ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash.’ And he, after all these years, believes in me,” she said. “So that, to me, nourishes my desire to continue growing as an artist.”
Cameron previously told in a Saldaña cover story that the Academy had been long overdue in recognizing her work as Neytiri in the “Avatar” films.
“I’ve worked with Academy Award-winning actors, and there’s nothing that Zoe’s doing that’s of a caliber less than that,” he stated.
“But because in my film she’s playing a ‘CG character,’ it kind of doesn’t count in some way, which makes no sense to me whatsoever. She can go from regal to, in two nanoseconds, utterly feral. The woman is ferocious. She is a freaking lioness.”
“Avatar: Fire and Ash” is scheduled for release on December 18 by Disney and 20th Century Studios.
