James Cameron movies are known for featuring cutting-edge technology, and the Avatar films (which are streaming with a Disney+ subscription) are no exception. Moviegoers are once again being brought back to Pandora in Avatar: Fire and Ash, which was filmed at the same time as The Way of Water. And it turns out that one actor had to film all of their scenes in the threequel twice in order to merge motion capture and live-action performances for the blockbuster. My mind is officially blown.
CinemaBlend’s Avatar: Fire and Ash review praised its gorgeous visuals, as well as its emotional story… especially what goes down with Jack Champion’s Spider. The actor spoke to SlashFilm about his role in the third movie, where he revealed that, because he plays a human character in Pandora, he had to spend years filming his footage twice over. As he put it:
I did two years of performance capture with [the Na’vi actors] in L.A. and then another two years in New Zealand doing live-action, and I essentially had to retrace my steps. And Jim would always joke that the first two years was like a giant rehearsal for me, because what really mattered was the live-action for me in New Zealand, and I just had to remember their performances.
Is anyone else’s head spinning? The Avatar movies are very long, so it’s not even like Champion only had a few scenes as Spider. So the fact that he had to track his blocking and emotional story over two years and also shoot his coverage two times is pretty wild. And it’s impressive that both the actor and Cameron ultimately worked together to make this seamless from the audience’s perspective.
Spider is at the heart of Fire and Ash‘s story, and he goes through some remarkable changes throughout its runtime. So it’s fascinating to hear the way the star of Scream VI (which is streaming with a Paramount+ subscription) worked to bring his performance to life. Later in the same interview he went on to speak about the tools he had to help him track his journey, as he put it:
They would play their performances either through a microphone or even like this iPad on top of this foam Na’vi body. But a lot of it was retracing my steps and making sure that I remembered when someone moved so it would match the original footage.
Every time I learn more about how the Avatar movies were shot, it’s more remarkable that James Cameron‘s trilogy became a reality. On top of actors like Kate Winslet filming at the bottom of a pool, there was also the dual performance that Jack Champion had to bring as a result of playing a human character opposite Jake Sully’s Na’vi family. But despite what a technical experience it was filming the last two movies simultaneously, the emotional story still came first. As the actor put it:
As much as it was technical work, it never affected the emotion, which Jim was always very aware of, which is nice.
This just makes me more invested in seeing what James Cameron might bring to the table if/when his final two Avatar movies are produced. Critics were mixed on Fire and Ash, and the threequel is going to have to make a ton of money if the studio is going to move forward with more movies. Personally I’m hoping we get to see how the story concludes, especially after the twits that came from Spider and Kiri.
Avatar: Fire and Ash is in theaters now as part of the 2025 movie release list. Will it break box office records like its predecessor? Only time will tell.