Avatar 2 star Zoe Saldaña has revealed that she feels a personal connection to her character Neytiri's story.
Speaking ahead of the release for Avatar: The Way of Water, Saldaña said that becoming a parent made her experience the fear of losing someone she loved, something which she can now identify with her character.
"In my personal life, when I became a parent, fear entered my realm," she said.
"The fear of losing something that you love so much, you know? And you just spend a great deal of your time creating these hypothetical scenarios that just unimaginable."
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She continued: "When I read the second script, that was her, that was Neytiri. But I didn’t see it then. I see it now. Because my job wasn't to see it, my job was to be it."
Responding to Saldaña's comments, director James Cameron added: "I hadn't really thought of it in those terms, but that's it exactly.
"I mean you may be fearless when you don't have kids. You learn fear when you have kids, when you have something greater than yourself that you could lose. And that's what both of your characters are dealing with.
"Sam [Worthington] plays a character that would leap off of a leonopteryx, go flying through the air with no parachute, to land on the biggest, meanest predator on the planet, to solve his problem. Would he do that as a father of four? I’m thinking probably not."
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With less than a week to go until its release, The Way of Water is currently expected to have a strong release, with the film tipped to make $150 million to $175 million in the first weekend.
Meanwhile Cameron has given a promising update on the third Avatar film, saying he hopes it will hit cinemas in December 2024 should the third instalment do well at box office.
Avatar: The Way of Water is released in cinemas on December 16.
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Brenna Cooper is a freelance journalist, who currently specialises in entertainment reporting. She joined Digital Spy in 2022, writing TV and movies stories for the site. After graduating with an NCTJ accredited Journalism Masters from the University of Sheffield in 2020 she has since embarked on a freelance career.
Brenna previously produced lifestyle content for Checklists.co.uk and has a specific interest in music, reviewing live acts and interviewing bands such as Confidence Man and Amyl and the Sniffers.
Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
