James Cameron has voiced his relief that he is becoming a New Zealand citizen in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s re-election as US president, saying that America under Trump is “a turn away from everything decent”.
Asked how worried he was about Trump’s second term, the 70-year-old film-maker told New Zealand outlet Stuff: “I think it’s horrific, I think it’s horrifying … I see it as a turn away from everything decent. America doesn’t stand for anything if it doesn’t stand for what it has historically stood for. It becomes a hollow idea, and I think they’re hollowing it out as fast as they can for their own benefit.”
The Titanic director has owned a large dairy farm in South Wairarapa since 2012 and has long voiced plans to permanently move to New Zealand, having made his Avatar films with Wellington’s Weta Digital, for which the visual effects studio won an Oscar.
Cameron acknowledged the global reach of US politics, telling Stuff: “I don’t know if I feel any safer here, but I certainly feel like I don’t have to read about it on the front page every single day. And it’s just sickening. There’s something nice about the New Zealand outlets – at least they’ll put it on page three … I just don’t want to see that guy’s face any more, on the front page of the paper. It’s inescapable there, it’s like watching a car crash over and over and over.”
He said his New Zealand citizenship was “imminent” and that “it means a lot. It’s something I’ve worked toward, something I’ve had to sacrifice for. If you’re going to uproot your family and move somewhere, you have to invest, you have to be part of it, you have to earn standing. I just think you’ve got to earn your right to be in a place.”
Cameron likened New Zealand to his birth country of Canada, saying: “I grew up in Canada, and I see a lot of similarities here in the way people behave. I actually like it here a little better. There’s an innate respect and a demand for respect. Everybody has this kind of equal status in terms of personhood. And I love that – that’s what I wanted my kids to experience.”
In 2023, Cameron expressed his intentions to recruit “some young blood” into New Zealand’s film industry. “I’m sort of speaking on behalf of a big international production, but I’m a resident here, I’ll be a citizen in a year and I plan on making all my films here in Wellington. I love working here. I love the people that I get to work with here,” he said.
