Kate Winslet says working with James Cameron on Avatar was 'so far apart' from Titanic
There was once a time when it seemed as though Oscar winner Kate Winslet might never work with Titanic director James Cameron again. In 1997, around the release of their first movie together, the then-22-year-old told press, "You'd have to pay me a lot of money to work with Jim again." Both creatives have clearly changed nearly 26 years later, reuniting for Avatar: The Way of Water, to be released in theaters 25 years after Titanic.
"You couldn't compare the two. The two films are so different," Winslet tells EW when asked about working with Cameron again. "Literally, the only common thread is there's water in both of them, but water that is there for different reasons, behaves in totally different ways. These experiences were so far apart."
To Winslet, Titanic feels like half a lifetime ago. That's because it was. "I turned 21 on that shoot. I am now 47 years old. It's a very, very, very long time ago," she says. "Jim, as a director, as a person, you know, we are just both different, older, have hopefully learned a lot more in terms of how to tell stories and be creative contributors and collaborators."
Jeff Spicer/Getty Images Director James Cameron and actress Kate Winslet reunite on 'Avatar: The Way of Water,' released 25 years after 'Titanic.'
Despite taking a break from working together post-Titanic, Cameron, now 68, and Winslet have been trying to team back up over the years. No project ever got as close to happening as Avatar: The Way of Water, the first of four planned sequels on Disney and 20th Century's release calendar. "I feel like he's always checked in with me. 'Are you busy right now?' or 'What's going on? I may have something,'" Winslet recalls. "Then I wouldn't hear for a while, and I think he's drifted off that idea. Then he'd be floating back in with another one. And then in 2014, he did say to me, 'I'm gonna get you big and blue.'"
In Avatar: The Way of Water, in theaters Friday, Winslet portrays Ronal, one of two leaders of the Metkayina water tribe of Na'vi along with Cliff Curtis' Tonowari. She's more of the spiritual chieftain who maintains the clan's ancient traditions. She's also a capable warrior.
Winslet commends Cameron's command of the Avatar mythology. "He knows every inch of it," she says. "He created a whole language. He created a set of intentions for these people: how they live and how they move and how they breathe and think and speak and eat and love and cherish. He did all that."
20th Century Studios Ronal (Kate Winslet) and Tonowari (Cliff Curtis) in 'Avatar: The Way of Water.'
She likens the filmmaker to a chef: "A chef is never gonna send a great dish out to the table if he's not happy with that plate." She shares an example. "He told me that, I think, he spent a year writing the first pass of the second [film] and then just hated it all and was like, 'This is just s---. I'm gonna start again,'" Winslet remembers. "I've started building characters before and thought, 'Hang on a minute. This is not what I'm meant to be doing at all. Okay, start again.' It's always a really terrifying moment."
Winslet does recall reading the script for the first time, noting how much secrecy surrounded its content. "I definitely was given the bare minimum, initially. Very much character descriptions, a general sense of [Ronal], and the role that she played within her community. But it wasn't until I read the script and discovered, obviously, all of the other elements that he had built in," she says. "It's a phenomenal experience reading a Jim Cameron script because it's just so thorough. The guy is such a perfectionist."
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