James Cameron and Disney are facing a lawsuit over the alleged unauthorised use of an actress’ likeness during the production of the 2009 film Avatar, reports Variety. Filed by actor Q’orianka Kilcher, the suit claims Cameron based the core character of Neytiri on her without her knowledge and consent.
Neytiri is portrayed by Zoe Saldaña in the film series.
Kilcher alleges that, following her appearance as Pocahontas in Terrence Malick’s 2005 film The New World when she was 14 years old, Cameron overtly instructed his design team to use her likeness from a photograph from the set of The New World as the basis for Neytiri. The filing explains that Kilcher “never consented to Defendants’ use of her likeness, either in Avatar or in any related product or promotion.”
The filing also states that Kilcher and Cameron met briefly at a charity event shortly after the release of the original Avatar, where Cameron personally invited Kilcher to visit his office. Upon doing so around a week later, Cameron was not present – but his staff gave Kilcher a framed print of a character production sketch, along with a handwritten note which read, “Your beauty was my early inspiration for Neytiri. Too bad you were shooting another movie. Next time.”
“When I received Cameron’s sketch, I believed it was a personal gesture, at most a loose inspiration tied to casting and my activism,” said Kilcher. “Millions of people opened their hearts to Avatar because they believed in its message and I was one of them. I never imagined that someone I trusted would systematically use my face as part of an elaborate design process and integrate it into a production pipeline without my knowledge or consent. That crosses a major line. This act is deeply wrong.”
Kilcher reportedly learned the actual background of the sketch late last year after seeing footage of an interview with Cameron where he specifically identified Kilcher as the original source.
“The source for this was a photograph that was in the LA Times as part of the promotion for The New World,” says Cameron in the video. “There’s a young actress named Q’orianka Kilcher, who played Pocahontas in The New World. This is actually her lower face. She had a very interesting face.”
Cameron and Disney are yet to comment.
At a worldwide gross of just under $3 billion, the original Avatar is the highest-grossing movie of all time.
The third installment of the series, Avatar: Fire and Ash, was released in December last year. A fourth and fifth film already have release dates and are reportedly “full speed ahead” in planning, even though James Cameron recently conceded he needs to find a way to produce them cheaper to get them over the line.
Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN reviews team. You can track him down on Bluesky @mrlukereilly to ask him things about stuff.
source https://www.ign.com/articles/james-cameron-disney-sued-over-unauthorised-use-of-actress-likeness-in-avatar