James Cameron Talks Permanently Leaving The U.S. With His Family

James Cameron is currently living in New Zealand permanently, a decision inspired by his love for the country following his first visit in 1994.

The director has now opened up about the move, as well as what he adores about life there compared to his previous life in the United States.

James Cameron has also previously spoken about why he believes the Avatar films deserve Oscar nominations.

After first visiting New Zealand in 1994, James Cameron permanently relocated there with his wife, Suzy Amis, during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

In a new interview with Graham Bensinger on “In Depth with Graham Bensinger,” Cameron reflected on the decision, explaining why he chose to make the move despite having spent his entire life rooted in America.

According to the “Avatar: Fire and Ash” director, he fell in love with the country and its people during his first visit in the 1990s and promised himself he would return to live there.

However, that did not happen as soon as planned, as raising children with his wife — with whom he shares three children — and their deep roots in America kept the decision pending.

“When Suzy and I were first getting serious, she said, ‘Fine, no problem.’ She was game,” Cameron said of the relocation plan, per People Magazine. “Now, later, we have children, we have a family, we’ve got roots in Malibu and Santa Barbara, that conversation had to be amended slightly, but we did say after Avatar, let’s make this happen.”

Despite not moving immediately after his first visit, Cameron kept his promise of relocating to New Zealand by purchasing a farm there in 2011.

He then spent the following years “going back and forth” before finally moving with his family during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, as he was impressed by how the country handled the global crisis.

“New Zealand had eliminated the virus completely,” Cameron revealed to his host. “They actually eliminated the virus twice. The third time when it showed up in a mutated form, it broke through. But fortunately, they already had a 98% vaccination rate.”

He added, “This is why I love New Zealand. People there are, for the most part, sane as opposed to the United States, where you had a 62% vaccination rate, and that’s going down – going the wrong direction.”

To further explain the importance of his move, Cameron asked his host a hypothetical question, which he used to contrast NZ and America.

“Where would you rather live?” the “Titanic” director inquired of Besinger. “A place that actually believes in science and is sane and where people can work together cohesively to a common goal, or a place where everybody’s at each other’s throats, extremely polarized, turning its back on science and basically would be in utter disarray if another pandemic appears.”

Bensinger later tried to push back on Cameron’s stance, saying that the US is “a fantastic place to live.” However, the director, who was having none of that, interjected with, “Is it?”

He later also stated that he is only living in NZ due to its “sanity” and not the “scenery.”

Despite now living permanently in New Zealand, Cameron has not slowed down his directing career.

His latest work, another installment of the Avatar franchise, debuted in cinemas earlier this month and is already proving to be a box office success.

It is also being rumored to earn Oscar nominations, following in the footsteps of previous entries in the franchise.

Ahead of the nominations being dropped on January 22, Cameron appeared on the January 14 episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s “Awards Chatter” podcast to say his Avatar movies deserve to be part of the awards conversation.

Cameron addressed the backlash the 2022 sequel “The Way of Water” received over claims that it was undeserving of nominations due to the alleged use of AI.

“We’ve never used generative AI — there’s not one image in the new film that was created by generative AI,” Cameron responded. “I think we just got painted by a very broad brush and a backlash at that moment.”

He added, “Now, that said, people may have legitimately just not thought the movie was good. I happen to think it was f-cking good enough. It was good enough, guys!”