James Cameron is finding it increasingly difficult to live or work in the United States as he cannot endure another term of Donald Trump. The country's deterioration concerns Cameron, and since he has realised that he cannot do anything about it, the Titanic and Avatar filmmaker, who also lived and worked in New Zealand for over a decade, says he'll be getting his New Zealand citizenship anytime soon and plans to move to its capital city Wellington.
“I think it's horrific, I think it's horrifying. 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,” said Cameron in an interview with NZ media outlet Stuff.
But does he believe that he'll feel safer in NZ? “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 anymore on the front page of the paper. It’s inescapable there, it’s like watching a car crash over and over and over.”
The Canada-born filmmaker loves the way of life in NZ, the people, and the beauty of the place, and wants his children to experience it. “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.”