While most Hollywood movies take a short amount of time to release a sequel, James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water has taken thirteen years after the release of the original movie. The long gap is rightfully attributed to creating a cinematic world with the right technology and people. The sequel will take place years after the events of the first film and now showcases Jake and Neytiri’s family. Interestingly, the plot also provided the director with a way to bring back Sigourney Weaver as the couple’s adopted teenage daughter Kiri. The sequel will also add Kate Winslet as part of the water tribe, Metkayina. In a new interview with Empire, Zoe Saldaña talks about working with both actors.
It’s quite clear from the movie’s promotional material that while it has big set pieces and an unparalleled underwater sequence the story is centered around Jake, Neytiri, and their family. In the time gone by, the characters have evolved in an organic manner and now the family has relocated from Pandora’s forests towards the water. When Cameron’s long-time collaborator, Weaver, was announced as part of the project, there was quite some contention around how she can be brought back, now we know she’s incarnated as a new character altogether.
Saldaña, who plays her mother in the sequel, calls her experience “exhilarating”, adding “to see a master like Sigourney Weaver morph back into a child-like form. It’s quite amazing. Very inspiring.” She further shared,
It’s a dream come true [pauses]… It’s not even a dream come true. I would have never dreamt in my wildest dreams thought I would be playing some kind of maternal figure in any role that Sigourney Weaver would have been playing, and yet James Cameron provided us the setting and the technology, and the story for us to be able to stretch that far.”
While Weaver had a second go in the franchise, Cameron’s other long-time collaborator, Winslet is making a debut in the franchise with The Way of Water. She’ll be playing a Metkayina, a member of the water tribe. Saldaña shares her experience working with the Titanic star saying:
“Oh, my God. I was like, ‘Too many dreams coming alive. I don’t think I can take it.’ Kate Winslet was a professional. I don’t even know how to describe it. It would be like, “Roll camera” and she would hold her breath for seven minutes. She became this Metkayina.”
Of her performance, Saldaña revealed that Winslet “immersed herself in all things, Pandora.” Adding, “It almost felt like she had a little bit of FOMO when the first movie came out, and now that she and Jim were going to partner up again, she was going to run with it. We were trying to keep up.”
Avatar: The Way of Water premieres December 16, you can check out the trailer below:
