Avatar would have been ‘terrible’ if it was live-action, says James Cameron

Melbourne: Hollywood filmmaker James Cameron thinks that his mega sci-fi hit movie ‘Avatar’ would have been a box office disaster if it was live-action. The 55-year-old director used motion-capture technology for most of the scenes in the sci-fi epic.

Instead of coating actor Zoe Saldana’s, who played blue-skinned alien Neytiri of the fictional Na’vi race, skin in blue make-up, Cameron made him and all the other alien actors wear high-tech motion caption suits to record their movements and turned them into digital animation. The cost of making the film was 260 million dollars. “Here’s the thing: if it had been in live action, she would have been in blue make-up and it would not have had the power. Her eyes would not have been those eyes,” The Age quoted Cameron as saying. “The blue make-up would have looked terrible. I know – every time I go to a convention where someone decides they’re going to be a Na’vi, I’m reminded why we didn’t do it,” he added. Fellow director Steven Spielberg is also glad Cameron didn’t go for a more natural look. Spielberg said he loved Avatar, but thinks the actors would have looked terrible if Cameron had used cosmetics instead of animation. “You get that on TV: The Blue Man Group. It’s spray paint, it’s not organic. It’s Ben Stiller at the Oscars. That’s about as good as it gets,” Spielberg told Empire magazine. ANI