James Cameron has had an impressive career as a filmmaker. With Avatar: The Way of Water grossing over $1.7 billion at the box office, the director now has three movies in the top 10 highest-grossing films of all time. His 1997 film, Titanic, was the first film to gross $1 billion at the worldwide box office. The film went on to receive several Academy Awards, and Cameron also won the Oscar for the best Academy Award for Best Director.
It became one of the most memorable events for him. However, the Titanic director does not seem too proud while recalling his acceptance speech after winning the Best Director. In his new interview with Chris Wallace, the Aliens director explains what led to his embarrassing acceptance speech at the 70th Academy Awards.
James Cameron Recalls His 1998 Oscars Speech
James Cameron joined Chris Wallace on the new episode of his show, Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace. While talking about his new film, The Way of Water, the host of the show brought up his acceptance speech at the 1998 Academy Awards.
Recalling his speech, the True Lies director explained what led him to say the words he said while admitting that it was “cringe-worthy.” Cameron said during the ceremony, “Mom, dad, there is no way that I can express to you what I’m feeling right now. My heart is full to bursting’ except to say, ‘I’m the king of the world!'” Chris Wallace asked the Terminator director about the backlash he received for quoting himself as the king of the world.
“How bad was the backlash in Hollywood? The feeling that Jim Cameron was riding a little too high at that point?” Wallace asked. James Cameron explained that he was trying to express the excitement and joy he felt at the time.
He compared his feelings with Leonardo DiCaprio’s character in Titanic “when he was free and at the bow of the ship.” Cameron shared that his film won 11 Oscars at the 70th Academy Awards, and also learned one of the most valuable lessons of his life.
James Cameron Learned a Valuable Lesson
During his appearance on the new episode of Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?, James Cameron also shared the one thing he learned after his speech at the 1998 Academy Awards. He shared, “What I learned is you don’t quote your own movie to the Academy if you win, because it’s cringeworthy.”
“It makes the assumption that you didn’t win by a narrow margin, but that every single person sitting in the audience on that night at the Kodak Theatre saw and loved ‘Titanic.’ And we’ll never know how much we won by, but it might not have been a landslide at all.”
The Avatar director said that he learned to be careful about what he says in an acceptance speech. Cameron also shared he and the Hollywood actress, Sally Field, have a “little self-help group together on this.”
Titanic is available to stream on Disney+.
Avatar: The Way of Water is playing in theatres.
Source: Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?
