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An actress is accusing James Cameron and Disney of changing her appearance without her knowledge or consent to have used it for an “Avatar” character.
Indigenous actress and activist Q’orianka Kilcher, who played Pocahontas in Terrence Malick’s “The New World” – then just 14 years old – filed a lawsuit in California on Tuesday. The lawsuit alleges that Cameron extracted and recreated Kilcher’s facial features from a published photo in the Los Angeles Times to create the character Neytiri, portrayed by Zoe Saldaña in all three “Avatar” films.
The lawsuit, obtained by ROLLING STONE, reads: “This case exposes how one of Hollywood’s most powerful filmmakers exploited the biometric identity and cultural heritage of a young Indigenous girl to create a record-breaking film franchise – without giving her credit or compensation – through a series of targeted, non-expressive commercial actions.”
Billionaire success on other people’s trains
It continues: “Cameron’s first film in the series grossed almost $3 billion worldwide and became the highest-grossing film of all time – but it was based in large part on the misuse of a minor’s biometric facial features as unpaid commercial raw material.”
According to the lawsuit, Kilcher met Cameron shortly after the first “Avatar” was released in 2009; he invited her to visit his office. Cameron was not present during her visit, but was reportedly shown an original sketch by Neytiri. “Your beauty was my early inspiration for Neytiri,” he wrote to her. “It’s a shame you were filming another movie. Next time.”
Kilcher only learned about the use of her look through social media when a television interview with the director surfaced online. “There’s a young actress named Q’orianka Kilcher who played Pocahontas in ‘The New World,'” he says in the clip. “That’s actually her… her lower face. She had a very interesting face.”
Cameron is filming with Billie Eilish
Cameron released “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” the third installment in the billion-dollar franchise, last year. He is currently promoting Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D), which he co-directed with the superstar.
Kilcher, a Peruvian indigenous woman, told The New York Times that “in the age of AI, what we look like is no longer safe. What happened to me, while personal, is also a stark warning: If we don’t act now, this will become normal. This case is about the future of identity.”
