When James Cameron and Sam Worthington joined Deadline for a chat about their ongoing collaboration on the Avatar films and the newest installment, Avatar: Fire and Ash, Worthington was asked about his peak actor-director experience making the films so far. This was the response:
CAMERON: I feel it was when you puked on the head rig camera.
WORTHINGTON: Yeah. Jim, the truth is in the details. So all you’re looking for in the way we shoot it is, how to get to the truth. And I think the scene involved me having to drink something that was described as disgusting. So I said to Jim, “Well, you got to just give me something disgusting.” I think he mixed a concoction of fish oil?
CAMERON: Yeah, no, we went and got some Vietnamese fish sauce. Like, “All right, this is going to set him back.”
WORTHINGTON: So, when I [drank] it, it did the exact thing you wanted. It was disgusting. But it was so disgusting it came flying out. Of course, we’ve got head cams on, so all the liquid hit the head camera. The problem was then, the head camera kind of set on fire. And me being me, I ran around the room, forgetting that it was connected to my head. When all I had to do was take the helmet off.
CAMERON: It was definitely a peak moment.
WORTHINGTON: I don’t know if it’s a classy moment.
CAMERON: It’s not a classy moment.