Actor Zoe Saldaña became very familiar with James Cameron after working with him on the Avatar films. Although he’s known for his grueling shoots and hot temper, Saldaña had nothing but kind words to say about the filmmaker. So much so that she even defended him against actors who complained about his overwhelming work ethic.

Zoe Saldaña had a stern message for actors who felt James Cameron was too tough

Cameron’s intensity as a director was no secret. Perhaps his Titanic star Kate Winslet gave the most vivid account of what it was really like collaborating with the Oscar-winner back in his younger years.

“He’s a nice guy, but the problem was that his vision for the film was as clear as it was,” she once said in her famous Los Angeles Times interview. “He has a temper like you wouldn’t believe.. . . As it was, the actors got off lightly. I think Jim knew he couldn’t shout at us the way he did to his crew because our performances would be no good.”

Although an entirely different movie, Saldaña had to work just as hard on Avatar as Winslet did in Titanic. Her Avatar character Neytiri may have been digitally created, but it was up to Saldaña’s performance to bring the Pandora native to life. She did so with the help of Cameron’s direction and cutting-edge technology.

“Everything you do, your character does. You put on this Velcro suit and these dots have sensors so that every time you move, it reflects the light these cameras on the ceiling kickoff. You also have these dots that need to be on specific muscle areas in your face and you have a helmet with a camera that is documenting all of these things. All of these dots are fed into this system and that’s placed into this world. You are your character and your character is you,” she said in an interview with Closer.

But similar to Winslet, Saldaña welcomed the typical challenges that came with a Cameron flick. And because of her appreciation for the director’s work, she had little to no sympathy for other actors who couldn’t meet Cameron’s expectations.

“That’s for weak people,” she said. “I’m not going to personally diss on anybody, but if you can’t hang, then don’t sign on for it. It’s a f***ing sinking ship. You mean to tell me you’re going to be frustrated because you’re wet for three months? Shut up and take it! But that’s the kind of person that I am. I will cry wolf when I’m missing a limb, but so far I’ve got my four limbs.”

Zoe Saldaña revealed how James Cameron changed over the years

Saldaña confided that Cameron isn’t exactly the same director he used to be years ago. The actor would collaborate with Cameron again a decade after the first Avatar feature The Way of Water. Speaking with Sirius XM, she touched on the slight metamorphosis he went through after their last collaboration.

“Change is a word that I’ve always, I’m a little sensitive to it. He’s grown just like everybody has. There’s just a natural progression in life, and as you’re collecting experiences in life, you just become more insightful. Wiser. I like to compare him to a very fine super Tuskan wife. It just gets better and better with time,” she said. “He’s still the same Jim that I met in 2006.”

Winslet was another actor who noticed Cameron’s significant attitude changed when she also joined the Avatar sequel.

“He’s just a really different person,” Winslet once said in an interview with Games Radar. “Hopefully, we both are. A huge chunk of time has gone by – over half my lifetime. You know, people say it was 25 years since Titanic. It’s not! It’s 27 years for us, you know, I turned 21 on that film, I’m 47. It’s a long time ago. I’ve become a parent three times over since then, Jim has had more children since then, he’s even more embedded in fatherhood and the commitment of that, and that shapes a person more than you can ever know before having children.”