James Cameron explains how he addressed a common Hollywood problem in his writing with films like The Terminator (1984) and Aliens (1986). Cameron remains one of the most successful filmmakers working today and is well-known for his technologically boundary-pushing movies. One common element of his early films, especially, though, is strong female characters.
During a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Cameron reflects on how he portrayed now-iconic female characters like The Terminator‘s Sarah Connor and Aliens‘ Ellen Ripley. According to the director, his treatment of these characters ultimately stems from the strong female influences in his own life:
“I think Ripley was kind of in the mix in my mind when I was writing Sarah. And Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween. It was a weird metamorphosis out of the ‘last girl’ trope, right? Where you have the last woman that the killer tries to kill, and she fights back and she prevails.
“And I think it comes from having a strong mom, having strong women in my family. There’s probably a whole Freudian interpretation around it. So somehow the ‘last girl’ trope in horror movies was more meaningful.”
Cameron explains that, while these characters do feature traits considered to be more traditionally masculine, such as physical strength and weapon proficiency, he tried to lean into other traits he was seeing in his own life:
“It was about the resilience, the intelligence, the type of strength a woman brings to a character, which is not the typical masculine ‘kick in the door,’ ‘shoot the gun’ sort of thing. Although I did give her a little bit of that in Aliens, it’s different. And I think that comes from my life experience before that and funnelled through that horror, slasher trope, and then suddenly taking on its own life.
According to Cameron, it wasn’t until after his first few hits that he realized he was doing something relatively unique in Hollywood in terms of the depiction of female characters. After that, he decided to lean into it:
“So after the success of Terminator and Aliens, I was like, ‘Oh, I realize now I’m doing something that Hollywood hasn’t done well.’ You know, in mainstream movies. And I thought, ‘I’ll just keep doing it.’ People are responding to it. Last time I checked, women are half the audience.
“The question is, how can I, as a male writer, male filmmaker that likes action and adventure, how can I appeal to a male audience and a female audience simultaneously. And I think that started to come together for me in The Abyss and in the subsequent films. It became a more conscious choice, but it seemed like fertile ground.”
Though Ripley and Connor remain two of the most memorable female characters featured in Cameron’s filmography, he hasn’t abandoned attempts to push things forward in this regard. The Abyss, for example, spotlights Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio’s Lindsey Brigman, and True Lies puts a major focus on Jamie Lee Curtis’ Helen Tasker.
Linda Hamilton’s Connor ended up not just being a standout character in The Terminator, but she became even more layered in Cameron’s acclaimed Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). Though Hamilton’s character wasn’t present for the three subsequent sequels, she ended up returning in Terminator: Dark Fate (2019), which Cameron produced.
Cameron has revealed that he’s working on a script for Terminator 7, but this film would seemingly leave behind past elements and characters from the franchise. Instead, the director has teased a new Terminator film would explore AI in a unique way.
More recently, of course, Zoe Saldaña’s Neytiri in the Avatar franchise has become an important character for Cameron. Neytiri is set to return in the director’s upcoming Avatar: Fire and Ash, the third of a planned five films in the sci-fi fantasy franchise.
Beyond the world of Avatar, Cameron’s next major project is an adaptation of The Last Train from Hiroshima, a true story about survivors of the atomic bombings on Japan during World War II. This project seemingly won’t give the director an opportunity to create another female action hero, however, due to the nature of the subject matter.
While many questions remain about what the next decade of Cameron’s career will look like, his treatment of characters like Connor and Ripley will likely remain standout aspects of his filmography. From his latest comments, it doesn’t sound like he’ll be slowing down in this regard anytime soon.
- Birthdate
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August 16, 1954
- Birthplace
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Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada
- Height
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6 feet 2 inches
- Professions
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Director, Producer, Screenwriter, Editor, Explorer
