James Cameron on Leaving America for New Zealand: “I’m Not There for Scenery, I’m There for the Sanity”

Last year, James Cameron became a New Zealand citizen and stated he was “over” the idea of becoming a US citizen. In a new episode of In Depth with Graham Bensinger, the Canadian-born Avatar filmmaker explained his choice between the two countries really came down to one thing: sanity.

“Are you kidding me? Where would you rather live?” Cameron said. “A place that actually believes in science and is sane and where people can work together cohesively to a common goal, or a place where everybody’s at each other’s throats, extremely polarized, turning its back on science, and basically would be in utter disarray if another pandemic appears.”

In fact, the US’s poor handling of the pandemic is one of the core reasons Cameron abandoned his desire to become one of its citizens, even after living in Los Angeles for over 40 years. “[New Zealand] had eliminated the virus completely,” said Cameron. “They actually eliminated the virus twice. The third time when it showed up in a mutated form, it broke through. But fortunately, they already had a 98% vaccination rate. This is why I love New Zealand. People there are, for the most part, sane, as opposed to the United States where you had a 62% vaccination rate, and that’s going down – going the wrong direction.”

When Bensinger suggested that the United States is still “a fantastic place to live,” Cameron interjected, “Is it?” Bensinger went on to say, “But New Zealand is just stunningly beautiful,” to which Cameron calmly replied, “I’m not there for the scenery; I’m there for the sanity.”

His sentiments echo statements he made late last year about falling out of love with the “American democratic experiment.” Speaking with BuzzFeed Canada, Cameron said he used to think “there was a lot of nobility” in that experiment, “But where the hell did that go? I’m over it. I think Canadians are way over it.”

Cameron seems to be doing just fine in New Zealand. Not only is that where he makes his wildly successful Avatar movies, but he also runs the country’s largest organic brassica farm, providing broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and other veggies to farm-to-table restaurants and grocers. Watch his appearance on In Depth below.