An actress has accused James Cameron and Disney for stealing her likeness to create an Avatar character without her knowledge and consent.
Indigenous actress and activist Q’orianka Kilcher, who portrayed Pocahontas in Terrence Malick’s The New World when she was just 14, filed a lawsuit in California on Tuesday. The complaint alleges that Cameron extracted and replicated Kilcher’s facial features from a published photograph in the Los Angeles Times, using it as the basis of the character Neytiri, played by Zoe Saldaña in all three Avatar films.
The suit, obtained by Rolling Stone, states, “This case exposes how one of Hollywood’s most powerful filmmakers exploited a young Indigenous girl’s biometric identity and cultural heritage to create a record-breaking film franchise — without credit or compensation to her — through a series of deliberate, nonexpressive commercial acts.”
It continues: “Cameron’s initial film in the series grossed nearly $3 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing movie of all time, yet it was built in material part on the misappropriation of a minor’s biometric facial features as unpaid commercial source material.”
According to the suit, Kilcher first met Cameron just after the release of the original Avatar in 2009, and he invited her to visit his office. Cameron wasn’t present when she did, but she was allegedly presented with an original sketch of Neytiri. “Your beauty was my early inspiration for Neytiri,” he wrote, according to the suit. “Too bad you were shooting another movie. Next time.”
Kilcher only learned that Cameron used her likeness on social media, when a broadcast 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. “So, this is actually her … her lower face. She had a very interesting face.”
Cameron released Avatar: Fire and Ash, the third installment of the multibillion dollar franchise, last year. He’s currently promoting Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D), which he co-directed with the superstar.
Kilcher, a native Peruvian, told The New York Times that “in the age of AI, our likeness is no longer safe. While what happened to me is personal, it’s also a big warning that, if we don’t act now, this type of thing will become standard. This case is about the future of identity.”
