James Cameron says NZ citizenship is ‘imminent’ as he criticises Trump’s return to power

James Cameron said he sees a "difference here in the way people treat each other". Photo / Tareq Branney

James Cameron’s New Zealand citizenship is “imminent”.

The Canadian filmmaker – who has owned a ranch near Wellington for years – is keen to leave the US because he feels the return of Donald Trump as president has marked a “turn away from everything decent” and the US is no longer the country it used to be.

Speaking to New Zealand journalist Paddy Gower on The F#$%ing News podcast, he said: “I’ve already qualified in terms of time in country. I’ve put in my application. I’m told it’s imminent.”

And of Trump’s return to office, the Avatar director – who sold his California estate in 2023 – added: “I think it’s horrific. I think it’s horrifying. I see a turn away from everything decent.”

“America doesn’t stand for anything if it doesn’t stand for what it has historically stood for. It becomes a hollow idea, and I think they’re hollowing it out as fast as they can for their own benefit.

“We’re all in this together, globally.”

James Cameron working behind the scenes of Avatar: Way of Water. Photo / Mark Fellman, 20th Century Studios

Cameron finds Trump “inescapable” in the US.

He said: “I don’t know if I feel any safer here, but I certainly feel like I don’t have to read it on the front page every single day.”

“And it’s just sickening. There’s something nice about the New Zealand outlets. At least they’ll put it on page three. I’d rather read a story about a cat in a tree and the fireman saving it, or some picadillo in government here.

“I don’t just want to see that guy’s face anymore on the front page of the paper. And that’s inescapable there. It’s like watching a car crash over and over.”

As well as a desire to escape the political climate in the US, the 70-year-old filmmaker also cited the “big-city anonymity” he doesn’t find in New Zealand, similarities to his hometown of Ontario, and the kindness of people as reasons for his move.

He added: “Look, everybody’s not a saint in New Zealand, any more than they are anywhere else. But I definitely, as an outsider or someone who was an outsider, I see a difference here in the way people treat each other.”