James Cameron Shares Why He Relocated Family to New Zealand During Pandemic: ‘There for the Sanity’

James Cameron is opening up about the reason behind his family’s move to New Zealand.

The Titanic director, 71, said that it was the fulfillment of a promise he made to himself back in 1994, quietly vowing that he would live there one day as his career and family life with wife Suzy Cameron took root in California.

In a teaser clip for the upcoming Saturday, January 24, episode of the “In Depth with Graham Besinger” podcast, James noted that when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, it gave him the confidence to finally act due to the country’s handling of the spreading virus in comparison to the United States.

“I’m not there for scenery, I’m there for the sanity,” he clarified in the video posted on Wednesday, January 21, more than a decade after purchasing a farm in New Zealand and traveling “back and forth” in the years to follow.

“When Suzy and I were first getting serious, she said, ‘Fine, no problem.’ She was game,” he shared about their move, revealing the timeline changed as they expanded their brood.

James and Suzy, 64, share three children: Claire, 23, Quinn, 21, and Elizabeth, 18. Their blended family also includes his daughter Josephine, 32, from his past marriage to Terminator star Linda Hamilton, while Suzy has a son named Jasper from her previous marriage to actor Sam Robards.

“That conversation had to be amended slightly, but we did say after Avatar, let’s make this happen,” he added, revealing they decided to “make the move as a family” in August 2020 while he was still working on the set of Avatar: The Way of Water. (The film was released in December 2022.)

“New Zealand had eliminated the virus completely,” James said on the show. “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 percent 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 percent vaccination rate, and that’s going down — going the wrong direction,” he added.

He continued, “Where would you rather live?” he continued. 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.”

Suzy and James first crossed paths on the set of Titanic, in which she portrayed Lizzy Calvert, the granddaughter of Kate Winslet’s character, Rose. Production began in 1995 with his deep-sea expeditions to capture footage of the famous wreck. Filming for the box office sensation took place from July 1996 to March 1997. The couple later married in 2000.

James’ full interview airs in syndication across the U.S. this weekend, also covering his personal life in addition to “his passion for sustainability,” choice to adopt “a plant-based diet” and efforts to “reduce his carbon footprint in an effort to help protect the environment.”