Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - BONUS EPISODE: Chatting with James Cameron and the Cast of Avatar: Fire & Ash

Episode Date: December 16, 2025

In this special bonus episode, Sienna and her dad Ben headed to Wellington (by plane - not flying creature) for the Avatar: Fire & Ash premiere. They sat down with legendary director James Cameron to chat about borrowing his Avatar pool, how Avatar first came to him in a dream, whether he’d change anything about Titanic if he made it today, and where Ben should (or absolutely should not) be allowed to display his Avatar children's toy at home. It’s a seriously funny and fascinating conversation. They also caught up with three of the film’s stars: iconic Kiwi actor Cliff Curtis, Avatar’s Jake Sully himself, Sam Worthington, and Jack Champion, who plays Spider. Cliff reveals why he hates watching his own movies, all three share the very different ways they landed their roles, and the group weighs in on whether Ben should show up to pick Sienna up from school in full Avatar costume. Plus: behind-the-scenes chaos including sharing a room with a snoring dad, red carpet Dad jokes, school leave approval drama, and a pair of broken shoes. Avatar: Fire & Ash hits cinemas from December 18.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Hits Podcast Network This is When I Grow Up Welcome to this very exciting bonus episode of When I Grow Up Yeah, it's very exciting, you know, you and I were very lucky We got to attend the New Zealand premiere of the new Avatar Fire and Ash movie It was in Wellington, we flew down there And you'll hear the interview we had with legendary James Cameron My gosh, it's insane

No, I mean, he's done Titanic, he's done all the Avatar movies, movies, Romeo and Juliet, Terminator. Oh, just so many. I'm just surprised that he even, like, talk to us. Like, he's on another level. It was his job. It was his job. Yeah, he had to.

Yeah, but he was incredible. And you'll hear from him very shortly. But we got to do some really cool things for this, right? We got to see the movie before it came out in cinemas. Yeah, we did. We got to go to the Auckland premiere. Such a good movie. Definitely go see it when it's out in cinemas.

And then we got to go to Wellington for these interviews. We got matching suits. Yeah, Dad had a little snore on the plane. That was quite nice. I'd have a little sleep in the plane, didn't I? He did. And a little snore in the hotel room, you get waking me up and go, Dad, you're snoring again.

He goes, what? Am I? Yeah, okay. No, you're not online. So you know how to share a room with me? That was the downside. But the upside was, we got to interview James Cameron and some of the cast. Also, the hotel had really good food. That was another.

But I did make you wear matching blazers with our name. We got embroidered in the mall beforehand. I think everyone laughed at us. It was good. We had suit and tie matching blazers, but it was good. As soon as we came in the room, I think it helped everyone relax. Relaxed matching blazers He's just trying to gaslight himself

It was It made people relax Oh fuchs They're wearing blazers With their names I don't know It's sad It kind of set us up as being like

Okay This is lighthearted It's being doors Exactly A bit of fun It was lighthearted And you've never done An interview junket

Before I still don't know what junket No I don't know why they call it A junker But what happens in these things It reminds me of Plunkett It's not Plunkett They didn't take

your temperature and stuff like that. But for a junket, so what happens if no one's done those before is they have a room set up, they have the cameras set up, all ready to go, and your time starts, you get an allocated amount of time. As soon as you get in the room. Dad was like, see in it, don't talk, just sit down. I was like, oh my God, okay. Whatever you say, I was like, whatever you say they could use, so you just want to get into it.

You don't want to ask them too much about stuff that you may not use. Yeah, and that first interview, he had to be silent. And dad is not good at being silent. He was like, come in and I was like, be quiet. Because, yeah, because the noise would travel as well. But we got a briefing. We got to sit down in the room. Briefing, terrifying.

It scared me. It was a little scary. You know, they tell you the do's and don'ts of the interview. But then we went in there. They don't tell you any do's. I told all don't. I'm sorry, why you like, do not. Do not.

And I was like, oh my God, I'm going to mess up. No, you didn't mess up. It was great. And we went in there. We got some amazing stuff, which you were here. Right now, James Cameron, legendary James Cameron. We walked in there with our matching suits And he did have a little laugh at us

And he did And when we started They were fixing the cameras So we had a couple of minutes before they started Which I think was quite handy I was like do you want to direct the cameras in here He's like no I'm unemployed He's unemployed

He's like that's somebody else's problem And what you'll hear was a really cool chat Now with legendary James Cameron We're Ben and this is my daughter Sienna We're from the Hits Radio Station In New Zealand Let's plunge in Yeah well love him

I'm Jim by the way Oh you're Jim A Jim or James Nice to meet you. Jim's good. Okay. James is for credits. Oh, okay.

Jim right now. Well, yeah. The movie is amazing. Oh, thanks. And I feel like I fell in love with Avatar in 2009, the first movie. And I wanted to say it was probably the most important thing that happened in my life in 2009. Interesting. Why?

I was born in 2009. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I made my choice. It was. It's a second place. It's the first loser, as we say. It's okay.

I think you might want to reorder your priority. I made my call, James, old Jim, I'm happy with that. Well, I'm already getting bad. Do you get nervous, though? You know, you've done some pretty amazing movies. Do you get nervous on release week? Yeah, absolutely. Well, no, it starts well before release week.

Because all I think about is getting the movie done. Right up until the moment I hand it over and it goes into the system to get distributed all over the world. That was three weeks ago. Now I'm like, okay. Now you're unemployed. Yeah, now unemployed. And you're only as good as your last movie.

So, you know, fingers crossed, but, you know, it's always pretty tense. And obviously, the world is changing. The ground is shifting under the whole theatrical business. You know, theater going has contracted about a third. So that's concerning. And, you know, we just have to play it by ear, see how it goes. Maybe people will show up. Well, the idea for Avatar actually came to you in a dream, right?

Now, do you get upset when you go to sleep and you don't dream up more blockbuses? It's like, come on, Zapachia. Give it up, let's go. Well, I wouldn't say the idea for the film, but the landscape, the environment. I did have a dream when I was a 19. That was back when I rode my Stegosaurus to screw, okay, 19703. And it was very vivid, and it was a bioluminescent forest, and as you touched everything, it lit up, just like in the movie. But I didn't have a story, right? So the story came later.

but I remembered that dream. I wrote it down. I drew pictures of it. And then later when I came to very intentionally write a story taking place on another planet, I said, I'm doing that planet. I'd be nipping all the time if I was you. I'd be like, yeah, it's working.

I'm going to go back to work. Well, I should apologize because dad grew up in the Widerapa, where you live now, so he's desperate to talk about small town, New Zealand. I'll try not to punish you too much. But what do you love about the Wadadapur in New Zealand? Because you live here. Well, the Widera Rapa is great because, you know,

It's a varied agronomy district. Obviously, you've got the wine area, you know, and you've got, you know, broadfield agriculture of all different kinds. And I wanted to create a working farm. I actually bought two working farms and kind of fused them together, but also the proximity to Wellington was critical, right? So it's a really interesting, diversified farming region that's immediately adjacent to the film production center.

So, okay, easy call, right? Yeah, well, Dad left so he couldn't have loved it too much. Oh, okay. Oh, I do, hey, you're. And where were you? I was in, I grew up in Masterton, and then lived out the back of Carterton and on the farm for a little bit as well. Sure, I know that whole area.

Yeah, we're down the south of the valley. Oh, nice. Yeah. Hey, on the scale of these movies, amazing, they're incredible. I mean, you've got hundreds of cameras, massive crews. 1,500 New Zealanders worked on this as well. At least. At least, sure.

I think more than that. Is that massive 250,000-gallon underwater tank as well? Yeah, Dad won't even let us get a pole at heart. So how did you convince everyone to build your giant avatar pool? Yeah, we built a pool at Cummio Studios up near Auckland. And we had another, a bit smaller tank down here over at Stone Street. We ultimately, I think, wound up with like nine tanks throughout the making of the film. Oh, there we go.

We can borrow one for a pool for us. It's a little big for a backyard pool. Oh, is it? But it is above ground. Oh, okay. It just would kind of tower over your house. Well, you convinced them to bring Pandora to life, and I can't even convince Dad to buy me a Pandora bracelet.

You obviously got a lost way. All right. He cut a bit of a skinflake. Yeah, well, hey, I don't have the budget of Avatar. Let's be honest. Experiencing is incredible in the cinemas. It's amazing. And the technology is incredible.

If you could bring that technology back to, say, an old movie like Titanic, would you change anything? Would you make the boat not sink? All right, let's do the hypothetical, well, that's two different questions. Okay, so hypothetical question number one is if I was doing Titanic today with what we know how to do now and have sort of mastered, yes, I wouldn't build as much of the ship. Gotcha. Absolutely.

But it would look the same. I would make sure that it looked just as real. It would just save us a lot of set construction. Yeah, right. Especially when we had a 750 foot long set and we had to tilt it between one scene, and another. So over the Christmas vacation, we had two big companies come in

and hydraulically jack it into a different position. That took about four weeks. So, yeah, we would do that a little bit more digitally these days. But your other hypothetical question was, would the ship still sink. Yeah. Of course it would say. Romeo and Juliet have to die.

The ship has to sink. Jack's got to die. All of that stuff would stay the same. A spoiler alert. I'm only out to halfway through the boat. Dad still won't let me watch the car scene, so I don't know what happens. Yeah, yeah. They go for a drive, so, you know, they go for a drive.

Well, you're the director of Avatar, but can we get you to direct one more thing, if that's okay? All right. So, do you know those little Funko Pop toys? Yeah. So there's an Avatar one, and Dad went out and got one today, but Mom is not a big fan of them. So we're going to get... Why is she no big fan? She doesn't like, I'll put them in the lounge at home.

She puts them on a shelf at home. It's the Funko Pop Shelf. Yeah. And so you get to direct this avatar. Can I show you? Am I allowed to show you without your control? So this avatar tool? Oh, yeah, they're cute.

Yeah, so I've got a little thing. I've got to show up for the lounge, but can I put this? Can you direct need to put it in the lounge? Or does it go hidden away forever? So you're asking me to get in the middle of your marital strike. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, look, it can't be easy being on the same show together. This is the kind of family tension that we went for in Fire and Ash.

You see how I brought that back? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're impressed, right? Brought that back. A lot of family conflict in the movie. Maybe they just need them. matching blazers to stop it.

The matching blazers are not going to go over in my family. I'm sorry. The spider didn't even have a shirt. I don't think

I can even get any of my kids to wear a blazer. So is this going on the shelf or not? What are you thinking? Or are you out of this? Well, I mean,

I want to hear your wife's side of the story. She's like, it's not a teenage bedroom. That's what she says. Yeah. So they've started going

in my room now. That feels a bit rigid to me. Thank you, James. Thank you, Jayz. Our 18-year-old decorated the entire living room with jellyfish that she made.

Oh, really? And we liked it so much. This was for their birthday just before New Year's last year. Oh, wow. And we still have it all up because we liked it. So now it does look like a teenager's bedroom, our entire living room. That's cool. You know, we have different standards, clearly.

Well, that's great. Okay, I'll take that. Thank you, James. So I think that might sound like a vote in your favor. Take it. I'll take it. You've directed another great. I just want to get any hate mail for me a little wife.

Well, your actors do wild things. Free diving, holding their breath underwater, fire, explosions. Riding flying creatures. Let's not forget that. What was one scene that made you the most nervous while shooting? We're pretty safe. I mean, we're very, very safety conscious, and the actors are well-trained and everything they do. Yeah, I don't get nervous.

I pay attention closely. Okay. How are you right now? Are you okay? Nervis, okay? with us? Pretty nervous with you guys. Yeah, you're a little scary.

That's the matching blazers. We've been told to wrap up either that or you've got a helicopter arriving. I'm not sure. Both actually. That's why you got to wrap up. We've got a rapper. I love to meet you. It's been a real honor.

Thank you so much. Can't wait for Kiwis and the rest of the world to see the movie. It's so good. I can't wait too. Thank you very much. Thanks for time. This is When I Grow Up. How amazing was James Cameron? He's so funny.

Yeah. He's funnier than you. You. That's not hard, though. No, that's not hard. I was stoked that he, you know, he had fun with us. He got, we got some amazing stuff as you heard about Titanic and his dreams about Avatar. And now I get to put the toy, the avatar toy in my lounge. I don't know if Mom's going to still.

No, no, even with James Cameron's backing, eh? Yeah, she's going to be like, that doesn't make a difference, Ben. No, I'll try it. We'll see it on social media. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Then we also got to sit down with three of the stars of the movie. Now, we've got New Zealand's own Cliff Curtis. We have Sam Wellington from Australia, who plays.

plays the main actor, Jake Sully. Yeah, and a young kid, well, he was a young kid when they were filming the Avatar movies. He's now 21, I think. I think so, Jack Champion. Yeah, he plays Spider in the movies. He's the kid. Always shirtless. Yeah, shirtless.

No real pants, just a loincloth and a, you know, sort of a face mask as well. A spider. So we got to talk to the three of them together. And they were great, too. It was a lot of fun to chat to them about all things New Zealand, about how I can embarrass you on costume. No. No. Yeah, they thought that was a good idea.

I think they were just agreeing with you because they didn't, they just felt bad for me. No, no, I think it was a good idea. That doesn't make any sense, but I've just trying to. No, don't. It's going to happen. But anyway, have a listen to Cliff, Sam and Jack from the movie. Nice to talk to you guys. Thanks so much.

Thanks for coming down. Now, the movie's about family and your family working together, right? Yeah, well, we're a family working together today. And like the movie, there's a few cracks in our relationship. Like, Dad, he made us with his matching suits. Really cool. So what advice from Avatar could help us as a family? Yeah.

My relationship with my family strained in the movie. I wouldn't be getting any advice from Jake. I would always recommend do what your mother says. Oh, okay, okay. Listen to your mother. That's not going to be helpful for me right now,

but all right, yeah. Now, can we talk about the audition process because it's very different for each of you guys. Like Sam, you didn't even know what you were auditioning for, is that right? Back in the day,

20 odd years ago. There might have been some gums spat that you talked about. I just had a bit of the, I had a lot of petulance about me which is the spirit of Jake I think yeah there was a lot of belligerence because no one would tell me what it was got you the job yeah well I bought some gum in case you didn't like any of dad's questions and then Jack you were like 12 right

yeah and you watched the movie every day for like a month to prepare and then did you like correct James Cameron when he got something wrong actually I was the audition with him and you did actually yeah it's like when I correct dad for his Genzi slang exactly yeah it's all the same thing what words is he I try the You try to do 6-7, 6-7, you try to do Riz. That's like Jen Al-Lah, got lots of Riz. I'm a Riz dad, yes. I heard a new one.

I heard a new one today. It's like Duff, Duff, Duff. Oh. That's probably like... That'll be one, you'll hear it in the next video. And then Cliff, you didn't audition. You video called James Cameron and he offered you four movies. That doesn't happen every day.

Not to us, anyway. It never happened to me before, and I don't know if it ever happened. He met him in L.A. and with another film, the Dark Yeah, so yeah, him and John Landau hosted it for us in LA and then I think that was maybe my audition I haven't really questioned it because I just want to accept the blessing. It'll work, yeah. Well, can you teach dad how to turn on the camera and the microphone? I never quite know those subscribe calls.

Cliff, New Zealand is so proud of you, unlike dad. Okay, I'm here. And could you ever imagine you'd be something as big as Avatar and also bringing some of your culture to it too? You know, it's beyond my imagination. I couldn't have ever imagined it. It's just kind of a hazy, amazing sort of dream opportunity. And yeah, it's just been a good ride. And also the movies, you know, made, parts of it in New Zealand as well. Everyone always says wonderful things about New Zealand, you know, great place.

But Sam, you're Aussie, so let's be honest, you know. One thing that annoys you about New Zealand. I'm in New Zealand at the moment. I'll watch what I say. Jack, you've spent over two years here filming, but you even wore a Māori All Black's Top in one of your instance. But you're sitting next to an Aussie and a Kiwi, so which country's better? Oh, New Zealand?

Yeah. Let me be close. Now Cliff, we're reading that you sometimes don't like to watch your movies back. No, why would I? But just so you know you've been in some great thoughts. They're really good. Yeah, but I don't want to see me, you know? Oh, really?

Yeah, no, not really. Oh. Well, Dad's TV show had the same issue, except no one watched it. My dog... She's got a routine now. Yeah, I feel like I should have bought my kid to work day today. You're encouraging this. Yeah, I don't know a dad.

Yeah, it was the problem. You've got no aura here, dude. That's a good way of music I get to start. So why don't you like watching yourself as much on the screen? I like to describe it like this. Do you have a passport photo? Yes. Do you like it?

No. Have you ever heard your voice back on a... Do you like the sound of that? No. Yeah, there it is. Same thing. Well, my daughter, yeah, thinks you guys are cool, unlike me. You guys have got Riz.

You've got Riz, you've got Aura, right? Okay. Well, Sam and Cliv. You obviously don't have it If you're asking Do your guys kids ever think you You're cool No

I'm gonna try to say yes But I knew they'd go no way Jack your kids Yeah well They think I'm the coolest You know what kind of farming Yeah yeah Yeah exactly

Because I do like to dress up a costume To pick up my daughter Siena and her sister You know So bad From school Yeah from school From places Turn up a costume

Everywhere I get enjoyment as a parent out of wanted to ask you one thing avatar related I bought an avatar costume yeah and I thought next week I could be your avatar and pick her up to you if you think it's a good idea up to you it's like a blue onesie you didn't ask as well I did I did yeah oh you got to do it yeah you got to do it sounds awesome honey yeah yeah yeah that's a must that's a must okay good to know I'll be your avatar I'll let know how it goes yeah right there are so much that goes into

actually making these movies yeah like a couple hundred loins Cloth, apparently we were in today. Yeah, no, there's plenty of line cloths. Probably more than that that goes into it. But what surprises people the most about the Avatar movies? I think people think that we do the movie and then we kind of go away. We keep working on these movies over a long time. I think we started in 2017 on this movie and then...

We're still filming this year. It's like painting. Jim keeps coming back and forth from it. Because he gets a great idea and just wants to keep improving it. Jack, you got the role, you know, it's through your teenage years. Pretty much your teenage years. were spent during our time. I've got to ask us a dad question. Why in the school? How do you do school? Well, I mean, we had an

onset teacher. Oh, did you? Yeah. Did you ever go? It's just like, oh, I've got to use the bathroom. Then I go to Crafty. That's tough. So when these guys go home at the end of the day, you've got to do school? Well, it's more like they were such little time that it wasn't

on set, so it'd be like... You didn't go. No, yeah, but also like, you know, the little bit of time, they'd go to lunch and I'd just be doing lunch, eating and doing algebra or whatever so I'd be trying to learn algebra well dad won't let me get a pit turtle

is there any creature from Pandora that you secretly think would make a great pet Turcun Thanator Vipa wolf I'd probably rather have a turtle to be honest Did you go diving cliff To learn for the first movie and

Were you surrounded by Manta rays at some stage Oh we did that in Hawaii We went to That was a spiritual moment for me. Loved all of that. But, yeah, I love the ocean. Yeah, because you always had to learn to hold your breath for a long, very good time for these movies, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, yeah. We were filming a lot underwater. Yeah, Jack did it in a mask, too, which was a bit different. So they had to design a mask so he could go underwater with the mask. I got a lot of scuba training, but yeah, I got up to five minutes and 33 seconds, which sounds like a lot, but comparatively to, I feel like everyone else got up to way longer than I did. Wow. It still feels like a long time.

Yeah, just a long time. I think it's like 30 seconds next. Well, you guys film long hours and witsuits with dots on your face, cameras on your head, and sometimes 30 feet underwater. James Cameron said it was like joining the army. Well, joining the circus sometimes. There's definitely a military aspect to it, for sure. But that's why they're so amazing.

Yeah, there's a lot of safety concerns. You know, you've got putting children and adults and imaginary whales in the water. So it's a very calm 30 feet underwater. No one's yelling at you, no one's telling you. no one's telling you well it's like it's I found it very calming under the water oh wow so you can hear Jim though I was about to say sometimes like if you got the shot wrong and he has a microphone that can hear in the water you can't hear any of the boss saying go to the left act better oh really yeah oh

well thank you so much for your time it's been so good the movie is great can't wait for Kiwis to see it and hopefully it's so good you get a shirt in the next one I know right I'd love that you know they're nice right and some pants Is that weird to you? See yourself like that? I mean, it's definitely, I'm like, man, I missed the abs. No, I'm going to. No, you're still young, what are you talking about?

Don't we all? Yeah. Thank you very much for time. It's been so much fun. That's awesome. Cheers. Well, those were two very stressful interviews. That wasn't sure.

I think inside you feel a little nervous because there's lots of people. Yeah, lots of people and cameras and people, but they were lovely. It was more the fact that there were these massive, like, James camera, like, oh, We got a little, oh, it was just a little nervous. Yeah. Hey, it was cool. It was awesome to talk to them then afterwards. We were lucky enough to go along to the red carpet.

That was really cool. We got to do little interviews with them, one question only. Yeah. Dad managed to sneak in a gag. Yeah, yeah, right. I had an avatar tail that I'd attach to my blazer and I went around asking everyone where I could charge it, like a charging board. I feel like I got good laughs to that. I feel like you feel like everyone just felt bad for you.

A middle-aged man, hey, can I judge this? If someone came up to me in there, I'd be like, ha, funny. That was a good gag to do with. It was a dad joke, yeah, it was a good dad to do. It was a good joke to do with the movie. You can see that on the Hits Breakfast and the hits social media as well as ours. And also James Cameron as well, he came over, he explained who he were to his wife. Susie.

Yeah, which is pretty cool. He's like, they're a father, daughter, duo, and stuff. He also called you Bean. Beating, this is Bean. This is Bean. This is Feene and Sienna. Yeah, which is really cool. He was lovely.

And you got him to sign your note. I did to get out of my, or not to get out, but I had to miss my Lema's rehearsal. So I got him to sign my note. but excusing me so that was pretty good giving it to the drama to you just be like sorry guys

yeah so James Cameron gone straight to the top James Cameron excused you from from drama as well from Les Mis so yeah thank you so much

to everyone that let us go over I know that was honestly such an incredible opportunity the only your downside to the weekend

was the fact that you broke your shoe on the red carpet Oh my gosh I did I was just walking these shoes have just been fixed As soon as we got there

red carpet you're like broke a shoe I'm like no soon as we were like walking to get our passes for the red carpet and I'm like oh I'm off balance

with these big heels as well because my dress was really locked sorry this dad I'm going on a bit of a story you are definitely I should have wrapped up and then I look down I'm like oh I've stepped on a crack

like I look down my shoe is on the ground and I was walking on a flat so we had to Uber back I think we all know how a broken shoe works mate we don't have an over-explainer can I just you are such a mansplainer let me tell my story

so anyway we had to say that extra stress of going back to the hotel and back you're like is there a shoe store around here I'm like, we're about to interview people on the red carpet. We're not going shoe shopping. That would be quite funny. I could have got some brand new heels. Yeah, even when at workshops couldn't fix your heel.

I could fix it in post. But anyway, we've got that sorted. We've got some amazing stuff. You can see it on our socials. Thank you for listening to the special pop-up edition of our podcast as well. And as I said before, go see the new avatar. It was awesome. Definitely.

Thank you.