In Depth Crew on chasing — and finally landing — James Cameron interview

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0:46And right on cue, Hey, still got my hoodie? Nope. But I've got tonight's dinner paid for. Start selling on Depop, where taste recognizes taste. List now with no selling fees. Payment processing fees and boosting fees still apply. See website for details. We are back for the 2026 edition of The Crew Podcast. It's been a minute. It has. Seth has more gray hair. Thanks to you. I have less hair. where I have a new pair of pants. Oh, sorry, sorry. You guys are going to be the one blurring it. We'll just cut that out. Not you guys. We'll just cut that out. And we're kicking off the new year talking about James Cameron.

1:30Long time coming. He first had me on the Avatar set in 2016. 2016? I thought it was 2018. 2016? Maybe 2018. It was a set. You emailed him in 2016. We first started emailing in 2016. He reluctantly started responding to me on rare occasion beginning then. And fast forward to 2018. He had me on the set. Thought it was going to happen within months of that. and lo and behold near the end of the year in 2025 it actually came to fruition in a slightly different iteration than we were expecting well first before we can get into that but where does this rank amongst all the guests you've pursued in terms of how long or how many emails or just like how much you went after somebody is this the top one is this your white is this the white whale or is this...

2:29Okay, who would you... Would there be anybody that comes to mind that I pursued similarly? Costas? Yeah, but Costas at least responded all the time. And it's like I'd interviewed him before and there was more of a history. True, true. Wasn't Novak Djokovic a long time coming? Novak was several years. Yeah. Hanks was like a decade. Hanks was a little less. Yeah. Yeah, I would... David Blaine? You've harassed people a lot. Yeah, I know. So I asked that, figuring maybe Cameron was the top one. Yeah, I mean, David Blaine was a while. Josh Brolin was a minute, but nowhere near that long. Yeah, probably Cameron.

3:17And he's certainly probably... You know, he's one of the more consequential people we've profiled, too. And so, you know, there's probably more writing on when you're pursuing him because there are varying degrees of bad if he gets legitimately pissed off at you considering, you know, he's making a movie for Disney. Yeah. You know, the ramifications of something going south with him. What was your reaction when you read the email where he called you a persistent mother****er? What was your like? What did you think when you first saw that? I hadn't messaged him in probably six months. And so it was kind of came out of the blue.

4:02And it was on the heels of the episode we did with Jay Leno being released. And that had, you know, positive reception. So I was like, okay, maybe he saw that. But it was, I mean, probably the best email I've ever gotten from anybody. because it's like you know you have so much work over a decade going yeah to that and it just seems like you know got to a point where it's like okay this guy's just never gonna do it he occasionally engages tolerating my outreach and you know because it's not like we're asking for 15 20 minutes or even an hour with the person where it can really easily be worked in.

4:54You're asking for access. He's never given anybody pretty much. Yeah, pretty much. And so it's, you know, we didn't quite get what we were expecting, but we still got a couple hour interview with Cameron. And yeah, I mean, it, you know, we had that meeting on set in 2018. I then, after he sent that email in spring of 2025, we had an hour-long Zoom talking about it, and then a bunch of additional correspondence. And, you know, grateful for the opportunity to have done it. I came away bummed because there was so much more that we were hoping to have had the opportunity to get. but you know you kind of have to take a step back and realize I mean it's still like James Cameron who sat down with us for a couple hours yeah I know one person here was okay with the New Zealand part being postponed yeah it was gonna be we were gonna be gone for 12 days and I was gonna get back like three days before my wedding which neither I nor Lizzie were stoked about I was like oh I get to go to New Zealand with James Cameron yes and then it was just like oh it's also yeah, like the worst possible timing.

6:14And it was the whole time when we booked an October wedding I was like, something's gonna happen. Something's gonna come up. And then, sure enough, James Cameron, New Zealand. And then, yeah, when that got cancelled, I didn't realize how stressed out I was about that until you told me it was cancelled and I was like, oh. Full transparency is the best case scenario for me. Yeah. Thank God. Everybody was like, damn. And I was like, yes. Although it would have worked out well for you. that you wouldn't have had to screw with any of the last-minute weddings. Well, that's the thing is having been here for it, I can't imagine being gone.

6:48I would have felt terrible because we had so much to do. But it was... I do wish that we would have ended up going to New Zealand, obviously. Could have been a good honeymoon. It would have been a great honeymoon. But yeah, that getting canceled was... Right, the context being originally we were going to spend some time with him in New Zealand getting some interesting access and then likely... Well, that was going to be where we filmed everything and then that didn't end up being able to work out so then we were going to do L.A. and New Zealand later and then it just ended up being L.A. But again, for however much I beat myself up over that it was still two hours with James Cameron.

7:37Yeah, and I thought it was a good, I mean, I'm sure you could have talked to them for probably three hours. It's one of those where we were kind of dealing with a two-hour time constraint, which we've had before, but Cameron's one of those guys where he had a lot to say, and I think you had a lot more questions that you wish you had time to ask. It easily should have gone, I felt like, another half hour. Or I should have just better self-edited, which I am always horrible at. I don't know. I think... Remove topics to... Usually, any chance I get to blame you for something, I will. But this was like, I mean, you started the second.

8:12We've never started an interview where we're like, so one of our camera angles we couldn't have in place because it was going to block the door getting into the office. Yeah. So we had to, like, wait for you guys to come in to set that camera. And as I'm setting that camera, the interview's starting. Yeah. And it was like, Right. And then, like, yeah, what was funny to me is when it ended, they were like, because it wasn't James that was like, okay, we're done. it was his people that were like that's it like no more and the context being they're on a PR circuit so they're just doing their job they're stacked for sure but it was funny because it was just like we were trying to get like a Twix moment at the end which is like literally 30 seconds and they were like nope and then he hangs out and talks for like 10 minutes and I was like we definitely could have done a Twix question yeah and then Mario tried to get the post interview which was just like how'd it go and like, couldn't get that either.

9:06But that's okay. Whatever. He was, I was prepared for him to be terrible. Really? Yeah, well. Protein is now at Starbucks and it's never tasted so good. You can add protein cold foam to your favorite drink or try one of our new protein lattes or matcha. Try it today at Starbucks.

9:29Two teams, one cup. The primetime stage is set for the TGL presented by SoFi Finals, Los Angeles Golf Club versus Tigers Jupiter Lynx. Keep up, it's playoffs. Tune in Monday, March 23rd, 9 p.m. Eastern on ESPN2, and Tuesday, March 24th, 7 p.m. Eastern on ESPN and on the ESPN app. First of all, he wasn't... You're going to be like, because of what you said, Graham. No, no, no, no. Not from... I've heard... I've worked with other people that have worked with him. Oh, really? And I've heard he can be moody. Okay. and I was nervous because it's one of the Don't Meet Your Heroes. Wait, we talked about Cameron or Graham?

10:08Yeah, Graham. Okay. James Grammarin. Cut that. Cut that. I'm editing this. That's getting cut.

10:20So yeah, I was like really scared that he was going to be like a nightmare and not a nightmare but like just not very pleasant and he was great. I didn't, he's the only guest I think of the show that I've been on that I didn't talk to him. I usually, not even because I'm trying to talk to him, but usually I come in and I'm like, you guys ready to go? Everybody good to go? You're comfortable? Cool, let's get going. But I didn't say a word to him. And he's probably the only guest we have profiled that has actually served as a DP too. Yeah, yeah. Which that was, don't think I wasn't thinking about that when we were setting that interview.

10:57That was a hard interview to set up too because when we were site checking, first of all, the guy that walked us into that studio where we did it was the office building. I was like, yeah, I'll show you his office. And we go up this elevator and we go into this office and it's like tiny, like half the size of this room. And I was like, like the James Cameron movie is going to look bad. Like there's nothing I can do. And I was like, are there any other options? And he was like, this is my office. And I was like, oh, thank God. And then we took him to James' office and it was bigger. but we did have to pull all the furniture out and then bring in new furniture.

11:32Which I'm surprised they were cool with that. They were really cool with it. And the chairs we brought in were like very old vintage leather chairs. Yeah, they were super cool about everything. They were like, yeah, just move anything you need. And why couldn't we use what was in there? It just wouldn't have... It was funny when you told me that. I was thinking, I'm like, man, it would be cool to just have done it in whatever it is. Yeah, it was two couches facing each other and they weren't like sexy couches and I don't like doing interviews on couches unless it's like a sectional where it kind of meets so you guys can face each other but like I've had to do it like Bethany Frankel we had to do it where you guys are on one couch I just don't love it I'd love a clean two chair coffee table in the middle like that's a great look but yeah that worked out great also another little funny thing was when we were tearing we were moving his stuff out we moved this couch that probably hasn't been moved in however many years and there was a Bic pen.

12:27Like a Bic pen. And I was like, taking James Cameron's pen. I didn't know that. I stole a 20 cent pen and I was going to give it to my director friend, Sean, who is obsessed with James Cameron. I was like, this is right before Christmas. And I was like, I'm going to give him the best Christmas present ever. And I left it at my hotel.

12:51You think it was 20 cents, but maybe he wrote, who knows what he pensed at. I was going to say, He might have made notes on Terminator with this thing. Right. You have been unusually silent. Well, I was listening to Seth tell a story about moving the furniture. I was present for all that. Well, not the pen story. I didn't know that part. So that's good to learn. Do you think you're going to get upset with me from stealing? It was under a couch for who knows how long. We'll find that. I'm sure they will do that. It increases the value. But no, we've become expert furniture movers. So if anybody out there needs furniture moved, give us a call.

13:23um do you ever need to shoot an interview in your house i can tell you exactly where to do it yeah we can move furniture in and out we're pretty good at it um no what's uh what were the stressors for you in this whole process um the stressors for me the main the main one uh on site was just making sure that we were good to roll the second he walked in which seth kind of alluded to already with making sure that camera that we had to get in position after you guys came into the office was set and that audio was good and we were rolling and everything was good there. So everything else kind of went as planned.

14:05I don't think there were major stressors that day. Certainly in post there were stressors of just trying to make it the best it can be. But that's no different than any episode. one specific stressor I guess was trying to figure out whether it should be one episode or two episodes which we went back and forth on and yeah go for it see I thought it should be one episode I just thought it should be an hour episode versus a half hour episode I'm with you Seth told me that last night I stand by what I think I have no reason to change that your arguments about it being a two-parter I understood because you would have had to tease and then recap an episode which was just a sit down But there was no guarantee a week beforehand that we could actually make it 60 minutes in a spot where it would actually be distributed to a bunch of stations.

14:56I just didn't know. If we had two options and it was 22 minutes and 44 minutes, like 44 minutes for sure, because he shut it down. It's because he doesn't care. I also shut it down too because all of a sudden, like the amount of hours that got sunk into finding B-roll and stuff online and what worked, what fit, like to multiply that to fill then the hour, which would have had to all, I mean, in some ways two parts would have been easier because then you can at least get it done one week for part one and then done the next week for part two. But if it ought now it's all airing 60 minutes at once and we're deciding that it should be two parts a week before we're supposed to ship it But it wasn't like wouldn't have been a week or a week and a half We can have to sell you would have been originally moving the car so it would have been too It was before you had producing help, too, right?

15:50Well, then we pushed the episode this so we had pushed the episode a week It was initially slated to air and we pushed it So yes, we there would have been more time But the idea of like making what it was and then multiplying that for release at one time I think would have been we're talking about the TV the TV Yeah, at one point he was telling a story about how he lit Titanic and how At that point they didn't have stands that got high enough to get lights high enough above Because they built that huge ship They didn't have lights high enough or stands high enough to get the lights up So they had to like rig and come up with new things So then I came up with this idea that we'll build a track and we'll put a big construction crane on it and we'll hang a big ass light out on the crane and we can move it up and down the ship and position it.

16:37I could have listened to him talk about lighting Titanic for three hours. So I think it just depends on... There's definitely an audience that could sit there without any cuts and listen to Jim Cameron talk about his behind-the-scenes aspects of his filmmaking. Yeah, I mean, he's one of only a few of the... Dude, every... He's in a, like, what, Cameron Spielberg. Yeah, but not even that. Not even just, like, what he's done for technology in movies is more so than anybody. Anybody, right. Like, what he did in Terminator 2, like, that liquid effect, like, that was groundbreaking. In The Abyss, that liquid effect, groundbreaking.

17:18Like, Avatar, the thing that picks Avatar so long is he's waiting for technology to exist for him to shoot it. Like, it's insane. You can't say anything. Right. You can not like his movies, I guess, but it's like you have to acknowledge that he's revolutionary. Correct. If I'm not doing something that scares me a little bit, I don't feel I'm using my full potential. That plan's off-centered. Oh, s***. All right, restart. Restart it. Okay. I don't know that we should move it now, though. Well, we'll just include it in the edit. You're fine. James Cameron. Let's talk about it. Well. Let's move it again.

17:54Another one in the books. um anything to add uh i don't think so all right carlos you good go cameron go jim the cool experience for sure i mean obviously we left wanting more but that's what you want that's what it was grateful for the opportunity to have done it uh his staff was gracious. Jim certainly does what Jim wants, but he has earned that right. And we got two hours with James Cameron. It was awesome. Yeah, for sure. So, for Seth and Brad, I am Graham. We will see. There's something special about winter in Colorado. The snow is deeper. Adventures feel bigger. And our natural beauty inspires every traveler.

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