James Cameron reveals he almost DIED while making The Abyss

09/29/2023

James Cameron reveals he almost DIED while making his 1989 deep-sea adventure The Abyss… but he survived by PUNCHING a diver in the face

Cameron, 69, participated in a Q&A at a screening of The Abyss at Regency Village Westwood on Wednesday, where he told quite the harrowing tale.
The filmmaker was already an experienced diver when he made the film, though he revealed at the screening he almost died due to equipment failure
He said a safety diver didn’t know his equipment was malfunctioning so he, ‘punched him in the face and swam to the surface and therefore survived’

Director James Cameron revealed the harrowing tale of how he almost died while filming his 1989 deep-sea adventure The Abyss.

The 69-year-old filmmaker participated in a Q&A session following a restored director’s cut version of his film at the Regency Village Westwood as part of the genre festival Beyond Fest on Wednesday evening.

While the filmmaker was in his early 30s during production, he was already an experienced diver, though he revealed how equipment failure almost cost him his life.

The film was shot in Gafney, South Carolina, with filming taking place in an abandoned power plant.

Actors such as Ed Harris, Michael Biehn, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and others were required to undergo underwater scuba training.

Harrowing: Director James Cameron revealed the harrowing tale of how he almost died while filming his 1989 deep-sea adventure The Abyss

Underwater: Actors such as Ed Harris, Michael Biehn, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and others were required to undergo underwater scuba training

He explained that they had, ‘angel divers’ who were assigned to watch the actors and make sure they were all right, though he explained, ‘they weren’t watching me.’

‘We were working 30 feet down. For me to be able to move the camera around on the bottom I wore heavy weights around my feet, no fins, a heavy weight belt around my waist,’ Cameron said, adding his equipment started to fail.

‘When the tank gets low, you get a warning that you’re about to run out of air. Well, this thing had a piston servo regulator in it, so it was one breath… and then nothing,’ Cameron explained, adding that the rest of the crew were, ‘setting lights’ and nobody was watching him.

The director explained he was trying to get underwater director of photography Al Giddings’ attention on the P.A. system, but Al couldn’t hear him.

‘Al had been involved in a diving accident and he blew out both eardrums so he was deaf as a post, and I’m wasting my last breath of air on an underwater p.a. system going ‘Al… Al…’ and he’s working away with his back to me,’ Cameron told the BeyondFest crowd on Wednesday.

The director added that he was 32 feet underwater and he was able to get his gear off and try to swim to the surface… when the angel divers noticed him.

‘The safety diver gets to be about ten feet from the surface and he sticks a regulator in my mouth that he didn’t check. It had been banging around the bottom of the tank for three weeks and had a rip through the diaphragm — so I purged carefully and took a deep breath… of water,’ he said, as the crowd gasped.

‘At that point it was almost check out point and the safety divers are taught to hold you down so you don’t embolize and let your lungs overexpand going up,’ he explained, though in this instance, it nearly cost him his life.

Actors: He explained that they had, ‘angel divers’ who were assigned to watch the actors and make sure they were all right, though he explained, ‘they weren’t watching me’

Underwater: ‘We were working 30 feet down. For me to be able to move the camera around on the bottom I wore heavy weights around my feet, no fins, a heavy weight belt around my waist,’ Cameron said, adding his equipment started to fail

James arrives: ‘Al had been involved in a diving accident and he blew out both eardrums so he was deaf as a post, and I’m wasting my last breath of air on an underwater p.a. system going ‘Al… Al…’ and he’s working away with his back to me,’ Cameron told the BeyondFest crowd on Wednesday

Not a hit: The Abyss was one of Cameron’s few movies that wasn’t a massive box office hit, earning $90 million worldwide from a reported $45 million budget, though it earned an Oscar for Best Visual Effects

‘But I knew what I was doing. And he wouldn’t let me go, and I had no way to tell him the regulator wasn’t working. So I punched him in the face and swam to the surface and therefore survived,’ Cameron said as the crowd laughed and applauded.

The Abyss was one of Cameron’s few movies that wasn’t a massive box office hit, earning $90 million worldwide from a reported $45 million budget, though it earned an Oscar for Best Visual Effects.

While it wasn’t a huge hit in theaters, it earned a devoted fan base throughout the years, leading to the sold-out Beyond Fest screening on Wednesday.

Cameron also revealed during the Q&A that he has completed work on a long-awaited 4K restoration that was announced last year.

‘All of the mastering is done and I think it drops pretty soon — a couple of months or something like that,’ Cameron said.

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