James Cameron says he was moved to tears twice while watching a recently nominated Shakespeare film centered around themes of love and loss.
James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash was the biggest movie of 2025, earning $1.441 billion worldwide. Though the film cost over $500 million to make, it wasn’t the only significant event in Cameron’s year.
According to IndieWire, Cameron James revealed to director Chloé Zhao during a Hollywood Reporter roundtable that her film Hamnet moved him to tears on several occasions. He told her he cried multiple times while watching it twice and asked how she crafted such a deeply empathetic story.
I cried during the movie, several times. You have an incredible ability to connect with and understand others’ feelings. So it’s surprising to see you working in Hollywood! How do you manage to stay sensitive and compassionate in that environment? Is there a secret to protecting your heart? I’m genuinely curious. It feels like your deep connection to nature is what grounds you and drives everything you do.
As a huge cinema fan, I was deeply moved by Hamnet. It’s based on Maggie O’Farrell’s beautiful novel and tells the story of William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway, focusing on the devastating loss of their son, Hamnet. What really struck me was how the film suggests Shakespeare actually wrote Hamlet as a way to process his grief. It’s a powerful and incredibly moving film, and it’s no surprise it’s getting so much praise and is likely to be nominated for several Oscars.
The two discussed how important storytelling is, especially as a way to understand the world around us. Zhao, a fan of Cameron’s work since seeing The Terminator, shared insights into her creative process, focusing on how emotional scenes in that film strengthened its core ideas and messages.
Cameron’s heartfelt reaction shows how effectively the movie achieved its goals. The film’s focus on emotion allowed the characters in Hamnet to truly come alive, particularly in portraying the couple’s struggles after losing their son. As Cameron points out, this makes them relatable and the story deeply human.
The new film also shares themes with director James Cameron’s Avatar movies. Like the characters in Avatar: Fire and Ash, those in The Way of Water experienced the heartbreaking loss of Neteyam. Both films explore grief, though in different ways. Cameron’s personal focus on family likely explains why he connected so strongly with the story of Hamnet.
Cameron was deeply moved by Hamnet both times he saw it, which speaks volumes about Zhao’s skill in adapting the Shakespearean story. While the film deals with a difficult topic and isn’t always easy to watch, it’s clearly a powerful and significant work, as evidenced by Cameron’s enthusiastic response.
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2026-02-12 23:48