James Cameron has quite a reputation for his reported perfectionist nature and for never having an easy production experience. But as the final products are considered to be the best sci-fi movies of all time, all the stress to keep production going clearly pay off in the end. If you want to know how far the Canadian director will go for his work, I just found out he gave CPR to a rat while filming The Abyss, and oh my!
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, James Cameron got real about a time making the 1989 movie when a rat that was used to showcase The Abyss‘ oxygenated water technology almost drowned. Not wanting to letting the rodent die and having the movie’s “No Animals Were Harmed” certification taken away, the director actually performed CPR on the rodent. Cameron spoke about how his act of heroism was the beginning of a beautiful friendship between him and “Beanie”:
Beanie and I bonded over the whole thing. I saved his life. We were brothers. He used to sit on my desk while I was writing Terminator 2, and he lived to a ripe old age. He didn’t seem particularly traumatized, though I know the film is outlawed in the U.K. because of ‘animal cruelty.’
Hmm, I guess the U.K. didn’t catch on that James Cameron ultimately saved the rat? I suppose it proves that the award-winning filmmaker clearly cares about protecting the sci-fi movie’s reputation that he’d really resuscitate a rat. Talk about going to extremes!
But it wouldn’t be the first time that The Terminator director went out of his way for a successful finish. For Titanic, a behind-the-scenes bit of trivia about the disaster flick is that Cameron forfeited his own salary after production went over budget, as he wanted to avoid having to shorten the runtime to save money. He also cleverly saved Titanic from a wave of bad press by letting the negativity wave pass, compared to fighting against it. As the romance-adventure flick went on to win Best Picture and take over the top box office for 12 years, these were gambles that paid off.
Other than almost having to deal with the death of a rat on-set, there were other ways that The Abyss had a disastrous production. According to Syfy, James Cameron himself almost drowned filming at the bottom of a huge underwater set, where he breathed into a broken breathing regulator that had him swallowing large amounts of water. Cameron was forced to punch the safety diver holding him down to break free and reach the surface.
The cast also reportedly were under a lot of emotional stress working 70-hour weeks for six months. The divers also had their skin burnt by the chlorine and their hair turned white. Just when you thought watching the James Cameron movie was intense enough, try making it.
Declare my mind blown finding out James Cameron gave CPR to a little rat to save The Abyss. You can’t say he’s not dedicated, that’s for sure. But it would be hard to live with yourself if a precious animal had to pay the price to test a movie’s advanced technology! Feel free to enter the underwater world via sci-fi thriller, which is available streaming with a Disney+ subscription.