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James Cameron ‘nearly fought Harvey Weinstein at the Oscars’

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Updated on July 6, 2023

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James Cameron has revealed he almost got into a physical altercation at the 70th Academy Awards.

Cameron said a brawl was barely avoided before the television cameras returned from an ad break on the night in 1998 when his Titanic scooped 11 Academy Awards.

The filmmaker said that at the Oscars, he got into a fight with producer Weinstein about how his buddy Guillermo del Toro was treated. One has to question who would prevail in such a fight.

Cameron shared the details while celebrating the 20th anniversary of the epic romance in an interview with Vanity Fair: “I remember almost getting in a fight with Harvey Weinstein and hitting him with my Oscar.”

“It was happening on the main floor at the [theater],” Cameron explains. “The music had started to play to get back in our seats. The people around us were saying, ‘Not here! Not here!’ Like it was O.K. to fight in the parking lot, you know, but it was not O.K. there when the music was playing, and they were about to go live.”

Del Toro had worked with Harvey Weinstein at Miramax for his movie Mimic and he apparently didn’t have that great of an experience. Weinstein came up to Cameron during the commercial break to tell him that the “artists” come to work at Miramax for him. But the director wouldn’t have any of it, and told him Guillermo del Toro’s experience working for Miramax, which angered the disgraced movie mogul. Cameron had this to say.

The 63-year-old director added: “Harvey came up glad-handing me, talking about how great they were for the artist, and I just read him chapter and verse about how great I thought he was for the artist based on my friend’s experience, and that led to an altercation.”

Del Toro has previously said working with Weinstein and Miramax left a bad taste in his mouth, back during the production of his first English-language feature Mimic.

Toro said at the BFI London Film Festival last month that working with Harvey and Bob Weinstein on the 1997 sci-fi film nearly ended his Hollywood ambitions.

The Mexican-born director continued, according to IndieWire: ‘My first American [film] experience was almost my last because it was with the Weinsteins and Miramax.

“I have got to tell you, two horrible things happened in the late nineties, my father was kidnapped and I worked with the Weinsteins,” he said.

But Del Toro wasn’t done there, adding: ‘I know which one was worse… the kidnapping made more sense, I knew what they wanted.’

The latest revelation from Cameron comes amid a series of sexual harassment allegations that have been levelled at Weinstein.

More than 80 women have accused Weinstein of sexual harassment, assault, or rape, with 18 allegations of rape against the producer.

The 65-year-old producer has denied all allegations of non-consensual sex.

Amongst his accusers are stars including Gwyneth Paltrow, Rose McGowan, Lupita Nyong’o, Ashley Judd, Angelina Jolie, Mira Sorvino and Julianna Marguiles.

Radio personality Howard Stern recently recalled interviewing Weinstein in 2014 where he asked the producer twice, point blank, if he had ever abused his power. Weinstein denied and said that he would never do that and that making movies was already “too expensive.”

Cameron is currently filming the “Avatar” sequels and is developing a new “Terminator” movie with “Deadpool” director Tim Miller. “Titanic” will return to theaters next month to celebrate the milestone anniversary. Weinstein has been fired from The Weinstein Company following sexual harassment and abuse allegations.