James Cameron and The Walt Disney Co. are facing a new lawsuit from a woman who alleges that the filmmaker used her likeness to create the facial features of one of Avatar’s main characters.
According to NBC News, Q’orianka Kilcher claims that in 2005, when she was 14 years old, Cameron “extracted her facial features” from a photograph he saw in the Los Angeles Times of her as Pocahontas in the film The New World.
The lawsuit alleges that Camera “directed his design team to use it as the foundation for the character of Neytiri.” Also included in the complaint are snippets from Cameron and his production team discussing how Kilcher served as inspiration for Neytiri, played by Zoe Saldaña.
“This case exposes how one of Hollywood’s most powerful filmmakers exploited a young Indigenous girl’s biometric identity and cultural heritage to create a record-breaking film franchise—without credit or compensation to her—through a series of deliberate, non-expressive commercial acts,” the lawsuit says.
The suit alleges that Cameron’s production team created digital models of Kilcher’s likeness to design Neytiri, and the image was used on movie posters and merchandise without Kilcher’s knowledge or consent. The complaint also accused Cameron and his team of hiding the inspiration behind Neytiri’s character.
“The result was a hugely lucrative film franchise that presented itself as sympathetic to Indigenous struggles, all while silently exploiting a real Indigenous youth behind the scenes,” the suit says.
Kilcher, who is an actress and activist, says she didn’t know Cameron had used her likeness until she met the director at an event in 2010 after Avatar’s release. At the event, Cameron gave Kilcher a framed sketch of Neytiri that he drew and signed.
“Your beauty was my early inspiration for Neytiri. Too bad you were shooting another movie. Next time,” a handwritten note allegedly said.
“Millions of people opened their hearts to Avatar because they believed in its message, and I was one of them,” Kilcher said in a press release. “I never imagined that someone I trusted would systematically use my face as part of an elaborate design process and integrate it into a production pipeline without my knowledge or consent. That crosses a major line. This act is deeply wrong.”
The suit also claims that Cameron violated a recently passed deepfake pornography statute in California since he used a photo of Kilcher as a minor to craft a character who was intimate in the film.
“It is deeply disturbing to learn that my face, as a 14-year-old girl, was taken and used without my knowledge or consent to help create a commercial asset that has generated enormous value for Disney and Cameron,” Kilcher added.
Kilcher is seeking compensatory and punitive damages for profits attributable to the use of her likeness.
