Avatar: The Way of Water dived straight into controversy in Japan yesterday with director James Cameron holding a press conference at a dolphin park.
While welcoming the press, he announced, “Welcome to Pandora,” a reference to the fictional world shown in the film. As he said this, dolphins entered the pool along with their two trainers. As he spoke about his film and later answered questions from his audience, the dolphins displayed tricks in the pool below.
Cameron, reportedly a vegan has been facing loads of criticism since yesterday for displaying animal cruelty. The veteran director was seated next to other celebrities associated with the film including Zoe Saldaña, Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang and Jon Landau.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) slammed James Cameron for holding the press conference at a dolphin show. Other animal rights activists too were aghast at the choice of the venue. The PETA spokesperson commented that if Cameron could wait for 13 years to release his new Avatar film, he could have spent just five minutes more in considering whether he should allow himself to be endorsing the cruelty of marine parks.
The PETA spokesperson added: "Confining far-ranging dolphins to concrete tanks and using them as surfboards – riding on their faces in circus-style shows – is something the villains of Avatar would do. PETA urges him to reject such animal misery outright and encourages everyone to shun these cruel parks."
The incident occurred while the Avatar team was on a promotional tour in Japan.
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