‘He says it robs you of energy’: Arnold Schwarzenegger reveals James Cameron’s questionable eating habits on set

Like it or not, one of the best rules of thumb in the entertainment world is to never bet against James Cameron. Indeed, we have every reason to believe that the Titanic mastermind has the secret code to box office success locked and loaded in that brain of his, and given that we won’t be waiting 13 years for the next Avatar film, we’re sure the humiliation faced by the Way of Water doubters will prevent them from making the same mistake they did last year.

Exactly how he’s managed to succeed the way he has is anyone’s guess; the Avatar films are nothing special outside of its visual effects (and if you’re spending upwards of $400 million on your movie, the visuals had better be damn good anyway), and even Titanic‘s ability to divide people is borderline legendary. The obvious conclusion, then, is that Cameron occupies a different, more metaphysical plane than the rest of us mere mortals; for all we know, he visits Pandora on a daily basis.

And recent comments from fellow primordial being Arnold Schwarzenegger have only strengthened such a theory; in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Schwarzenegger, who starred in Cameron’s 1994 action comedy film True Lies, claimed that Cameron once told him that “people mistakenly think they need food to get energy,” later explaining that the filmmaker believes food actually saps energy, and is why he doesn’t allow lunches during his film shoots.

“Now he tells me most people mistakenly think they need food to get energy. He says it robs you of energy. He says, ‘On my sets, we don’t have lunch because it drags down the performance for the next two hours.’ He sometimes doesn’t eat for three, four days, and look how energetic he is at his age! It must work.”

If this is true, this all but confirms that Cameron is not of this Earth; a consistent box office juggernaut who can not only allegedly go for days without eating, but getting Schwarzenegger, a former bodybuilder, to approve of such a diet? Maybe Canadians are just built different.

Avatar 3 is due in theaters on Dec. 20, 2024.