James Cameron's Favorite Movie Scene He Shot Is From One Of His Biggest Films

If you've watched the Disney+ documentary, "Fire and Water: Making the 'Avatar' Movies," you know that James Cameron is in problem-solving heaven on the custom-built sets of these massive sci-fi epics. There may not be another director on the planet with his wide-ranging skill set: He can write, direct, design characters and sets, and switch on his engineering brain to figure out how to build a functioning water tank in which actors can convincingly swim in performance-capture outfits. Obviously, the 13 years of hard work that led to "Avatar: The Way of Water" gets condensed in the documentary, but it's still stunning to watch him brainstorm with his brilliant collaborators to pioneer new ways of making movies.

For many movie lovers, Cameron's disappearance into the world of Pandora has disappointingly deprived us of a master craftsman of live-action spectacle. Technically, yes, the "Avatar" films are live-action, and, again, impressive technical feats. But I miss the man who set his practically shot movies in a very identifiable real world. I miss the breathtaking (and, let's face it, dangerous) stunts of triumphs like "The Abyss," "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," and "True Lies."

I don't know if we'll get that Cameron back once he's done romping about on Pandora, but it's comforting to know, via a fascinating interview in The Hollywood Reporter pegged to the release of "Avatar: Fire and Ash," that he still has some affection for the movies he shot on good ol' 35mm cameras. In fact, the favorite shot of his career came from this era — specifically, the famous sunset kiss scene between Leonardo DiCaprio's Jack Dawson and Kate Winslet's Rose DeWitt Bukater in 1997's box office-breaking "Titanic."

Speaking with THR, Cameron said he doesn't miss "waiting 20 minutes for the perfect sunset." He went on to add, "They say, 'practical [filmmaking] is always better.' Practical is better in one way: It might be cheaper. But I could do the best car chase you ever saw and never put a real car on the road, and you wouldn't know." I'm unsure why I'd want to see a car chase fabricated in such a manner, but I also don't doubt that Cameron could blow my socks off.

Still, I'm surprised to learn that his favorite shot he ever pulled off was the very real sunset kiss between DiCaprio and Winslet on the prow of the Titanic. This was an instance where Cameron and his crew were certain cloudy skies were going to cost them the magic-hour shot they needed. They might've missed it were it not for Winslet, who saw the clouds part and ran up to the bow of the ship. "Shooooot," she yelled. "I've never heard an actor yell at me and say, 'Shoooooot," Cameron admitted.

It's a magnificent (if slightly blurry) moment (better than DiCaprio's "king of the world" declaration), but when pressed as to whether he thinks he could reproduce it on a soundstage, Cameron hedged. "That's a question I've asked myself," he replied. "We strive for perfect imperfection. 'Let's overexpose that [shot]; let's blow it out as if I was in a hurry.' We build imperfections into the film." But while I appreciate the attention to detail and commitment to authenticity this requires, manufactured imperfection is, in a way, perfection. Dare to stumble, Mr. Cameron.