Kate Winslet had made Titanic before joining the Avatar sequels. James Cameron directed Titanic, the 1997 epic in which Winslet played Rose DeWitt Bukater, and later cast her as Ronal, a member of the ocean-dwelling Metkayina clan.
Titanic became a defining collaboration for Cameron and Winslet. The film combined a fictional romance between Rose and Jack Dawson with the real 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic. Its production was famously demanding, but the result became one of the most successful films ever released and won 11 Academy Awards.
Winslet joined the Avatar cast in 2017. Her role required extensive underwater performance work, including breath-holding training for motion-capture scenes. Cameron said the two filmmakers had wanted to work together again, although Winslet had previously been wary of the physically rigorous conditions associated with his productions.
A common mix-up is confusing Winslet’s Cameron connection with Sigourney Weaver’s: Weaver starred in Aliens, but Winslet did not. The other options—The Abyss and True Lies—were also directed by Cameron, yet neither was Winslet’s earlier film.