Captain Courageous

“He is such a physical person. Because he's so athletic he tries out all the stunts ahead of time,” says Cameron's friend and long- time collaborator Schwarzenegger, who would eventually shoot the scene himself, with Cameron manning the underwater camera. "Jim wanted a close-up of the flame hitting the bottom of my leg as I go into the water, and he gelled his entire body, then told them to actually shoot the flame at him diving into the water – just to see if he'd feel the fire and what the reaction is and whether it was safe for me to get the flames onto my legs. He'll do things like that, and it's always like a shocker,” the cinema icon says, a hint of awe in his chuckle.

There is no shortage of what Steadicam operator James Muro calls Jim Cameron moments. On the set of "True Lies” the directorial dynamo would "take off and be directing from a helicopter” one moment and swing off a construction crane perched atop a Miami high rise the next. "Jim is a very courageous guy,” says actor Michael Biehn, whose association dates back to 1984's `The Terminator.' “He's not afraid of anything. Whether you're driving a car, shooting guns – whatever. Jim Cameron shows no fear.” In other words, the adventures on a James Cameron film "are not just in front of the camera,” says producer Stephanie Austin.

If Steven Spielberg has been described by co-workers as a lighthouse, Cameron is a power plant that those with a sweet tooth for amperage can plug into. "He's an adrenaline junkie,” says composer Brad Fiedel, who has worked with Cameron on three films, including "Terminator” and "True Lies." "When you work with him, you just start flying. You're driving a race car: You take the turns and just keep going.”

Jim has a great motto: Duck or bleed!” says actress Jamie Lee Curtis, adding that on his high-voltage sets "everyone gets pretty good at ducking." It's common knowledge throughout the industry that to emerge unscathed from work on a James Cameron film requires tireless energy, a bulletproof ego and a certain degree of professionalism.

“Oh, he demands more than a certain level. He demands the most that you possibly have," says Biehn, who also appeared in "Aliens" and "The Abyss." Curtis breathlessly remembers being asked to literally step over the edge for Cameron, who photographed his "True Lies" heroine dangling from a helicopter 200 feet above sea level. The director did his own hand-held camera work for the scene. Harnessed to the helicopter skid, he leaned out at a 45-degree angle as the craft sped along at 80 miles per hour, recalls stunt coordinator Joel Kramer.

"I wouldn't have done it for most people," Curtis confides. "One thing that you know with Jim – or that you have to know about Jim – is that he is the most safety-conscious person on the set. He may want something, and in his desire to get it may ask, `Can you do this?' But he himself is very conscious of safety and danger. You know he wouldn't ask you to do anything he wouldn't do himself.”

"I drove through fire with him," Kramer says, sounding metaphoric but stating fact in describing the chase scene leading up to Curtis' breezy stunt. "In that scene where the limo goes through flame there's a point-of-view shot that Jim shot dead on from a camera platform on the front of the car. We wore five-layer Kevlar fire suits with hoods, Pyrex eyepieces – the whole works. We drove through about 20 feet of intense flames, going at about 50 miles per how. We got it in two takes."

"He's one of those guys I'd have hung around in high school, because he'll do just about anything," says actor Tom Arnold.

Tough as this coach can be on his team, all agree he is toughest on himself. On a Cameron film everyone works hard, admits Schwarzenegger, who adds that the director-producer-writer is "the first one to the set and the last one to leave. So no one can complain and say, 'This is not humanly possible! ' because he can do it."

Cameron seems to feed off the high energy, pushing himself and everyone around him to new heights. "It's like, 'Take this camera and get me another shot while you're hanging around!" says "True Lies" effects supervisor John Bruno, who recalls that when real Marine Corps Harrier jets were rented for two days of shooting on “True Lies,” "everyone who could hold a camera did. Jim likes everybody to do more than their title and more than one job. You work your ass off, but it's fun.”

Truth is, working for someone of Cameron's temperament isn't everyone's idea of fun. There are those for whom his particular brand of hyperactivity goes over like two-day-old coffee. But even his ardent detractors have done return engagements.

One critic who has worked with Cameron on three films vented some subjective off-the-record spleen about grueling shoots and capricious schedules, then added: “I've worked on meaner sets with worse directors than Cameron. The truth is, with him, you can almost put up with it because he's an action-director genius. He really knows his thing, and he could almost make a movie by himself, which you've got to respect.”

If you're going to work on a Cameron picture, he sums up, "you'd just better realize what you're in for and rise to the occasion." Among the more outré moments: shouting that only four of the many “T2” crewpeople were actually working, briefing key staff on the next day's shots at the wrap party for “The Abyss” and berating the "True Lies” crew over concert-level loudspeakers on the streets of Miami – "not just mild admonishments but saying the meanest things! The fact is, if you're going to chew someone out, don't do it on loudspeakers,” squeals one blushing bystander, who goes on to say: "I've been on shows where they could have used a Jim Cameron. Appalling things happened, including major stars sitting around on stages until 2 in the morning because the simplest little effects toy wouldn't work. You know that would never happen on [Cameron's] set, because you'd get yelled at so bad.”

Though it's a rare individual who will take on the quick-witted Cameron in a verbal joust, the silent majority have their say by printing T-shirts with jokey slogans that are part retaliation, part comic relief. The codas include the classic You Can't Scare Me, I Work for James Cameron, Terminator 3: Not With Me! and – commemorating the tight post-production schedule on "True Lies" – Fear Is Not an Option (a line from the film). “Jim spends all the time shooting, so there's not much time for editing,” says Conrad Buff, one of a trio of editors (including Steven Goldblatt and Richard Harris) who worked on "True Lies." Composer Fiedel opines: "Finishing a Jim Cameron film – at least with 'T2' and 'True Lies' – literally was not humanly possible to do. But you do it anyway.”

Production on these action epics is no less challenging than post, and the director – an accomplished lensman – is perhaps toughest of all on his directors of photography.

Asked if he'd work with Cameron again, “True Lies” director of photography Russell Carpenter says: “If you'd asked me a week after we finished, there was no way I would have survived another one. Yet I think that people who love testing themselves and challenging themselves would jump at the chance.”

Of those who whine too loudly, Cameron's brother and collaborator, Mike Cameron, has one thing to say: "They're sissies!"

Producer Gale Anne Hurd (“The Terminator,” "Aliens”) takes a similarly lighthearted view of the curious storm of controversy that surrounds the only filmmaker to have spawned a clothing line: “It's pretty funny – the T-shirts, the Cameron-veteran hats. In a sense it almost becomes part of the aura, and then it's expected. I don't honestly think he's cruel. I think he has very high standards."

Such standards might just be the only way to get Cameron's brand of blockbuster entertainment made. His films are off-the-scale when it comes to big-bang action. Still, his supporters – of which there are many – say the barking brigadier of infamy isn't what Cameron is really about.

"The way I see it, his films have an ego, an incredible ego, which he supplies. You don't mess with that ego,” says Biehn. “Jim Cameron himself is a very down-to-earth, very good-natured, very humble guy. But when he's making a movie, he does not allow his good-naturedness to get in the way of his films. The films themselves are the important thing and they kind of overshadow who Jim really is. I think Jim's personality actually gets hurt, and who he is kind of gets a little bruised and beaten around because of his love for his films."

Most people who really know Cameron chalk up an occasional short-tempered bout to the stress of shouldering so much responsibility on each project. As writer-producer-director and chairman and CEO of the production company making the film, Cameron's got a lot of balls in the air. “It's really inspiring to see somebody who dives into every aspect of his craft,” says the president of Lightstorm Entertainment, Rae Sanchini. “There's nothing about which he says, `Well, that's not my job.' Every part of bringing his initial vision through to realization on the screen is his job. He color times. He edits. He does it all."

Exactly how does he manage? “He has laserlike concentration,” says actor Bill Paxton, an old friend and veteran of many a 'Cameron film. That unerring focus has manifested itself in other ways. Some attribute the filmmaker's natural marksman ability to his singleminded will.

"Jim is quite a shooter," notes Lieutenant Colonel Tom Worsdale, adding that the quick-draw director bested the U.S. Air Force at a recent shooting-range outing, scoring 138 out of a possible 150 points. "He outshot everybody, including me. You'd think he'd have to practice every day of his life to get that good."

In fact, he hadn't indulged himself in target practice for some time. "He has incredible concentration. A large part of shooting is imagining the bullet going where you want it to," says his brother Mike.

In addition to his mental mettle, Cameron has other assists for accelerated living. "He has a very fast car," says a laughing Goldblatt – one he isn't afraid to drive at high speeds, the tunes cranked way up.

"Sometimes when he pulls up to my studio in his Corvette, there's real raunchy, metal stuff blasting. So I know that's one side of him," says Fiedel. “He's probably pretty eclectic in his music tastes, because some of the stuff that I wrote for 'True Lies' was almost Broadway-show quality, and he was completely ready for that."

From budgeting and location scouting to putting the finishing touches on his score, Cameron is a roll-up-your-sleeves kind of guy. But his degree of enthusiasm, Sanchini says, is "a double-edged sword" because "he doesn't delegate much. He can't let go of much, and he does everything so well that he pushes everybody else to excel to that level.”

"He's very quick, very shrewd, and he expects you to instantly rise to his standard and would actually prefer it if you surpassed it – or if you would try to surpass it, let's put it that way,” says screenwriter Jay Cocks, who collaborated with Cameron on the script for the upcoming “Strange Days.” “He always seems to come up with great ideas that are not finite. Unlike some people, when he comes up with an idea, it's not `OK, do this!' He'll come up with an idea and say, 'Can you top this?' There's a big difference in attitude, and this 'Can you top this idea?' is far more creative.”

"He's a busy person with a lot of other things on his mind besides us,” says set designer Peter Lamont – a veteran of 15 James Bond films, “Aliens” and “True Lies” – in assessing the hyperhyphenate's view of the crew. “I wait for the right moment to approach him on the set. When I talk to him, I try to be very pointed and specific, and we've always gotten along just fine.”

“The best time to work with him is one-on-one, like in the editing room,” says Buff. “When he's on the set and has 100 people standing around, it's a different situation.” Mike Cameron sums up: “He's very committed to making sure the end product is as pure and true to his original vision as possible.” He can see his brother “get frustrated when things aren't going in that direction.”

“I think he wishes he could transfer information to the crew, like a computer with a modem, instead of having to explain a lot,” says Tom Arnold.

Hurd has also had ample opportunity to witness that decisiveness firsthand. "He knows what he wants, he knows that he can do almost anyone's job as well, if not better, than they can, and he expects people to be at their best all the time. But he drives himself harder than anybody else, and I have respect for the fact that Jim is doing it out of knowledge and talent, not out of fear and intimidation, which a lot of people use as a defense mechanism,” explains Hurd, who says the results speak for themselves. "Jim raises people's expectations of themselves. He makes them look great, and that's why the same people work with him again and again.”

Schwarzenegger, one of the faithful, clearly enjoys in Cameron a heroic nature he must rarely encounter on the other side of the camera. "I remember him in the middle of the night running down between those trees in the deep snow,” the actor says in wonderment, recalling the action-packed "True Lies” opener that was shot in California's High Sierras. “It was a dangerous stunt to run with those guns in the hand and to shoot and flip and fall and whether you could stop on time and not smashing into the trees. He was plowing down between the trees and smacking into the trees and shooting. You know he's getting hurt, but he acts like it is nothing. He's a very athletic guy."

"He's tough, and because he's so intelligent at the same time, I've always said that if there's anybody I would have to be in a foxhole with, it would be him,” says Biehn. In fact, military analogies abound when it comes to discussing work with Cameron, whose "Paris Island approach to filmmaking” has become legendary in the industry. "Not everybody can deal with it,” says editor Goldblatt. "You sign on for a tour of duty, but you know that at the end you're going to have a great picture to show for it. I've done some of my best work for Jim."

"If you can imagine a combination of Philip Marlowe and General Patton, you'll have a pretty good idea of what it's like working with Jim," says Cocks. “You sit around, and between talking about the fine points of character, you crack wise with each other. He's a very good wisecracker, very funny.” Cocks, who received a 1984 Oscar nomination for his work on Martin Scorsese's "The Age of Innocence," describes Cameron as "an extraordinary writer” and says his first reaction upon reading the “Strange Days" "scriptment” that he was to turn into a shooting script was "What does he need me for?” The answer was scheduling. "Jim was in the middle of 'True Lies,'" explains Cocks. "If he hadn't been, he would have just finished it up."

Because of James Cameron's Renaissance-man skills, Goldblatt stands by the assertion that "if anyone's an auteur today, he's an auteur." He notes that Cameroon's involvement goes well beyond the preliminary and production phases. “Talk about somebody that takes a picture from conception to final release. He's all over every detail of the final color timing of his films to get the image exactly the way he wants it,” notes Goldblatt. He adds: “We move into the lab. Day in and day out [we're] looking at answer prints, retiming, going over the negative to the last second – and right down to the dupe negative. We'll be Sunday – 3 o'clock in the morning – recalibrating lighting to the internegative. I don't know tqo many filmmakers that do this.”

Cameron may be machinelike in his uebermensch drive toward perfection, but his films invariably have enormous heart and at their center tell very human stories. And while confidant and coworker Bruno testifies that Cameron is one of the few who seem to enjoy directing the effects scenes as much as they do the actors, the performances never play second fiddle. "He is a straight 10 when directing actors. It's just this is not the first thing someone would think of when they think of Cameron,” says Schwarzenegger, noting that the powerful effects, flair for action and uniqueness of the scenes he writes can sometimes overshadow subtler aspects of his films.

“He pushes you,” says Biehn, noting that the process can be “frustrating and humiliating – but in the long run exhilarating and satisfying.” Schwarzenegger recalls that one of the most challenging yet entertaining aspects of bringing the debonair superspy of “True Lies,” Harry Tasker, to the screen was learning a flawless tango, which would be executed in not one but two scenes. To get the moves down to Cameron's perfectionist standards, the actor recalls doing plenty of rehearsing: "I would be dancing everywhere – in the middle of the night, in the parking lot or in a warehouse or in the middle of doing the whole terrorist wipeout scene with the flames. I wanted to make it second nature because I know Jim too well. I knew he would load up the scene.”

Though written as a dancing scene, it actually involved much more. "Sure enough we would get there,” Schwarzenegger says, "and we were dancing and he would say, 'OK, now on this beat of the music I want you to turn slowly and feel behind your shoulder that someone is trying to find you. Then on the next beat I want you to, at a certain time, make sure you flirt a little bit with her. Get that smirk in like you're enjoying it with her, and then after another turn I want you to look for an escape route in case the shit hits the fan. So all of a sudden there are like 50 different signals in there, and you had to concentrate on those things. Therefore the dancing had to be second nature. Having worked with him before, I knew this would happen.”

As for Cameron – the man who can perform any job on the set and who would never ask anyone to do anything on his films that he would not do himself – can he tango? "Literally, no,” he says with a laugh. “But I tango in my heart.” Many of Hollywood's best and brightest eagerly await his next dance.