{"id":427616,"date":"2026-01-23T08:01:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T08:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/427616\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T08:01:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T08:01:14","slug":"james-cameron-says-he-moved-from-u-s-to-new-zealand-for-sanity-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/427616\/","title":{"rendered":"James Cameron says he moved from U.S. to New Zealand for \u2018sanity\u2019 – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

Academy Award-winning film director\u00a0James Cameron<\/a> opened up about what led him and his family to move to New Zealand<\/a> permanently.<\/p>\n

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The\u00a0Titanic director said he had promised his wife, Suzy Amis Cameron, that they would move to New Zealand at some point in his career during an appearance on In Depth with Graham Besinger<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cameron, 71, said he \u201cjust really fell in love\u201d with New Zealand when he first visited the country in 1994.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Suzy and I were first getting serious, she said, \u2018Fine, no problem.\u2019 She was game,\u201d Cameron said of the move. \u201cNow, later, we have children, we have a family, we\u2019ve got roots in Malibu and Santa Barbara, that conversation had to be amended slightly, but we did say after Avatar, let\u2019s make this happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple shares three daughters: Claire, 23, Quinn, 21, and Elizabeth, 18. Cameron also shares another daughter, Josephine, 31, with his ex-wife, actor Linda Hamilton.<\/p>\n

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The Canadian filmmaker explained that the COVID-19<\/a> pandemic, which began in 2020 and led to travel restrictions and lockdowns, said New Zealand\u2019s handling of the virus compared to the United States\u2019 response gave him the push he needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Zealand had eliminated the virus completely. They actually eliminated the virus twice. The third time, when it showed up in a mutated form, it broke through. But fortunately, they already had a 98 per cent vaccination rate,\u201d Cameron said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is why I love New Zealand,\u201d he continued. \u201cPeople there are, for the most part, sane as opposed to the United States, where you had a 62 per cent vaccination rate, and that\u2019s going down \u2014 going the wrong direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Cameron, who officially became a New Zealand citizen in August<\/a>, asked Besinger where he would rather live.<\/p>\n

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He asked: \u201cA place that believes in science and is sane, and where people can work together cohesively to a common goal? Or a place where everybody\u2019s at each other\u2019s throats, extremely polarized, turning its back on science and basically would be in utter disarray if another pandemic appears?\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"For<\/p>\n

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Besinger said that the United States is a \u201cfantastic place to live\u201d but did note that New Zealand is \u201cstunningly beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not there for scenery, I\u2019m there for the sanity,\u201d Cameron clarified.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Last February, the Terminator director said his New Zealand citizenship was \u201cimminent\u201d<\/a> and hinted at plans to relocate to the country to escape U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s<\/a> second term in the White House.\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Cameron, a Canadian born in Kapuskasing, Ont., told New Zealand news outlet Stuff that he intended to make his farm in South Wairarapa<\/a> his family\u2019s primary residence. The film director has owned the 1,000-hectare dairy farm since 2012.<\/p>\n

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Cameron has long been vocal about his plans and said that Trump\u2019s current presidency, which he described as \u201chorrifying\u201d and \u201clike watching a car crash over and over again,\u201d acted as a recent catalyst.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI see it as a turn away from everything decent,\u201d he said of the Trump administration. \u201cAmerica doesn\u2019t stand for anything if it doesn\u2019t stand for what it has historically stood for. It becomes a hollow idea, and I think they\u2019re hollowing it out as fast as they can for their own benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Cameron says he doesn\u2019t necessarily feel any safer in New Zealand than in the U.S., he prefers the country\u2019s reporting style, saying it provides a welcome escape from America\u2019s Trump-heavy news cycle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something nice about the New Zealand outlets \u2014 at least they\u2019ll put it [Trump stories] on page three. \u2026 I just don\u2019t want to see that guy\u2019s face any more, on the front page of the paper,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

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Cameron isn\u2019t the first celebrity to move abroad since Trump took office again.<\/p>\n

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Ellen DeGeneres<\/a> confirmed that Trump was the reason she left the United States<\/a> and moved to the U.K. (She and her wife, Portia de Rossi, are rumoured to be moving back to the U.S., however, after the pair purchased a home<\/a> this month in California.)<\/p>\n

Last March, comedian and actor Rosie O\u2019Donnell revealed that she\u2019s no longer living in the United States<\/a> and confirmed she moved to Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoved here on January 15 and it\u2019s been pretty wonderful, I have to say. The people are so loving and so kind, so welcoming. And I\u2019m very grateful,\u201d O\u2019Donnell said.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donnell, 63, said she\u2019s currently in the process of getting her Irish citizenship and that she has Irish grandparents.<\/p>\n

\u201cI miss my other kids. I miss my friends. I miss many things about life there at home and I\u2019m trying to find a home here in this beautiful country and when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America, that\u2019s when we will consider coming back,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u2014 With files from Global News\u2019 Rachel Goodman<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Academy Award-winning film director\u00a0James Cameron opened up about what led him and his family to move to New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,75,5961],"class_list":["post-427616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-james-cameron"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}