Disney, James Cameron sued for allegedly misusing actor’s face in ‘Avatar’

Disney and director James Cameron have been sued in California federal court docket by an actor who alleges Cameron misused her ​likeness as the premise for the character Neytiri from the blockbuster “Avatar” movies.

Q’Orianka Kilcher mentioned ‌within the grievance filed Tuesday that Cameron “extracted, replicated, and commercially deployed her facial likeness” for Neytiri’s design, accusing him and Disney of violating her publicity rights.

Spokespeople for Disney didn’t instantly reply to a request for ​touch upon the lawsuit on Wednesday.

“What Cameron did was not inspiration, it was extraction,” ​Kilcher’s lawyer, Arnold Peter of Peter Regulation Group, mentioned in a press release. “He ⁠took the distinctive biometric facial options of a 14-year-old Indigenous lady, ran them by way of an ​industrial manufacturing course of, and generated billions of {dollars} in revenue with out ever as soon as asking her permission.”

Kilcher ​made her performing debut on the age of 14 as Pocahontas in Terrence Malick’s 2005 movie “The New World.” Her different roles embrace a recurring half within the hit tv sequence “Yellowstone.”

The primary “Avatar” film, launched in 2009, turned the ​highest-grossing film of all time with income close to $3 billion. The third movie within the sequence, “Avatar: ​Hearth and Ash,” has made greater than $1 billion since its launch late final 12 months.

The “Avatar” sequence is centered on ‌a ⁠group of humanoid aliens referred to as the Na’vi that the grievance says are based mostly on indigenous cultures. The Na’vi protagonist, Neytiri, is performed within the movies by Zoe Saldana.

Kilcher mentioned in her grievance that Cameron used {a photograph} of her with out permission as supply materials for Neytiri’s digitally ​rendered facial options. The ​lawsuit mentioned that Cameron ⁠has acknowledged that he used a picture of Kilcher, who’s of indigenous Peruvian descent, from “The New World” as the inspiration for Neytiri’s design.

“The ​outcome was a vastly profitable movie franchise that introduced itself as ​sympathetic to ⁠Indigenous struggles, all whereas silently exploiting an actual Indigenous youth behind the scenes,” Kilcher’s lawsuit mentioned.

Kilcher requested an unspecified quantity of financial damages for allegedly violating California’s proper of publicity legislation, which prevents ⁠the use ​of an individual’s likeness in commerce with out their permission.

The ​case is Kilcher v. Cameron, U.S. District Court docket for the Central District of California, No. 2:26-cv-04832.

For Kilcher: Arnold Peter of ​Peter Regulation Group

For Cameron and Disney: lawyer info not but accessible.

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