Actress sues Avatar director for 'theft' of facial features

Film-maker James Cameron and Disney are being sued by an actress who has accused the director of using her ​likeness as the basis for one of the lead characters in his hit film series Avatar.

German-born US actress Q'orianka Kilcher, who is of indigenous Peruvian descent, alleged that in 2005 - when she was 14 - Cameron "extracted her facial features" from a photograph of her portraying Pocahontas in another film, The New World.

In court documents filed on Tuesday in California, her team claimed Cameron "directed his design team to use it as the foundation for the character of Neytiri", depicted on screen by Zoe Saldaña.

BBC News has contacted Cameron and Disney for a comment.

The Avatar movies contain a hybrid of live-action performance mixed with computer-generated characters.

The 2009 original remains the highest-grossing film of all time with global box office takings of almost $3bn (£2.2bn).

Now, actress and activist Kilcher has claimed Cameron "extracted, replicated, and commercially deployed her facial likeness" for Neytiri's design, accusing him and Disney of violating her publicity rights.

She is seeking compensation, damages and a share of profits.

"This case exposes how one of Hollywood's most powerful filmmakers exploited a young Indigenous girl's biometric identity and cultural heritage to create a record-breaking film franchise - without credit or compensation to her - through a series of deliberate, non-expressive commercial acts," the legal claim said.

The image taken from her face went on to appear in the films and on posters and merchandise without her knowledge or consent, it added.

Avatar is set in the 22nd Century on the moon Pandora, and follows humans using genetically engineered Na'vi bodies (avatars) to explore the planet.

It centres around Jake Sully's journey as he falls in love with local Na'vi native Neytiri, and defends her home from human mining.

Kilcher's team argued that the "lucrative" film franchise "presented itself as sympathetic to Indigenous struggles, all while silently exploiting a real Indigenous youth behind the scenes".

The document said she had no knowledge of the use of her face until she met Cameron at an event in 2010, when he allegedly told her he had a gift for her - a framed signed sketch of Neytiri.

His picture, it is claimed, included the handwritten note: "Your beauty was my early inspiration for Neytiri. Too bad you were shooting another movie. Next time."

Her team said producers had not, in fact, tried to hire her for a role, as the note suggested, even after her talent agent at the time had tried to get her an audition.

She only learned late last year that closely Cameron had apparently followed her facial features for Neytiri, when an interview was shared on social media around the release of film three, Avatar: Fire and Ash.

In the interview, Cameron namechecked Kilcher and her LA Times cover as the "actual source", the claim noted. "This is actually her... her lower face. She had a very interesting face."

Kilcher said: "When I received Cameron's sketch, I believed it was a personal gesture, at most a loose inspiration tied to casting and my activism.

"Millions of people opened their hearts to Avatar because they believed in its message and I was one of them.

"I never imagined that someone I trusted would systematically use my face as part of an elaborate design process and integrate it into a production pipeline without my knowledge or consent. That crosses a major line. This act is deeply wrong."

Kilcher played Pocahontas in Terrence Malick's 2005 film The New World, and Ka'iulani in Princess Kaiulani in 2009. In 2020, she had a recurring role on the Paramount show Yellowstone.