James Cameron Recalls How He 'Survived' After Nearly Drowning While Filming The Abyss Underwater

James Cameron told the audience at a special screening of ‘The Abyss’ that his oxygen tank once went off without warning while filming 30 feet underwater

James Cameron recalls a terrifying experience he had while shooting underwater scenes for his 1989 film. Abyss.

Cameron, 69, appeared at Beyond Fest at the Regency Westwood Village in Los Angeles on Wednesday for a special edition screening of the film Abyss. During the Q&A, the director said he nearly died during production of the film, which required leads Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Michael Biehn, among others, to perform their scenes while actually diving, per Diversity.

“We had ‘angels,’ which were safety divers that were right there, and each one was assigned to one or two actors and they just kept them in sight the whole time,” Cameron told the audience, according to the release. “[But] they didn’t look at me.”

The Oscar winner, who is an experienced diver himself, told the audience that he filmed the scenes 30 feet underwater and was “wearing heavy weights around his legs, no fins, a heavy weight belt around his waist,” to move the camera.

Cameron recalled that at one point his oxygen tank ran out of air while “everybody’s turning on the lights and nobody’s looking at me.”

James Cameron on the dangers of artificial intelligence 40 years after ‘Terminator’: ‘I warned you people…and you didn’t listen’

James Cameron on the set of ‘The Abyss’ in 1989.

Courtesy of Everett

“I’m trying to get [underwater director of photography] Al Giddings pays attention to the duck, but Al had a diving accident and blew out both of his eardrums, leaving him as deaf as a pole,” he said. “And I’m taking my last breath of air on the underwater pass ‘Al…Al.. .’ and works with his back to me.”

The director said at the time that he was able to remove his equipment and began resurfacing when a production safety diver “pushed a regulator in my mouth that he didn’t check.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio in ‘The Abyss’.

20th Century Fox/Kobal/Shutterstock

“For three weeks it was banging on the bottom of the tank and it broke through the diaphragm – so I cleaned it carefully and took a deep breath of … water,” Cameron said, according to Diversity. “And then I purified it again and took another deep breath of…water.”

“At that point the check-out point was over and safety divers are trained to hold you down so you don’t embolize and allow your lungs to overexpand upwards. But I knew what I was doing,” he added. “And he wouldn’t let me go, and I had no way to tell him that the regulator wasn’t working. So I punched him in the face and swam to the surface and survived.”

The announcement of the video game ‘Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora’ evokes impressive visuals for fans of the franchise

Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Ed Harris in the movie ‘Abyss’.

20th Century Fox/Courtesy of Everett

Abyss, which also starred Leo Burmester, Todd Graff, Kimberly Scott and JC Quinn, won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects at the 1990 Academy Awards. The film preceded Cameron’s other explorations—and huge successes—with water on the big screen in films like 1997’s Titanic and the last time in the last year Avatar sequel, The way of water.

Cameron recalled in the Q&A that Abyss‘these underwater creatures provided moments “that must have caught people’s attention at the time.”

“That scene made an impact and showed people what was possible and I think opened the door to the beginning of the CG explosion,” he said, according to Diversity.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education