James Cameron pays tribute to Bill Paxton.
Beloved film and television actor Bill Paxton sadly passed away earlier this year following complications during heart surgery aged just 61. Throughout his career he provided numerous stand out performances and worked with director James Cameron on four separate features, The Terminator, Aliens, True Lies and Titanic. The roles varied from car salesman to Colonial Marine but Paxton always gave his all. The director paid tribute to the actor and his close friend whilst talking to Yahoo! Movies. Cameron told of how their friendship began;
“We became fast friends in 1981, I think, when we were both working for Roger Corman and we were friends until – I don’t want to say the day he died – but the night before he went in for the surgery that went wrong, I talked to him that night. So, yeah, he’s just a dear, dear friend, and a great artist”.
Cameron also enthused of Paxton’s work ethic;
“He was unique, you know, certainly broke the mold. He had a real… it was just a zest for life and creativity. He was always thinking about the next project and the next project and he had this amazing ability to just get people to want to do the thing that he wanted to do, the thing that he wanted to make. But when he worked for me as an actor, he — although he brought so many ideas that enriched the film around his character — he also was there to do his character. He wasn’t there to try to direct my movie.”
Cameron also revealed that the last conversation he had with his friend was the night before his surgery.
The director was being interviewed by Yahoo in relation to the upcoming release of Terminator 2: Judgment Day 3D which is due for release in U.K. cinemas on August 29th 2017.