Director James Cameron said that the way New Zealand handled the COVID-19 pandemic was the main reason he decided to move there from the United States (US).
Speaking to British magazine "Stuff", Cameron, who filmed much of the latest film in the "Avatar" series in the southern hemisphere, described his time in the US under Donald Trump as "watching a car accident over and over again", and said that his New Zealand citizenship was "on the horizon", reports the Guardian.
The director further explained the reasons in a new interview with the show "In Depth with Graham Bensinger," saying he moved "for his own mental health."
He and his wife bought a farm in New Zealand back in 2011, and after the pandemic they decided to settle there permanently.
"New Zealand has completely eliminated the virus. They actually eliminated it twice. The third time, when it appeared in a mutated form, the virus managed to break through. But, fortunately, they already had a vaccination rate of 98 percent," Cameron said.
He added that's why he loves New Zealand.
"People there are, for the most part, reasonable - unlike the United States, where the vaccination rate was 62 percent and now it's even declining, going in the wrong direction. Where would you rather live? In a country that believes in science, that is reasonable and where people can work together towards a common goal, or in a country where everyone is against each other, extremely polarized, turns their backs on science and would be in complete disarray if another pandemic emerged?" he said.
Cameron thus joined a growing number of celebrities from the film industry who are leaving the US, citing Donald Trump's second term in the White House as a key reason.
George Clooney recently obtained French citizenship, while Jim Jarmusch announced that he had also applied for it, and Ellen DeGeneres moved to the United Kingdom, while Rosie O'Donnell went to Ireland.
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