TJ Walker breaks down James Cameron's angry response to an old Amy Poehler joke about his marriage to Kathryn Bigelow. When legends react defensively to jokes, they amplify the story instead of killing it. Walker explains why neutral deflection works better than fighting back.
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Is film director James Cameron thin skinned? According to Times, James Cameron was on a podcast recently and bristled at certain criticism he received in the form of a joke. It was a Golden Globes joke and it referenced his past marriage to fellow director Kathryn Bigelow. Amy Poehler made a joke referencing his past marriage and he didn't think it was funny. Okay, that's the problem. And here's what happened, Amy. Amy Poehler said essentially she was being nice to Catherine Bigelow. Saying, when it comes to someone really understanding torture, I respect anyone who lived with James Cameron for three years or married to James Cameron. So it was a subtle dig, I guess, implying that James Cameron is supposed to be hard to get along with. It was a joke, it got laughs, but apparently he didn't like it. Now it was a decade old joke, but he referenced it recently on a podcast and this was a podcast that he went on and said it was an ignorant dig. It went too far. Now look, anyone who's been married certainly doesn't enjoy someone else picking it apart. Or if you've been divorced, you don't enjoy someone picking it. I'm not expecting James Cameron just because he's rich and famous to not have feelings. I'm looking at this purely from a public relations standpoint, a media management standpoint, because let's face it, this guy's the master of the media. He's certainly the master of the one medium of film. He's arguably the most successful director of all time and what, three of the four most successful movies of all time he's directed. So he knows how to communicate. And he's certainly been successful out on the publicity circuit promoting all of his movies. His most recent one, another Avatar movie. Haven't seen it. Not passing judgment on it. Didn't really like the last one, but I've certainly enjoyed many of his works like Titanic. So why is this a problem? From a PR standpoint? It's because if you are rich and famous and well known and you're criticizing someone who makes fun of you for a joke, it gets a whole giant wave of publicity. In many cases, you attract more attention than the initial joke would have ever received. So you're putting a spotlight on the thing you don't want giving attention to. Why is that? It's because the media loves conflict. If you are a big celebrity saying this other celebrity is bad, now you've got the makings of everything that makes editors and news executives and reporters drool. The this is great conflict, celebrities emotion. Let's Put it on page one of our website or let's make it the lead newscast. So look, is this a PR blunder that's going to destroy James Cameron's career? No, nobody's going to remember it. But it was an unforced error and it is something I want you to think about. Now, you and I might not ever become quite as rich and famous as James Cameron, although I hope we do. There may be a point when you do have certain prominence in your career and someone's going to attack you. Now, if the person attacking you is 10 times more famous than you and you're just on the beginning rise of your career, sometimes it makes sense to engage, start a controversy, start a war, it gets more attention for you. But if you're already at the top of your game, like James Cameron, I mean, his movies have made billions. Unless he's a horrible, horrible or has horrible financial advice, he's probably a billionaire at this point. He can make any movie he wants. He can deal with any movie star he wants. Anyone in the world will take a phone call from this guy. President of the United States, you name it, he pretty much has it all. Doesn't mean he's not a human who can't hurt or be sad or cry. I understand that. But what he can do is grin and bear it if someone asks you about a joke that you thought was mean and rude. Look, everyone likes to talk about authenticity. Authenticity, yeah. But if it makes you look thin skinned, petty, can't take a joke, it's not necessarily a good thing. Now I don't advocate that people lie, but I do think that you can just obliquely dodge the question if, if Amy Poehler makes some joke about how I have the worst head of hair in the whole world, okay, I might not like it, I might not enjoy it, but if I don't want that joke to get more and more attention and bounce all over the Internet, the smartest thing for me to say would be I love Amy Poehler. No matter who she hits, she's always funny. Just something like that. Positive. Why is that a good message? Because it's not interesting. Because a reporter can't start this pro con, this debate. Polar walker, polar walker. They can't do that. It's not interesting, so the issue dies. So that's really what I want you to think about. It's. I don't recommend spending a lot of your time consuming pop culture news about celebrities and entertainment. I mean, I prefer rather than knowing the box office scores of movies, just watch a really good movie and enjoy the movie rather than knowing all the machinations behind the scenes. So that's my number one recommendation. But if you do follow this, learn from it. We can learn from what successful people do in every industry. Sometimes what to do and sometimes what not to do.
