We recently spoke with movie director and deep sea explorer Jim Cameron about his interest in science – he started at college studying physics and astronomy – and how that interest has intertwined with his movie making career.

Jim is one of just three people to have ever gone to the depths of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean, 10 908 m below sea level. He helped design the one person submersible Deepsea Challenger and had it built and tested in Sydney. He describes the deep ocean as “a wonderful alien world here on Earth” that he decided he could actually visit.

Titanic brought his creative and science worlds together and gave Jim the opportunity to dive on the wreck of the ship several times for the filming.

Jim is passionate about involving the public in science, saying that “as a culture we need to trust what science tells us, and not cherry pick the things we want to hear”. He feels that the challenges that we face will be solved by science.

“Science is only true path to the truth. There are 1000 paths to opinion, but there’s only one path to truth.”

With thanks to the Australian National Maritime Museum for generously giving us an opportunity to meet Jim at the opening of their James Cameron – Challenging the Deep exhibition.