Cameron Criticizes Amy Poehler’s Joke About His Marriage to Kathryn Bigelow Being Torture:

LOS ANGELES, CA - JANUARY 30: DGA feature film director nominees Kathryn Bigelow and James Cameron attend the 62nd Annual Directors Guild Of America Awards President's Breakfast at the DGA (Directors Guild of America) on January 30, 2010 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for DGA) — Alberto E. Rodriguez

Oscar winner James Cameron was the butt of Amy Poehler’s most ruthless jokes, one he’s now calling an “ignorant dig” at his expense.

Speaking in a recent interview with The New York Times, the Titanic Oscar winner said Poehler took things “too far” when she poked fun at his marriage to Bigelow.

Poehler’s joke was made in 2013 Golden Globes, where Bigelow was best director nominee for Zero Dark Thirty.

During her opening monologue with co-host Tina Fey, Poehler nodded to the controversy around the film’s depiction of torture by quipping: “When it comes to torture, I trust the lady who spent three years married to James Cameron.” The audience was visibly shocked by the joke, with Bigelow’s “Zero Dark Thirty” star Jessica Chastain jaw-dropped.

“Amy Poehler’s remark was an ignorant dig, at an event which is supposed to be a celebration of cinema and filmmakers, not a roast,” Cameron now said. “I’m pretty thick-skinned, and happy to be the butt of a good-natured joke, but that went too far. The fact that people found it funny shows exactly what they think of me, even though they have no idea who I am or how I work.”

Cameron noted Hollywood pit the two directors against each other during the 2009-2010 awards season, as “Avatar” faced off against “The Hurt Locker” at various events, including the Oscars. Bigelow prevailed over Cameron to win the Oscar for best director, while “The Hurt Locker” also won best picture.

“I was the first one on my feet applauding,” Cameron noted about when Bigelow won the Oscar over for him. “Kathryn and I thought the whole meta-narrative around us was pretty funny. I was a little concerned that it would just take away from her credibility as a filmmaker. It started to turn into a conversation that wasn’t about her film, and that bothered both of us.”

Cameron and Bigelow were married from 1989 to 1991. Their relationship extended to their professional careers, as Cameron developed and produced Bigelow’s 1991 actioner Point Break and co-wrote her 1995 thriller Strange Days.

Cameron recently made headlines for telling The Hollywood Reporter that he deserved full screenwriting credit on “Point Break,” saying: “I flat out got stiffed by the Writers Guild on that. It was bullshit.”

Point Break’s credited writer W. Peter Iliff told People: “Jim Cameron is my hero. I am perhaps his biggest fan, and so grateful for his fabulous work on ‘Point Break.’ There’s enough glory for everybody and it’s great that Jim should be recognized for his work that made ‘Point Break’ the movie that it became. It’s funny, the film just seems to endure as the years go by.”