James Cameron sued over claims Avatar character was modelled on indigenous actress

Ms Kilcher filed a complaint in a California federal court on Tuesday accusing Mr Cameron and Disney of violating her publicity rights by allegedly “extracting, replicating and commercially deploying her facial likeness” without consent.

The actress, who is of indigenous Peruvian descent, claims Mr Cameron drew on her appearance after seeing her acting debut aged 14 as Pocahontas in The New World, directed by Terrence Malick. Neytiri was portrayed in the Avatar films by Zoe Saldaña.

Ms Kilcher’s lawyer, Arnold Peter, said: “What Cameron did was not inspiration, it was extraction.

“He took the unique biometric facial features of a 14-year-old indigenous girl, ran them through an industrial production process, and generated billions of dollars in profit without ever once asking her permission.”

The lawsuit claims that Mr Cameron used “multiple photographic references” of Ms Kilcher as source material for Neytiri’s digitally rendered face, alleging there was “a deliberate and repeated systemic use of [the] plaintiff’s facial features as the source for the character”.

Ms Kilcher also alleges that Mr Cameron acknowledged the resemblance during an encounter in 2010, when he reportedly told her: “I’ve admired your activism work in the Amazon.”

According to the complaint, Mr Cameron later gave her a signed sketch of Neytiri bearing the handwritten message: “Your beauty was my early inspiration for Neytiri. Too bad you were shooting another movie. Next time.”

The lawsuit states: “This was done without Kilcher’s knowledge or consent. The result was a hugely lucrative film franchise that presented itself as sympathetic to indigenous struggles, all while silently exploiting a real indigenous youth behind the scenes.”

Ms Kilcher alleges no one involved in the production ever approached her about appearing in Avatar, which became the highest-grossing film in cinema history with revenues of almost $3 billion.

She is seeking unspecified damages under California’s right of publicity law, which prohibits the commercial use of a person’s likeness without permission.

The franchise has since generated more than $5.2bn from the original film and its 2022 sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, while the third instalment, Avatar: Fire and Ash, has reportedly surpassed $1bn since its release last year.