Avatar Star Jack Champion's Worst Day On Fire & Ash Set Was "Crazy" Exciting For His Co-Stars: "So Stinky To Film"

Jack Champion, one of the stars of Avatar: Fire and Ash, has revealed shocking details about a "stinky" scene he had to film on set.

The actor made his debut in the James Cameron-directed franchise via Avatar: The Way of Water. Now he's returning as Miles "Spider" Socorro for Avatar: Fire and Ash, which arrives in theaters on December 19.

In an interview with ScreenRant's Ash Crossan, Champion revealed that there's a scene in Avatar: Fire and Ash that takes place in a swamp. He assumed that the crew would create fake moss and add green dye to the water. "Not on James Cameron's set!" Bailey Bass, who plays Tsireya, interjected.

Jake Champion: "My challenge? Honestly, there's a certain sequence that takes place in a swamp, and that was so stinky to film. I thought they were going to Hollywood it and make some fake moss and green dye in the water."

Bailey Bass: "Not on James Cameron's set!"

Champion then explained that there was "real swamp vegetation" in a shallow tank. As a result, it was "so stinky to film" that scene. With each passing day, he wondered if the vegetation was growing inside of him. "The smell was so bad!" he reiterated.

Jake Champion: "No, they put real swamp vegetation in this shallow tank. Day 1, it's like, 'Okay, that's a little gross.' By day 4, I think it was genuinely starting to grow inside me. The smell was so bad!"

Trinity Jo-Li Bliss, who plays Tuktirey (aka "Tuk"), thought that the swamp scenes were "really cool" to film. To put the scene in context, the group is on the run from the Ash people. At some point, they enter a swamp, and the tank on set allowed them to create turbulent waves, which was "crazy."

Despite being on a set, it really felt like they were "going up and down" as if they were out in the middle of a sea and "you're in the thick of it."

Trinity Jo-Li Bliss: "Those scenes were really cool. We're on the run from the Ash people, and we're going through these crazy scenes that we filmed in the tank, where they can create those waves. It was really cool because you really feel like you're going up and down. It's like you're in the sea, and you're in the thick of it."

The "stinky" swamp scene was challenging for the actors. It follows the underwater scenes from Avatar: The Way of Water. A lot of the film took place underwater, so the actors had to learn how to hold their breath, sometimes for long stretches of time.

For example, Kate Winslet managed to hold her breath for over seven minutes while in the tank filming a scene as Ronal. That moment was obviously captured on camera, and the pre-CGI footage was shown during the recent two-part Disney+ documentary Fire & Water: Making the Avatar Films.

Avatar: The Way of Water ended with Spider saving Colonel Quaritch after a fight that took place in the water. He ended up turning down the opportunity from Quaritch to go back to the Sullys.

Now, Spider is back in Avatar: Fire and Ash to resolve the conflicts and open-ended plot points that need to be wrapped up for his character.

Spider will face major dilemmas in Fire and Ash, and heading into a swamp will only make matters worse. Hopefully, behind-the-scenes footage of that swamp scene with Champion will make its way online or on Disney+ at some point, similar to the video of Winslet.

Fans would love to see all the hard work the Avatar 3 cast put into this film and get a sense of the "stinky" odor they had to put up with, even if they can't smell it themselves.

Avatar: Fire and Ash will be released in theaters on Friday, December 19, 2025.