James Cameron on His Long-Lost Music Video and Falling in Love with Kathryn Bigelow

Last Thursday, I had a lengthy, terrific interview with James Cameron in advance of the special edition of Avatar (rereleased to theaters August 27), and all this week, Movieline will bring you pieces of that wide-ranging talk.

At the end of my conversation with James Cameron, was there any way I could let him go without asking him about "Reach," the only music video he ever directed? The deliciously surreal 1988 clip was made for Bill Paxton's band Martini Ranch, and not only did it feature frequent Cameron collaborators like Paxton, Jenette Goldstein, and Lance Henriksen, but it starred filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow as a sexy cowboy one year before Cameron married her, three years before they divorced, and twenty-two years before Bigelow won the Best Director Oscar over Cameron for The Hurt Locker.

"It's a fun video," Cameron said (you can see our discussion in the clip below). "I just watched it again recently."

Bigelow and Cameron were just friends before the making of the video -- in fact, she had cast many of the actors from Cameron's Aliens in her own movie, Near Dark. "She actually sent me a note saying 'Is it OK if I steal your cast?'" Cameron laughed.

Later, when Paxton asked Cameron to direct the Martini Ranch video, he suggested that his Near Dark helmer take an acting role.

"I said, 'OK, I'm gonna make her the Clint Eastwood character, with the serape and the hat and the cigar and everything,'" Cameron recalled. "She got into that."

Did Bigelow make a strong impression on Cameron in those cowgirl duds? "That was before we were going out," he said, adding with a laugh, "I might have fallen in love with her during the making of the video...she still looks pretty good!"

MONDAY: Cameron on the Avatar Rerelease and That Sex Scene

TUESDAY: Cameron Takes on Bad 3D, Inception, and Spider-Man

WEDNESDAY: Cameron on Avatar 2

THURSDAY: Cameron on the Titanic Rerelease and Future Projects

TODAY: Cameron on His Long-Lost Music Video and Falling in Love with Kathryn Bigelow