James Cameron hailed the “amazing culmination of a 30 year partnership” as he and producer Jon Landau placed their hands in cement outside the TCL Chinese theatre in Los Angeles.
The Oscar-winning pair, who first worked together on the 1994 film True Lies, were like “an old married couple” but had rarely been celebrated together, Cameron said.
The ceremony, which took place on Thursday, had been postponed from last month after the director tested positive for Covid-19, forcing him to miss it.
It meant Cameron also missed the LA premiere of their award-nominated blockbuster film Avatar: The Way Of Water.
He and Landau were joined at the ceremony by two of the film’s stars, Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang, who both praised them for their work and dedication.
In his own words, Cameron said the pair’s success had come from their “innate understanding of production” and communication.
“Our partnership has been a really solid partnership from the beginning. We first worked together on True Lies 30 years ago, in 1993,” he said.
“(Jon) and I hit it off so well, we had an innate understanding of production that allowed us to communicate in a way that was very productive.
“At this point we’re a bit like an old married couple, we know how to avoid fighting, we know how to divide and conquer and complement each other.
“And basically we do divide and conquer, Jon will do one thing, I’ll do the other so we almost never get together to be feted and celebrated together and to appear together like this – it just doesn’t really happen that much
“So I think this is an amazing culmination of a 30 year partnership, to have our hands and feet immortalised here together.”
Cameron also thanked his wife Suzie, who he described as “my wingman”.
Later following the ceremony’s conclusion, the pair told the PA news agency that placing their hands and feet in the cement had felt “cold and squishy”.
“My thought was that this is the last thing a lot of mid-level gangsters felt, right before they went into Lake Tahoe (on the California/ Nevada border),” Cameron joked.
“It was more emotional than I thought it was going to be,” Landau told PA.
“I thought it was going to be exciting, being here…the history of cinema and thinking ‘I’m going to be a small part of it’… It really got to me.”
Cameron added: “Emotionally, I think as fans of movies as kids who then became practitioners of movies, this is just one of those amazing experiences that I don’t think either one of us expected .
“I don’t think you can expect something like this, but you’re just very grateful when it comes along.”