James Cameron chose Oona Chaplin for a role in Avatar: Fire and Ash over three "movie stars".

The Titanic director has opened up about casting the role of villain Varang in his third Avatar film and revealed he had three famous actresses in mind for the role but he ditched them after seeing Game of Thrones star Chaplin's audition because he was so impressed with her "sexuality" and "fury".

Cameron told The Hollywood Reporter: "There were three other actresses up for the part that I had wanted to work with.

"They were movie stars. They were fantastic. But there was something [Chaplin] just locked into.

"There's a sexuality; there's a dominating psychology, and there's a lot of fury. There are a lot of layers to what she's doing there and the forces that are driving her.

"Oona was able to move fluidly back and forth between those in a way that I wasn't seeing with the others."

He added of the actresses he decided to ditch: "They're fantastic actors. And I'm sure, in retrospect, I could have cast any of them.

"But my instinct is to always go with the actor that understands the character the best."

Chaplin is the granddaughter of Hollywood legend Charlie Chaplin and the great-granddaughter of famed playwright Eugene O'Neill and is best known for her role playing Robb Stark's bride Talisa in hit fantasy series Game of Thrones.

She added of auditioning for the director: "There are not a lot of things that would have gotten me out of my treehouse, but a call to meet Jim Cameron definitely did.

"It was one of the most surreal moments of my life. He's one of my heroes - Aliens! Terminator! Titanic! I was very starstruck. But very quickly he very much put me at ease because he just felt like a kid that wants to play."

Avatar: Fire and Ash is due for release on December 19 and it comes as the director has hit back at critics over his use of 3D and high frame rate (HFR) in he film as well as its 2022 predecessor Avatar: The Way of Wate.

While most standard movies are presented at 24 frames per second (fps), Cameron, has been using 48fps for large sections, to make the scenes appear more "real."

He told Discussing Film: "I think $2.3 billion [box office] says you might be wrong on that. Well, that's the argument from authority, but the argument from artistic is I happen to like it, and it's my movie."