An actress accused the director James Cameron of stealing her likeness to create an “Avatar” character in a lawsuit filed on Tuesday in California — a case that reflects a core fear among Hollywood performers in the artificial intelligence age: losing control of their own faces.

The actress, Q’orianka Kilcher, also sued Disney, which controls the multibillion-dollar “Avatar” franchise, which started in 2009.

“In the age of A.I., our likeness is no longer safe,” Ms. Kilcher, 36, said in an interview. “While what happened to me is personal, it’s also a big warning that, if we don’t act now, this type of thing will become standard. This case is about the future of identity.”

The lawsuit involves Neytiri, the digitally created, blue-skinned warrior princess in Mr. Cameron’s three “Avatar” blockbusters. According to the complaint, Mr. Cameron used a photo of Ms. Kilcher as a teenager — without her knowledge — as the foundation for Neytiri, incorporating her features “directly into his production art” and digital production pipeline.

“Neytiri’s lips, chin, jawline and overall mouth shape” in the trilogy “are Q’orianka Kilcher’s,” the complaint said. “This was not a fleeting inspiration or a vague homage; it was a literal transplant of a real teenager’s facial structure.”

In 2010, Ms. Kilcher, who is also an Indigenous rights activist, met Mr. Cameron by chance at a charity event in Hollywood, where he told her that she was the “early inspiration” for Neytiri’s look, according to the complaint. “She did not take this to mean that her actual face had been replicated,” the complaint said.

Ms. Kilcher is suing now, the complaint said, because of an interview that Mr. Cameron gave to a French media outlet in 2024. In the interview, Mr. Cameron mentions Ms. Kilcher and “points to an image of Neytiri and says unambiguously: ‘This is actually her lower face,’” the complaint said. The interview came to her attention a year later.

“For the first time in a public forum, Cameron explicitly admitted the full truth about Neytiri’s design,” according to the complaint, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles. “One of Hollywood’s most powerful filmmakers exploited a young Indigenous girl’s biometric identity and cultural heritage to create a record-breaking film franchise, without credit or compensation to her.”

A lawyer for Mr. Cameron did not respond to a request for comment. Disney had no immediate comment.

Ms. Kilcher’s action is the latest in a large number of legal attacks on “Avatar” over the years — almost all of them resolved by courts in Mr. Cameron’s favor, including five separate lawsuits accusing him of copyright infringement or the stealing of ideas. A sixth infringement lawsuit is ongoing and was expanded last month.

In part, Ms. Kilcher is suing under California’s decades-old “right of publicity” statute, which allows people to bring claims against unauthorized use of their identities. It’s a complex area of the law that has taken on a new immediacy in the age of generative A.I., an emerging technology that allows anyone with an internet connection to easily create images that replicate existing art, photographs and human likenesses.

Generally speaking, right-of-publicity laws (about 25 states have one) balance First Amendment protections by distinguishing between commercial exploitation (using a likeness to sell a product) and expressive works (such as news, art, parody). But “there is not always a bright line,” said Jennifer E. Rothman, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Carey Law School who is viewed as a leading authority on right-to-privacy law.

Ms. Kilcher’s break in Hollywood came in 2005 when, as a 14-year-old, she was cast as Pocahontas in Terrence Malick’s “The New World.” She has since acted in films like “Dog” and TV shows like “Yellowstone,” and is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Ms. Kilcher is asking for damages that include “all profits” attributable to the unauthorized use, including from the sale of “Avatar” tickets; the three “Avatar” films have collected $1.8 billion at the North American box office alone.

“The damages we are asking for are commensurate with the exploitation,” Arnold P. Peter, one of Ms. Kilcher’s lawyers, said in an interview.

The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services rose to $60.3 billion in March, increasing 4.4 percent from the previous month, after the Supreme Court struck down President Trump’s global tariffs, according to data from the Commerce Department released on Tuesday.

Exports grew 2 percent in the month, to a record $320.9 billion, as the United States exported more oil, soybeans and industrial supplies. The U.S. trade surplus in petroleum hit a record in March, as war with Iran pushed up the price of oil and U.S. energy exports. Imports also gained 2.3 percent in March, to $381.2 billion. The combination increased the monthly trade deficit, the gap between what the United States imports and what it exports.

Tariffs resulted in up-and-down swings in the trade deficit last year. The monthly trade deficit is now somewhat lower than it was in 2024. But overall, the figure hit a record last year, as the United States continued to import high-priced computer chips and weight-loss drugs, and importers stockpiled foreign goods before tariffs took effect.

The data provided the first snapshot of trade since the Supreme Court ruling forced major changes to the Trump administration’s tariff regime.

On Feb. 20, the Supreme Court ruled that Mr. Trump had exceeded his authority last year when he used an emergency law to impose steep tariffs on nearly every nation.

That ruling forced the administration to withdraw the double-digit tariffs it had issued under that law, which varied by country based on bilateral trade deficits. Mr. Trump immediately moved to replace those levies with a flat 10 percent tariff, issued under a legal authority known as Section 122.

The Section 122 tariff will expire in July unless Congress votes to reauthorize it. So the Trump administration has been working on tariffs to replace it. It has started two trade investigations under another legal provision known as Section 301, which allows the president to impose tariffs in response to unfair trade practices.

One of the new investigations would target countries that don’t have laws blocking imports made with forced labor. The other centers on what the administration calls “excess capacity” among 16 of the country’s largest trading partners.

The Trump administration says overproduction in the factory sectors of some foreign countries has resulted in large and persistent U.S. trade deficits with those nations. Representatives from various industries, ranging from sugar to technology to chemicals, are set to testify about the investigation on Tuesday and Wednesday in Washington this week.

Next week, Mr. Trump is expected to visit Beijing, for a meeting with the Chinese leader that will be partly focused on trade. U.S. imports from China have shrunk significantly, as the administration has imposed high tariffs on Chinese goods, and companies have relocated supply chains out of the country.