Appearing on 'Larry King Live' (weeknights, 9PM ET on CNN), director James Cameron addressed the recent quote that's given him a lot of flak.

When he said BP's efforts to curb the oil leak were done by "morons [who] don't know what they're doing," it was a "classic case of out of context," he told Larry King. "The other shoe dropping on the story was, then I got into it and I talked to petroleum engineers and we started this study group ... They're not morons."

Once Cameron delved into the issue, ahead of a brainstorming session he held at the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington D.C., he realized, "There are good engineers out there ... working very hard. It's a very, very complex problem to solve." The director has underwater-robotics expertise gleaned from making 'The Abyss,' 'Titanic' and several deep-sea documentaries.