There are occasions when an actor misses out on a role and it becomes the stuff of Hollywood legend. Leonardo DiCaprio nearly played Spider-Man, for example, while Tom Cruise came this close to suiting up as Iron Man in place of Robert Downey Jr. Then, there's Matt Damon and Avatar.
Director James Cameron initially wanted a big name to play Jake Sully in the 2009 blockbuster, and went so far as to offer the Bourne franchise star 10% of whatever the movie's box office revenue ultimately ended up being.
Damon turned him down and Sam Worthington was cast in his place (albeit without the promises of that sweet financial backend).
The 3D epic is the highest-grossing movie of all time, earning over $2.9 billion at the worldwide box office. Crunching the numbers, that means Damon would have walked away with a cool $250 million (at least).
The Oppenheimer star wouldn't have known that at the time, of course, but reflected on missing out on the biggest payday of his career while speaking to Mediaite's Chris Wallace (via SFFGazette.com).
"I’m sure it’s the most money an actor ever turned down, you know?" Damon acknowledged. "I had a contract. I was in the middle of shooting the 'Bourne' movie and I knew that we were going to need work at the end and I had to get it all the way to the finish line and I would have to leave the movie kind of early and leave them in the lurch a little bit and I didn’t want to do that."
"I desperately wanted to work with Cameron. I mean, because he worked so rarely. I don’t know how I could have left all my friends in the lurch. You know what I mean?"
"I told John Krasinski, we were writing this little movie a long time ago called 'Promised Land' and we were in my kitchen and it was a Saturday morning and we were on a break and I tell him about 'Avatar,' and he launches himself out of the chair," the actor added. "He starts pacing the kitchen, he goes, 'Nothing in your life would be different today if you had done that movie, except you and I would be having this conversation in space.'"
Doing the rounds to promote Avatar: The Way of Water last year, Cameron was asked about Damon's previous comments about losing out on the role. Joking that he needs to "get over it," the filmmaker said he would be open to giving the actor a cameo role "but he doesn’t get 10%, f**k that."
We'd say Damon has done pretty well for himself since passing on Avatar and he remains one of the world's biggest movie stars with or without Pandora.
Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water are now available to stream on Disney+.