AVATAR: Matt Damon Looks Back On Why He Turned Down $250 Million To Star In James Cameron's 3D Epic

AVATAR: Matt Damon Looks Back On Why He Turned Down $250 Million To Star In James Cameron's 3D Epic

It's no secret that Matt Damon missed out on a whopping $250 million after turning down the opportunity to star in Avatar, but the actor has now shared some of his reasoning for why he couldn't do it.

By JoshWilding - Jul 26, 2023 04:07 AM EST
Filed Under: Avatar
Source: Mediaite (via SFFGazette.com)

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+.

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bobevanz
bobevanz - 7/26/2023, 6:20 AM
(via SFFGazette.com) lol can we make these a meme
philinterrupted
philinterrupted - 7/26/2023, 6:42 AM
@bobevanz - at one point I made my account a tribute to it.
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 7/26/2023, 8:38 AM
He didn't want to leave the movie he'd commited to in the lurch so he turned down a devlishly fat paycheck and the biggest movie of all time.

Men are still good.
tmp3
tmp3 - 7/26/2023, 9:27 AM
@ObserverIO - he said no to dent in tdk too based on bourne ultimatum filming
tmp3
tmp3 - 7/26/2023, 9:26 AM
Damon easily has one of the best filmographies in Hollywood, he doesn’t need Avatar and TDK on top of that lol
TheOtherOn
TheOtherOn - 7/26/2023, 5:10 PM
It's good to see there are still some people in Hollywood with self respect.

No one could've predicted close to a 3 billion dollars overall BO turn but it's safe to assume after reading the script and details of the movie, Damon could've worked out a James Cameron blockbuster movie like this one can easily make at least 300 - 500 mil on BO and 10% of that is still cool 30/50 mil pay check.

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