Matt Damon turned down the lead role in Avatar and missed out on a fortune
There’s nothing like hindsight to put things in perspective, but sometimes that walk down memory lane yields some uncomfortable truths. Such was the case for Matt Damon as he reflected on passing up the lead role in James Cameron’s 2009 film Avatar, and the king’s fortune that would have come from it.
Deadline reports that Damon spoke to a masterclass at the Cannes Film Festival and admitted that he passed on a project that would have made him a fortune. “I was offered a little movie called Avatar, James Cameron offered me 10% of it. I will go down in history… you will never meet an actor who turned down more money.”
For what it’s worth, Avatar is the highest-grossing movie in human history. 10% of the Avatar proceeds is about $280 million.
Matt Damon didn’t want to leave the Jason Bourne franchise for Avatar
Damon recounted telling his good friend John Krasinski about his decision to pass on Avatar. Krasinski’s response was classic him: “Nothing would be different in your life if you had done Avatar, except you and me would be having this conversation in space.”
One of Damon’s leading reasons for passing on Avatar was that Damon didn’t want to jeopardize the still-growing Jason Bourne franchise that he’d been building at the time Avatar was in the works. Cameron ended up casting Sam Worthington in the lead role of Jake Sully, who probably didn’t get the same 10% offer as Damon, but it all ended up working out because Damon is doing just fine.
Damon was in Cannes to promote his new movie Stillwater, which has debuted to rave reviews. After being locked away for so long during the pandemic, Damon said that he was emotional upon his return to the red carpet and movie premieres. “It was such a relief to be in a room with a thousand strangers who are part of a community because we love the same thing,” he said. “I’ve never felt that so strongly, having been denied it for 18 months, I was really overwhelmed by all of us being able to gather here again.”
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h/t The A.V. Club