Matt Damon reveals he lost out on $250m in profits after turning down Avatar role
‘I’ve left more money on the table than any actor,’ said the star
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Your support makes all the difference.Matt Damon has revealed that he lost out on $250m worth of profits when he turned down the lead role in Avatar.
The actor said that when director James Cameron approached him for the role of Jake Sully – which was eventually taken by Sam Worthington – he also offered him 10 per cent of the movie’s profits.
Avatar made $2.79 billion at the worldwide box office in 2009, meaning Damon could have earned upwards of a quarter of a billion dollars.
“Jim Cameron offered me Avatar,” Damon told GQ, “and when he offered it to me, he goes, ‘Now, listen. I don’t need anybody. I don’t need a name for this, a named actor. If you don’t take this, I’m going to find an unknown actor and give it to him, because the movie doesn’t really need you. But if you take the part, I’ll give you ten per cent of...’”
After Damon trailed off, interviewer Stuart McGurk asked: “He offered you ten per cent of the Avatar profits?”
To which Damon replied: “I told John Krasinski this story when we were writing Promised Land... he goes, ‘What?’ And he stands up and he starts pacing in the kitchen. He goes, ‘OK. OK. OK. OK. OK.’
"He goes, ‘If you had done that movie, nothing in your life would be different. Nothing in your life would be different at all. Except that, right now, we would be having this conversation in space.’"
Damon added: “So, yeah. I’ve left more money on the table than any actor actually… So that sucked and that’s still brutal. But my kids are all eating. I’m doing OK.”
The actor previously revealed he turned down Avatar due to a scheduling clash with his other films The Bourne Ultimatum and The Green Zone.
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