Ever since its release on December 15, 2022, Avatar: The Way of Water has been breaking records left and right. The sequel to 2009’s Avatar focuses on Jake Sully (played by Sam Worthington) and Ney’tiri (Zoe Saldana), who have formed a family together, but are forced to leave their homeland due to an ancient threat that resurfaces. Not only has the movie supplanted Jurassic Park as the seventh-highest-grossing movie ever, with $1.7 billion earned so far, director James Cameron has also become the only director to have three of his films exceed the $1.5 billion mark.
It is widely known that Cameron took a risk by casting Worthington as the main character of the Avatarfranchise. At the time, Worthington was a relatively unknown actor in Hollywood. What’s more impressive is the fact that the Australian actor beat out a list of more recognizable actors that Cameron had initially considered. Let’s take a look at actors almost cast as Jake Sully in Avatar.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
6 Chris Evans
Marvel Studios
Although Chris Evans went on to have a really successful career in the MCU, he could’ve gotten one a lot sooner in another major franchise. During a 30-minute-long podcast on the making of Avatar (via Empire), Cameron revealed that Worthington was up against two actors: Evans and Channing Tatum. “I liked Chris’ appeal. They were both great guys. Everybody did about the same on all the material through the script.” Jake’s final speech in the film, however, is what convinced to Cameron to choose Worthington over anyone else. While he’d follow Worthington to a battle, he didn’t feel the same about Evans, who was missing that little something at the end. Despite not getting the role, Evans managed to steal the hearts of the world with his role of Steve Rogers a couple of years later and has since thrived as a Hollywood actor.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
5 Channing Tatum
Legendary Entertainment
Making his breakthrough in 2006 with his role in the dance film Step Up, Channing Tatum could’ve been a major Hollywood star three years later. The actor tried his luck and auditioned for Cameron’s Avatar as well. Similarly to Evans, it didn’t work out. In the same Empire podcast, Cameron mentioned that Tatum was among the three biggest candidates for the role of Jake Sully. However, he ultimately wasn’t what Cameron was looking for, for the visually-stunning world of Pandora. The director liked his appeal, but it wasn’t enough to beat Worthington, who easily won him over by being ready. This certainly didn’t hurt Tatum’s career, as he went on to gain worldwide attention for his acting performances in Magic Make, 21 Jump Street and The Lost City.
4 Matt Damon
Universal Pictures
Matt Damon turning down Cameron’s offer to star in one of the highest-grossing movies of all time may be one of the biggest missed opportunities in Hollywood. And the actor is very well aware of that. Cameron allegedly told him: “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.’” How much would be the ten percent if Damon took the part, you ask? A staggering $250 million+. The reason why he turned down such a huge offer was loyalty to his friends. “It would have caused a problem for Paul Greengrass and for all my friends on The Bourne Ultimatum, so I couldn’t do it.” In a recent 2022 October talk with BBC Radio 1, the director cracked a joke: “Matt, you know, you’re kinda like one of the biggest movie stars in the world. Get over it.” Well, who could get over such a big loss?
3 Chris Pratt
The Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World star has recently shared his terrible experiences auditioning for both Star Trek and Avatar. Chris Pratt made an appearance on a SmartLess podcast, saying the auditions made him question his potential as an actor. He further described the experience of auditioning for the role of Jake Sully: “I remember that the role was written like ‘He comes in,’ it was maybe the Avatar. . .I just remember reading this character description and it was like ‘he walks in and he has the it factor.’ So I was feeling, you know, a little bit overweight, I wasn’t really taking care of myself physically, I was in a relationship where we were, you know, drinking a lot. I walked in, and I started sweating immediately, and it was a casting assistant. She just looked at me and she just pressed record and she just started doing her stuff while I was reading with her other casting assistant. I saw that there was literally nothing about my audition that was compelling at all.”
2 Chris Pine
Paramount Pictures
Best known for his roles as James T. Kirk in the Star Trek reboot film series and as Steve Trevor in the DC Extended Universe films Wonder Woman, Chris Pine missed the opportunity to join a big franchise, even before his rise to fame. In an interview with Red Eye Chicago (via Film Ink), the actor retold the story of completely butchering his Avatar audition. “I have a feeling that story will haunt me for the rest of my life. I walked into that room absolutely not believing myself. How dare I put that poor casting director through the experience of watching me? Halfway through, I just stopped; she was maybe smiling or laughing at me. I didn’t take offense to it because I was pretty bad. I shook hands with her, and out I walked.” Thankfully, the bad audition experience didn’t scare Pine away as he eventually proved himself as a worthwhile actor.
1 Jake Gyllenhaal
Marvel Studios / Sony
In addition to Damon, Cameron offered the role of Sully to one other actor: Jake Gyllenhaal. It seemed that Cameron was set on a lesser-known actor from the start, but the studio persisted with their requirements to cast a bigger name. In his interview with LA Times, Cameron admitted: “Honestly, did I go out and try to woo them? No. I had my heart set on Sam. Maybe they sensed my lack of 100% commitment from me.” Gylenhaal had a different reason to turn down Avatar: “When James and I discussed the project, I wasn’t ready. In this business, if you don’t listen to yourself, you’re going to meet serious trouble.” The actor wasn’t ready to take a project with such a big scale, and, honestly, we completely understand.
