James Cameron Says Matt Damon Should Not Regret Turning Down Lead Avatar Role: 'Get Over It'
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James Cameron does not feel bad for Matt Damon.
In a recent interview with BBC Radio, the Avatar series filmmaker laughed when he was asked how recently he had spoken with Damon, who famously revealed in 2019 that he reportedly lost out on a $250 million payday by turning down the lead role — and 10 percent of the film's profits — in Cameron's original 2009 film.
"He's beating himself up over this," Cameron, 68, joked to the outlet over the money Damon, 52, claims he lost out on. "And I really think you know, 'Matt you're kind of like one of the biggest movie stars in the world, get over it.' "
"But he had to do another Bourne film which was on his runway and there was nothing we could do about that," the director said of the missed casting opportunity. "So he had to regretfully decline."
Asked whether Damon could appear in a cameo in a future Avatar movie, Cameron appeared interested.
"Must do it. We have to do it so the world is in equilibrium again," the director said. "But he doesn't get 10%, f--- that."
Damon had previously said in a 2019 interview with British GQ that when Cameron offered him the lead role in Avatar as Jake Sully, the director promised that if Damon did not take it, he would cast an unknown actor.
Michael Loccisano/WireImage Matt Damon
"Jim [sic] Cameron offered me Avatar." Damon told the magazine. "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.'"
"I told John Krasinski this story when we were writing Promised Land." Damon added, revealing his friend's reaction to the news. "He goes, 'What?' And he stands up and he starts pacing in the kitchen. He goes, 'OK. OK. OK. OK. OK… 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.'"
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"So, yeah. I've left more money on the table than any actor actually," he said.
Damon said at the time that his real regret from turning down Avatar — the role eventually went to series star Sam Worthington — stems from potentially missing out on his one chance to work with Cameron.
Don Arnold/WireImage; Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation/Kobal/Shutterstock
"I mean, the bigger thing still to this day, my bigger regret is… Cameron said to me in the course of that conversation, 'Well, you know, I've only made six movies.' I didn't realize that," the actor explained at the time.
RELATED: Avatar: The Way of Water Makes $134 Million at U.S. Box Office on Opening Weekend: Report
"He works so infrequently, but his movies, you know all of them," Damon added. "So it feels like he's made more than he has. I realized in having to say no that I was probably passing on the chance to ever work with him."
"So that sucked and that's still brutal," he said, jokingly adding: "My kids are all eating. I'm doing OK."
Avatar: The Way of Water is now playing in theaters.
