James Cameron Wants Matt Damon to Star in an ‘Avatar’ Installment, Even After He Turned Down the Original

Samantha Bergeson
·2 min read
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James Cameron doesn’t want Matt Damon to look back in anger anymore.

The “Avatar: The Way of Water” writer-director revealed that he is more than ready for Damon to finally appear in an “Avatar” film, over a decade since Damon turned down originally leading the 2009 feature. Sam Worthington was later cast.

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“We must do it,” Cameron told BBC 1. “We have to do it so that the world is in equilibrium again.”

Damon infamously said no to 10 percent of the “Avatar” profits in exchange for leading the film. Ultimately that would have been roughly $270 million as “Avatar” made box office history, grossing more than $2.9 billion.

Cameron had one caveat to any Damon appearance in the franchise’s future: “But he doesn’t get 10 percent, fuck that.”

The “Titanic” helmer continued, “He’s beating himself up over this and I really think 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’s nothing he could do about that and so he had to regretfully decline.”

Damon recalled his “brutal” decision to pass on “Avatar” during a 2019 GQ UK cover story alongside Christian Bale.

“Jim Cameron offered me ‘Avatar.’ 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 10 percent of…'” Damon said.

He continued, “I’ve left more money on the table than any actor actually. I mean, the bigger thing still to this day, my bigger regret is – it would have caused a problem for Paul Greengrass and for all my friends on ‘The Bourne Ultimatum,’ so I couldn’t do it – but Cameron said to me in the course of that conversation, ‘Well, you know, I’ve only made six movies.’ I didn’t realize that. He works so infrequently, but his movies, you know all of them. 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. But my kids are all eating. I’m doing OK.”

Check out James Cameron’s recent interview with IndieWire about all things “Avatar” here.

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