Despite having flourishing careers, even actors of Matt Damon’s caliber aren’t strangers to having regrets. Whether it is doing a certain project, turning down another project, or anything in between, there are many reasons an actor might have regrets about his career and so does Matt Damon.
Matt Damon’s regret comes from a pretty valid reason. After all, wouldn’t you be punching the air if you missed out on being a part of a couple of billion-dollar projects? While the actor was offered the lead role in James Cameron’s Avatar franchise, he had to turn it down due to prior engagements. And now, years after the first Avatar was released, Matt Damon’s wounds are still fresh.
Matt Damon’s Biggest Hollywood Regret
After the idea arrived to him in a dream, James Cameron came out with one of the biggest franchises today, Avatar. Today, both films sit on the list of the highest-grossing films ever with more than $2 billion to each of their names. All of this and more could have had Matt Damon’s name attached to it but, unfortunately, nothing of the sort happened.
While Damon was offered the lead role of Jake Sully in the film, his commitment to the Bourne franchise did not allow him to take up the offer. The rest, as they say, is history. It has been fourteen years since Avatar came out but Damon is still salty about the fact that he could’ve been one of the blue-skinned humanoids from Pandora.
Promoting the Let’s Do Dinner campaign, Zoe Saldana and Damon joined Entertainment Tonight where they stumbled upon the topic of the actor passing on Avatar. Damon stated, “It’s the dumbest thing an actor ever did in the history of acting.” To this, Saldana offered words of encouragement saying, “I don’t think your career suffered because of it, trust me.” Saldana sure has a point!
Damon continued, “Do you know what kind of a movie that would’ve been if I would had been in it?” The Ford v Ferrari actor then praised Saldana for her incredible journey in the entertainment industry. Saldana replied in a very humble manner stating that she didn’t plan on it, and was only working hard. She then quipped, “I’m not Matt Damon. I don’t get to turn down Avatars.”
Despite Saldana’s humble answer, Damon added, “I’ve probably done, like 50 movies. I’ve never been in a movie that made $1 billion.” While Damon is one of the biggest stars today, but it looks like the Avatar fiasco still keeps him up at night!
James Cameron’s Advice to Matt Damon
In an interview with BBC Radio, Cameron couldn’t help himself but laugh when the interviewer brought up Damon’s troubles. The director had the perfect advice for the actor who could have led his franchise – get over it!
“He’s beating himself up over this. 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. So he had to regretfully decline.”
When asked if Damon could get a cameo in future Avatar sequels, Cameron stated that they “must do it” so that the world can be “in equilibrium again.”
In the end, it was a good thing that Damon turned down the film. While it wouldn’t have affected his career much, the role sure changed Sam Worthington’s life. The actor became known worldwide because of Avatar and was also in dire need of the gig as he lived in his car before playing Jake.
Avatar is available to stream on Disney+.
Source: Entertainment Tonight
