James Cameron: Matt Damon Shouldn't Regret Not Being in 'Avatar'

Matt Damon reminisced about turning down James Cameron's film offer more than ten years ago. The actor has acknowledged that he turned down James Cameron's offer, which would have represented his career's largest payoff. Matt Damon declined James Cameron's invitation to appear in Avatar. He accepted a 10% cut of the sci-fi movie's earnings in exchange for playing the lead part. Considering that the movie would earn roughly $3 billion, Damon would quickly regret his choice. For appearing in the movie mentioned above, the actor would have received an estimated $250 million. At this point, Damon can only laugh at himself for being an actor who turned down more money.

He revealed to Deadline, “I was offered a little movie called Avatar, James Cameron offered me 10% of it.” He added “I will go down in history… you will never meet an actor who turned down more money.”

In a recent interview with BBC Radio, Cameron talked extensively about Avatar: The Way of Water and its precursor. In an interview with BBC 1 Radio, Cameron remarked how Damon is still "beating himself up" about declining to be in Avatar (via ComicBook.com). In a joke, the director mentions Damon's past and present accomplishments outside the Avatar films, implying that he will be alright and should move on.

"Matt, you know, you're kinda like one of the biggest movie stars in the world," Cameron teased. "Get over it."

Cameron was subsequently asked in the interview if he would consider Damon for a part in a future Avatar sequel. He responded:

“Must do it. We have to do it so the world is in equilibrium again. But he doesn’t get 10 per cent, f*** that.”

The Jake Sully part had been offered to Damon, but at the time, he was committed to completing additional work for the Jason Bourne series. After watching Avatar achieve enormous success without him, Damon later expressed sorrow for turning down the offer.

As hinted in both the first teaser and the main trailer, the follow-up to James Cameron's record-breaking film will return viewers to Pandora and is certain to be another aesthetically beautiful experience.

According to Cameron's design, the sequel was supposed to launch a series of films that would occur every other year until Avatar 5 in December 2028. He has, however, disclosed that there is a plan to end it with Avatar 3 if The Way of Water does poorly.