Matt Damon gave up $250 million because he couldn’t let his friends down – and because he’d rather be a secret agent than a blue alien.
Matt Damon should get a hefty fee for his role in Avatar. However, the offer brought him into a conflict, because: At the time he was in the middle of shooting another film. He turned down director James Cameron’s offer.
And that, according to his own statement, is “the stupidest thing an actor has ever done”, as you can read here with our colleagues from film starts.
“We would have had this conversation in space”
Why did he turn down the offer? Matt Damon told Chris Wallace (CNN) that he was shooting a Bourne film and didn’t want to let the team down:
[…] I had a contract…I was in the middle of filming the Bourne movie and I knew we had a lot of work to do and I had to see it through to the end. And I should have left the movie a little earlier and let her down a little bit and I didn’t want to do that.
Matt Damon via Mediaite
Chris Wallace commented that if Matt Damon had known that “Avatar was the highest-grossing movie of all time” and that he’d received 10% of the proceeds on top of that, the Bourne series might have been delayed (via Mediaite). According to Moviepilot, that was ultimately around $250 million.
However, Matt Damon did not want to transfer his friends. He remembered his favorite reaction. This came from fellow actor John Krasinski (A Quiet Place):
We were writing this little film called Promised Land a long time ago and we were in my kitchen on a Saturday morning having a break.
I tell him about Avatar and he jumps out of his chair and starts pacing the kitchen and says, “Okay, okay, okay. ok, ok Nothing in your life would be different today if you made that film, except that you and I would have that conversation in space.”
Matt Damon via Mediaite
Afterward, Matt Damon commented that even with his role in Avatar, he was “the same guy” except he had a space station.
Avatar director James Cameron advised Matt Damon to get over it. He even considered giving Damon a cameo in the upcoming Avatar movies. You can find out more about this from our colleagues at Moviepilot.
Will Smith also turned down a role. Keanu Reeves achieved his international breakthrough as the main character Neo in The Matrix. However, he wasn’t the first choice for the lead role, that was Will Smith.
However, he rejected the role as Neo because of the bizarre concept and instead took part in another SciFi film – which flopped massively:
Will Smith opens up about one of the worst decisions of his career: “Why didn’t you do The Matrix?”