We May Never Know the Truth About Matt Damon and James Cameron’s Silly ‘Avatar’ Beef

Neither Matt Damon nor James Cameron is hurting for wealth or fame, so their polite public disagreement over Damon’s supposed near-miss with Cameron’s Avatar franchise is already pretty silly to consider. The one thing that lines up with their stories is that at some point during Cameron’s multi-year process of putting together the first Avatar film, he thought Damon might be a good fit for the lead role.

The Hollywood Reporter surfaced a two-year-old video of Damon explaining, “Jim Cameron offered me 10 percent of Avatar,†and—in a sort of “Will Smith talks about passing on The Matrix†sort of way—that “you will never meet an actor who turned down more money than me.â€

To hear Damon tell it, he had to say “no†because at the time he was committed to “the Bourne movie.†The first installment in that series, The Bourne Identity, was released in 2002; Damon also starred in installments that hit theaters in 2004 and 2007 ahead of Avatar‘s 2009 release.

He recalled Cameron as being “lovely†and saying to him, “This movie doesn’t really need you; it doesn’t need a movie star at all.†(Sam Worthington was eventually cast as main character Jake Sully.)

And he doubled down on the money detail, reiterating that Cameron promised him “10 percent of the movie†if he agreed. Avatar, of course, went on to earn nearly $3 billion worldwide, still a record-setting amount; the first sequel, The Way of Water, racked up well over $2 billion, and Fire and Ash looks to add to the pile when it opens December 19.

However, Cameron tells THR he has a different memory of that long-ago conversation.

“He was never offered the part,†Cameron said. There was a phone call where they discussed their shared desire to work together, but Avatar wasn’t going to fit the bill because of Damon’s Bourne scheduling conflicts, and Cameron recalled that it ended there.

“Now what he’s done is he’s extrapolated ‘I get 10 percent of the gross on all my films’… if, in his mind, that’s what it would’ve taken for him to do it, then it wouldn’t have happened.â€

However, Cameron at least views Damon’s tale with amusement, saying with the record now set straight in Cameron’s mind, Damon “doesn’t have to beat himself up anymore†about the lucrative payday he believes he missed out on. Also, for what it’s worth, Cameron said he’d still love to work with Damon on a future project someday.

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