Jake Gyllenhaal and all the actors who turned down the role of ‘Avatar’

Though Sam Wothington starred in the highest grossing movie of all time, his career didn’t benefit and even after his release, his fame gradually faded away. With the sequel upon us, there were other actors who fared better but may also suffer the same fate, such as Jake Gyllenhaal and other names who may star in ‘Avatar’.

During the production of the first ‘Avatar’, James Cameron wanted the perfect actor to play Jake Sully, and for this he had to go through a lengthy selection process, as the first applicants shared a tight schedule and the director of “Alien” wanted someone committed to a franchise that would take several years to develop. Something that was a challenge in a world where the MCU had yet to begin.

In the first place, Chris Pratt and Chris Pine auditioned for ‘Avatars’, but in recent interviews both have said they are not satisfied with the casting work for James Cameron’s film. In the case of the former, he said “I was overweight and felt insecure,” Pratt said. “I wasn’t really taking care of myself physically, I was in a relationship where we drank a lot. I walked in and started sweating right away.”

In case of Chris Pine agreed that he turned it down ‘Avatars’ for forgetting his dialogue and starting to improvise during the casting, however, it didn’t go in the best way: “I walked into that room absolutely not believing myself. How dare I put that poor casting director into the experience of looking at me? Halfway I stopped; maybe he was smiling or laughing at me. I wasn’t offended because I realized he was probably pretty mean and we closed the day and I shook his hand and walked away.”

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The path of ‘Avatar’ to find his Jake

Time was running out and James Cameron and Disney had to cast someone, so they offered Matt Damon the lead role in “Avatar,” earning 10% of the total box office, a rare tactic to get him. However, Damon had to refuse the role of Jake to star in the next films of the series “Bourne”.

And finally, Jake Gyllenhaal’s story with ‘Avatar’ is quite curious because the ‘Donnie Darko’ actor had to turn down James Cameron as he had what looked like the film that would start a new action-adventure franchise on the threshold. , ‘Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time’, which only had one movie, and ended up being a total flop.

This is how Cameron met Sam Wothington, an action star who starred in ‘Clash of the Titans’ a year later. At the time, the actor was unemployed and living in his car, going through what would be “one of the worst moments of his life,” as he recently confessed. Getting his dream job done was how he landed on “Avatar: The Way of Water.”