James Cameron has set the record straight after Matt Damon claimed that he had to turn down a role in Avatar as well as a percentage of the film's gross earnings.
Damon previously claimed that he had been filming one of the Bourne movies when he was approached by Cameron. Although he says he was tempted by the alleged offer, he was in the middle of shooting the Bourne film and so had no choice but to turn him down.
"Jim Cameron called me. He offered me 10% of Avatar," Damon said in a Q&A a few years ago.
"You will never meet an actor who turned down more money than me.
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"... I was in the middle of shooting the Bourne movie and I would have to leave the movie kind of early and leave them in the lurch a little bit, and I didn’t want to do that.
"[Cameron] was really lovely. He said, ‘If you don’t do this, this movie doesn’t really need you. It doesn’t need a movie star at all. The movie is the star, the idea is the star and it’s going to work. But if you do it, I’ll give you 10% of the movie.'"
Avatar grossed a whopping $2.9 billion, so if Damon had been offered 10 percent, he would have missed out on potentially millions.
However, in a recent interview, Cameron disputed what happened, telling The Hollywood Reporter: "He was never offered the part.
"I can’t remember if I sent him the script or not. I don’t think I did. Then we wound up on a call, and he said, ‘I'd love to explore doing a movie with you. I have a lot of respect for you as a filmmaker. [Avatar] sounds intriguing. But I really have to do this Jason Bourne movie. I’ve agreed to it, it’s a direct conflict, and so, regretfully, I have to turn it down.’
"But he was never offered.
"There was never a deal. We never talked about the character. We never got to that level. It was simply an availability issue."
Cameron also said that if a percentage of the movie is what it would have taken, 'then it wouldn’t have happened. Trust me on that.'
He did however praise Cameron for turning the role down due to another commitment, and for the fact he told him personally, rather than via an agent.
"He said he didn’t want it to come from the agent. That’s an honorable guy," Cameron said. "So, all respect to Matt. I’d love to work with him someday. But that never happened. It was a conflation of different things that were happening."
UNILAD has reached out to Damon for comment.
Topics: Entertainment, Film and TV, James Cameron, Matt Damon, Money
Lucy Devine