Right now it may seem unthinkable, but to the movie Avatar it took efforts to get his leading lady. During the year 2009, James Cameron tried hard to find the ideal actor to embody the already iconic Jake Sully. However, he had to go through a lot of the complicated schedules and diverse points of view of the actors who opted for the role to achieve it.
Since Matt Damon, Chris Pratt, Chris Pine, Chris Evans, Channing Tatum to Jake Gyllenhaal. The director strove to find the face of the central character of his work. Something that obsessed him, especially because by then he already imagined something more than just one movie. In a interview for Empire In 2021, the director commented that by then he was already carefully analyzing something more than “a unique story.” Which included a cast that could embody his long-term vision of the story of Avatar.
Cameron, who worked on the idea of Avatar From the perception of a multiple work, he needed a protagonist who embodied a certain prototype of a hero. One who, despite his physical strength and military discipline, was a sensitive man with the ability to understand Pandora.
The extraordinary universe imagined by the director was more than just a journey through a new world. Also, it was an exploration through a whole new way of thinking about the ecological. So Cameron needed to sustain that version, through the main character’s interaction with his environment.
looking for a face to Avatar
But the process turned out to be more complicated than Cameron might suppose. Pratt and Pine said in different interviews that their respective auditions were not successful. The first admitted that his experience was “miserable”, especially since the role required a physical complexion time far removed from his own.
“I was overweight and felt insecure,” the actor said. “I wasn’t really taking care of myself physically, I was in a relationship where we were, you know, drinking a lot. Between and i started sweating right away. The casting assistant started filming and I knew she would never get the part. I saw that there was literally nothing in my audition that was convincing at all,” Pratt added.
On the other hand, pine he forgot his lines and ended up improvisingwith lousy results. “I walked into that room absolutely not believing myself. How dare I put that poor casting director in the experience of watching me? Halfway I stopped; maybe she was smiling or laughing at me. I didn’t take offense because I realized that he was probably pretty bad and we called it a day, I shook his hand and walked out.”
James Cameron also featured in Empire the way he tried, through unorthodox means for the time, to get Matt Damon to join the cast. The director offered the actor a 10% share in the profits of Avatar. But Damon turned it down to star in the Bourne saga. Cameron would admit that by then he was “starting to get worried”. Finally, Jake Gyllenhaal declined the offer to star Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Which opened the doors for Sam Worthington to play the role.
The curious story of an actor who achieved the role of his dreams
For Cameron, Sam Worthington was an “ideal” choice. In fact, he assured on more than one occasion that he was the type of actor that he believed was necessary for Avatar and his story. By then, Worthington he was unemployed and lived in his car. The interpreter recounted on more than one occasion that he was going through what confessed that it was “one of the worst moments of his life”.
But Cameron, after the snubs and interviewing a good part of the most relevant actors of the time in Hollywood, made a decision. “I wanted the audience to think about a man who is really in a bewildering situation. That would allow understanding of Jake Sully as the character that he was. Instead of associating it with an actor’s previous roles,” the director explained to Empire. Which, in the end, was what gave Worthington the chance of a lifetime of hers as the lead in Avatar.
A Long Journey to Pandora
Avatar: The Path of Water is about to be released and, without a doubt, become a milestone in cinema. At least, show if all the effort of James Cameron over more than a decade was worth it. But whatever happens during its December premiere, one thing remains clear. This is a large-scale project that is surely destined to dazzle the public.
Also to show that the attention to detail that Cameron brings to his films is of considerable importance. Something that is of special interest when choosing his cast. Would it have had the same innocent impact Avatar with a recognized actor? A question of interest to the global universe of history.