There are very few of us who go through life without regrets, but most of them are not related to losing out on $250 million.
However, Matt Damon can chalk that one down to experience as he has revealed that he turned down the lead role in the first 'Avatar' movie.
Damon said that director James Cameron offered him the role of Jake Sully - later taken by Sam Worthington - and also offered 10% of the film's profits.
Considering that it went on to become one of the highest-grossing movies of all time, taking in a whopping $2.79 BILLION at the global box office, that's quite the bitter pill.
He told GQ: "Jim Cameron offered me Avatar, and when he offered it to me, he goes, ‘Now, listen. I don’t need anybody. I don’t need a name for this, a named actor. If you don’t take this, I’m going to find an unknown actor and give it to him, because the movie doesn’t really need you. But if you take the part, I’ll give you ten per cent of...’”
When the interviewer (understandably) expressed incredulity, Damon added: "I told John Krasinski this story when we were writing Promised Land... he goes, ‘What?’ And he stands up and he starts pacing in the kitchen. He goes, ‘OK. OK. OK. OK. OK.’
"He goes, ‘If you had done that movie, nothing in your life would be different. Nothing in your life would be different at all. Except that, right now, we would be having this conversation in space.’"
"So, yeah," he said. "I’ve left more money on the table than any actor actually… So that sucked and that’s still brutal. But my kids are all eating. I’m doing OK.”
Compared to the rest of us, you're doing more than 'OK', Matt.
