“Matt, it’s okay, buddy! You didn’t miss anything.”

James Cameron denies Matt Damon missed out on huge Avatar payday: ‘That never happened’

"Matt, it's okay, buddy! You didn't miss anything."

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

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December 19, 2025 8:30 a.m. ET

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Matt Damon in New York City on Sept. 30, 2024; Jake Sully in 'Avatar'. Credit:

Ilya S. Savenok/Getty; 20th Century studios via everett

- Matt Damon repeatedly said that he missed out on hundreds of millions of dollars by turning down* Avatar*.

- Director James Cameron says that Damon never would have made that much if he'd joined the project.

- Cameron also said that talks were more preliminary than Damon suggested: "He was never offered the part."

Matt Damon has repeatedly said that he missed out on a massive payday by turning down the lead role in *Avatar* — but director James Cameron says that isn't the case.

After the *Good Will Hunting *actor repeatedly said that he turned down an offer to take 10 percent of the gross profit of the 2009 sci-fi blockbuster to star as protagonist Jake Sully — an amount that would have likely exceeded $120 million — Cameron is setting the record straight.

"He was never offered the part," the *Titanic* filmmaker told *THR*. "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 love to explore doing a movie with you. I have a lot of respect for you as a filmmaker. [*Avatar*] sounds intriguing.'"

James Cameron in London on Dec. 6, 2022; Matt Damon in Venice on Sept. 10, 2021.

Joe Maher/Getty; John Phillips/Getty

Cameron said that Damon rejected the notion of appearing in *Avatar* almost immediately due to a prior commitment. "'I really have to do this *Jason Bourne* movie,'" Cameron recalled Damon saying. "'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."

The *Terminator* director then hypothesized why Damon expected his hypothetical *Avatar* payday would be huge. "Now what he's done is he's extrapolated 'I get 10 percent of the gross on all my films,'" he speculated.

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However, Cameron said that the *Avatar* production never would have offered Damon his usual 10 percent in the first place. "If, in his mind, that's what it would've taken for him to do *Avatar*, then it wouldn't have happened," the filmmaker said. "Trust me on that."

A representative for Damon did not immediately respond to **'s request for comment.

Cameron jokingly added that Damon shouldn't feel bad about missing out on hundreds of millions of dollars anymore since it was never on the table to begin with. "He's off the hook and doesn't have to beat himself up anymore," the *Aliens* director said. "Matt, it's okay, buddy! You didn't miss anything."

Matt Damon in 'The Bourne Ultimatum'.

Jasin Boland/Universal

Damon previously told Chris Wallace that joining *Avatar* would have forced him to exit *The Bourne Ultimatum*'s production early. "I knew that we were gonna need work at the end, and I had to get it all the way to the finish line, and I would have to leave the movie kind of early, and leave them in the lurch a little bit," he said in 2023. "And I didn't wanna do that. I desperately wanted to work with Cameron, 'cause he works so rarely."

Cameron told *THR* that he respected Damon's decision. "He felt compelled to call me personally and tell me; he said he didn't want it to come from the agent — that's an honorable guy," the filmmaker 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."

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Sam Worthington ultimately played Jake Sully in *Avatar*, which went on to become the highest-grossing film of all time at the global box office. Damon would later go to space in films like *Elysium* and *The Martian*, but has yet to head to Pandora in either of Cameron's sequels.

*Avatar: Fire and Ash* is now playing in theaters.

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