After winning the lead role as Jake Sully in James Cameron’s hit Avatar and reprising it in the sequel Avatar: The Way of Water, Sam Worthington has said he regrets certain career choices. In a Variety cover story, Worthington, who returned for James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water, expressed his frustration with the major action movies he made after 2009’s Avatar, particularly on the Clash of the Titans movies (both 2010’s Clash of the Titans and its 2012 sequel, Wrath of the Titans).
In both films, Worthington played Perseus, the son of Zeus, but his outgrowth on the character’s appearance caused major issues with the director.
Sam Worthington’s “Arrogance” Led to a Clash With Director
Considering Perseus was a demigod (part human, part god), Sam Worthington took a unique approach to his physique and decided to stop working out for the part to reflect that his character had become a single father in between movies.
He explained that filming the sequel, Wrath of the Titans was boring for him. And if he was bored, then the audience got bored as well. So he wanted a change in appearance as Perseus.
“I looked at it as Perseus was half a god and half a dad, and he had decided that he didn’t want the god part anymore,” Worthington explained. “So I decided to develop a dad bod and that I wouldn’t care what I looked like.”
“My arrogance clashed with the studio and the director’s vision, and it turned into a horrible fight,” he added.
Sam Worthington Wanted More Roles as Human
Worthington, who also opened up in the interview about his struggles with fame after Avatar‘s success, revealed to Variety that the problem there was that he never cleared it with the studio. He should have checked in with Wrath of the Titans‘ director before making changes to his appearance.
He said “Of course, that’s antithetical to what a studio wants when they pay X amount of dollars to make a movie about a chiseled hero,” his decision quickly proved.
“You can’t create a character if there’s nothing there, On the Clash movies, that was the problem. You were getting new pages every day, and it’s too complicated. The movies that I did right after Avatar were great big spectacles, but I should have been looking for movies that pried a little bit more into the human condition.”
However, Worthington does not look back fondly on the experience and, in one instance, he admits he himself made the situation quite difficult. “I could have handled things differently, instead of showing up on the first day with a big belly,” the actor said.
You can rent Clash of the Titans and Wrath of the Titans on Apple TV.
Source: Variety
