If You'd Listened to Matt Damon on Crypto, You lost 63%

Matt Damon revealed that he turned down the lead role of Jake Sully in “Avatar” and a paycheck of at least $250 million for the sake of his “Bourne” film series.

The 48-year-old movie star said that the movie’s director, James Cameron, offered him the part and promised a big chunk of change with it.

“When [Cameron] 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 percent of [the film’s profits]” he told GQ.

However, the movie star revealed that he passed on the role because it would have conflicted with his “Bourne” series.

“I’ve left more money on the table than any actor actually,” he said. “I mean, the bigger thing still to this day, my bigger regret is – it would have caused a problem for [director of ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’] Paul Greengrass and for all my friends on ‘The Bourne Ultimatum,’ so I couldn’t do it.”

The actor gave up his chance at earning the massive amount of money with starring in the largely successful film, but Damon really only regrets giving up the opportunity to work with the “Avatar” director.

“Cameron said to me in the course of that conversation, ‘Well, you know, I’ve only made six movies.’ I didn’t realize that. He works so infrequently, but his movies, you know all of them. So it feels like he’s made more than he has,” he said. “I realized in having to say no that I was probably passing on the chance to ever work with him. So that sucked and that’s still brutal.”

Despite his regret, the Acadamy Award winner says it’s not like he needed the money.
“My kids are all eating,” he said. “I’m doing OK.”