Sam Worthington

Sam Worthington
Biographical Information
Name	Samuel Henry John Worthington
Born	August 2, 1976
Nationality	Australian, British
Physical Information
Gender	Male
Hair color	Light Brown
Eye color	Blue
Career
Avatar Role	Jake Sully Tom Sully
Years Active	2000-present

Jim isn’t a dictator. He wants it fuckin’ high, but so do I. I’m not there to get pushed around. I’m there to work with the man. And, that’s why I got the job.

Sam Worthington (born on August 2, 1976) is an actor who in the Avatar franchise took on the role of main protagonist Jake Sully in Avatar, Avatar: The Way of Water and Avatar: Fire and Ash.

Biography

Early Life

Sam was born in Godalming, Surrey, England, and moved to Perth, Western Australia during his childhood.

As a teenager, he won a scholarship to a high school known as John Curtin College of the Arts in Fremantle, Western Australia which he pursued to enter their drama class. He studied drama but did not graduate. When he left the college, his father gave him $400 and sent him on a one-way trip to Cairns, Queensland, telling him to "work his way home".

He began working on construction and odd jobs, building houses, eventually settling in Sydney. At age 19, while working as a bricklayer, he met a girl who auditioned for the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA). Although Sam never really wanted to become an actor, he auditioned with her for moral support and, ironically, she was not accepted while he was accepted with a scholarship. The girl "dumped" Sam a week later. He eventually graduated from NIDA in 1998 at the age of 22.

Acting Career

Sam received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Arthur Wellesley in his first professional role in the Belvoir Street Theatre production Judas Kiss (directed by Neil Armfield).

He then went on to work in Australian television on such shows as Water Rats (2000) and Backburner and then on the American TV show JAG's 100th episode (Boomerang part 1).

Also in 2000, Sam made his first movie appearance in the highly acclaimed Australian movie Bootmen, about a troop of `tap dogs'; the film also starred Adam Garcia as Sam's brother. Minor roles proceeded in Hart's War and Matter of Life before Sam starred in another hailed Australian drama, 2002's Dirty Deeds, which also starred Toni Collette and John Goodman.

The following year he starred in yet another Aussie film, opposite David Wenham in Gettin' Square. The director of the film, Jonathan Teplitzky originally tested actors who were up to 8 years older than the then 27 year old Worthington. Teplitzky wasn't sure Sam "could convincingly play a tough guy and also have elements of the leading man about him", but in the end Teplitzky decided Sam was "fantastic", and had "David playing the older, slightly more streetwise accomplice" proclaiming "it worked".

It wasn't until 2004 that Sam got his big break. Having made his directorial debut on the short film, "Enzo", Sam was offered the role of Joe in the unique and greatly acclaimed Australian drama, written and directed by Cate Shortland, Somersault opposite Abbie Cornish. Somersault took 7 years to make, and Shortland wanted to cast the perfect actor in the role of Joe.

Shortland did much preparation for the film, arranging for a 3-week rehearsal period prior to shooting, it all paid off. The film did amazingly well, making a clean sweep of the Australian Film Institute awards in 2004 to win in all 13 film categories - the first time this has ever occurred in the award's history. It beat the previous record of eight AFI awards shared by Lantana (2001) and Newsfront (1978). Sam won the AFI for best male actor.

He sold all of his possessions and lived in a $2,000 car around 2006, comparing his actions to pressing Control-Alt-Delete on a computer. He found residence after successfully auditioning for Avatar.^{[citation needed]}

Role in Avatar Series

Sam Worthington as Jake Sully.

Jake Sully is meant to be a rich and complex character with a rare combination of passion, strength, street smarts and soul. The role required a strong performance from his actor – a fact that James Cameron acknowledged when he, Jon Landau and casting director Margery Simkin began their search to fill the part. “The trick about Jake was not writing the character,” says Cameron. “The trick was finding the guy to play him.”

After spending months looking at actors in the U.S. and Europe, Simkin reported to Cameron that she found a candidate in Australia. Sam Worthington, Simkin told the filmmaker, had a “visceral quality and would make audiences believe that people would follow him. There was an intelligence and intensity in his eyes that never wavered.”

Intrigued, the filmmakers offered Worthington an audition, but he was initially skeptical due to the secrecy surrounding the project and the scant details about the character of Jake being offered to Worthington at that time. “I got a phone call to do this audition, but they wouldn’t tell me anything about the script or even who the director was,” Worthington recalls. “And I thought, ‘Well, here’s another waste of my time.’ Then, a week later, I got another phone call…’Look, Jim Cameron wants to fly you to L.A. to audition for him.’ And I said, ‘Yes, but for what?’”

Even after Cameron filled him in on the story and on the character of Jake, adding an intriguing question to complete his pitch to the actor – “Are you ready to start the adventure?” – Worthington had one earthbound priority to fulfill before beginning his journey to Pandora. “I told Jim, yes, of course I’ll join him on the adventure – but first I’ve got to get the brakes fixed on my car.”

Sam won the role based on his delivery of the crucial speech to the Na'vi at the Tree of Souls. This screen test can be watched here. For Cameron and Landau, Worthington was worth the wait. “I think one of the hardest things to find in an actor of Sam’s age is a combination of sensitivity, vulnerability and strength, and Sam has all of that,” says Landau.

Sam Worthington filming the scene where Jake becomes an avatar.

While many of the actors, including Worthington, received special physical and weapons training, Worthington was more interested in the mental preparation to portray Jake. “I didn’t want my prep to be like boot camp,” he says. “Anyone can do push-ups. I hung out with Jim’s brother, John David, a former Marine. To me it was more about capturing the way these Marines see the world – and how their training can make them think they’re unstoppable.”

For The Way of Water, Worthington stated that he wanted to give Jake a more feral quality because Jake has not been a human being for over a decade.^{[citation needed]} He also stated that he had to overcome his fears to film underwater portions.^{[citation needed]}

Gallery

Trivia

• The first time Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldaña met was in a hotel bar in 2006 in preparation for a screen test. Incidentally, his character Jake was kicked from a bar at the beginning of Avatar.
• Sam Worthington succeeded over other actors James Cameron was considering for the role:
  • Chris Pratt - Auditioned but felt "there was literally nothing about my audition that was compelling at all."^{[citation needed]}
  • Chris Pine - Auditioned but stopped during the middle of the audition because he felt it was not good and "How dare I put that poor casting director through the experience of watching me?"^{[citation needed]}
  • Chris Evans and Channing Tatum - James Cameron: "I really liked Channing’s appeal. I liked Chris’ appeal. They were both great guys. But Sam had a quality of voice and a quality of intensity. Everybody did about the same on all the material through the script, except for the final speech where he stands up and says, ‘This is our land, ride now, go as fast as the wind can carry you.’ That whole thing. I would have followed him into battle. And I wouldn’t have followed the other guys. They’ve since gone onto fantastic careers and all that, but Sam was ready. He was ready."^{[citation needed]}
  • Jake Gyllenhaal - Wished to focus on Prince of Persia instead^{[citation needed]}
  • Matt Damon - Wished to focus on The Bourne Ultimatum instead^{[citation needed]}
• He won a Saturn Award for Jake's portrayal in the first film.
• Was in the same class as Matthew Newton, the son of TV personalities Bert and Patty Newton.^{[citation needed]}
• Was a finalist to play James Bond in Casino Royale (2006) before Daniel Craig was cast.^{[citation needed]}
• Although not related to Sam Worthington's performance, there has been minor controversy attributed to his ethnicity with some critics feeling Avatar contributes to the "white savior" trope which some people view as being problematic and would have preferred a person of color to portray Jake. The trope was less of a talking point in 2007 when Avatar was filmed.
  • James Cameron explained his opinion on the subject, and how he views the movie is an allegory for a white man making amends for what settlers did to indigenous peoples. Other viewers disagree with Jake as being the sole savior as well, feeling this take devalues everything that Neytiri has done, pointing out she has to rescue Jake five times (viperwolves, bulldozers, Tsu'tey, Quaritch and from suffocating).^{[citation needed]} Grace, a white woman, also requires help from the Na'vi when she is dying. There is also a moment where Jake and Grace require saving by Mo'at during the destruction of Hometree.
  • James Cameron noted that The Way of Water rectifies some of this because Jake immediately gives up all his positions of power back to the Omatikaya (Olo'eyktan and Toruk Makto) in the beginning, and he pointed out that in the sequel, Jake is just a father on the run seeking refuge.^{[citation needed]} Jake does not usurp Tonowari at the end of the film, and Jake needs to be saved by one of his children (Lo'ak) at the end.
• Sam Worthington, Stephen Lang and Giovanni Ribisi are voice actors in the video game franchise Call Of Duty.
• Sam Worthington and Giovanni Ribisi are the main cast of Horizon: An American Saga, the western franchise by Kevin Costner.
• Sam Worthington is the most actor who worked together with Giovanni Ribisi for more than 5 fims, every Avatar films and Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 2.

Filmography

• Bootmen (2000)
• Hart's War (2002)
• Dirty Deeds (2002)
• Gettin' Square (2003)
• Somersault (2004)
• Thunderstruck (2004)
• The Great Raid (2005)
• Macbeth (2006)
• Rogue (2007)
• Terminator Salvation (2009)
• Avatar (2009)
• Last Night (2010)
• Clash of the Titans (2010)
• The Debt (2010)
• The Fields (2011)
• Man on a Ledge (2012)
• Wrath of the Titans (2012)
• Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
• Horizon: An American Saga (2024)
• Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025)
• Avatar 4 (2029)
• Avatar 5 (2031)

External Links

• Sam Worthington on Wikipedia
• Sam Worthington on the Internet Movie Database