Matt Damon felt like 'dumbest actor ever' after turning down biggest payday in acting history

Whilst he’s had his fair share of starring roles, Matt Damon admits he felt like the 'dumbest actor ever' after missing out on one movie.

The 52-year-old revealed that he turned down a part in Avatar, despite director James Cameron approaching him for the lead role.

Annoyingly, the role would have resulted in one of the biggest paydays in film history as Damon was initially offered a stake in the billion-dollar franchise. (Ouch!)

Getty/Gareth Cattermole

In a 2019 interview, Damon even admitted that the director had offered him 10 per cent of the film's profits - if he was willing to play Jake Sully.

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 percent of [it]...'”

Even more frustratingly for Damon, he only turned down the lead part as he was working on the Jason Bourne franchise at the time.

Instead, the role eventually went to the then-unknown Sam Worthington and the rest is history.

Avatar went on to make a staggering £2.17 billion ($2.78bn) at the international box office, with the BBC estimating Damon turned down a potential payday of £195 million ($250m).

Upon hearing this, Damon joked he was the ‘dumbest actor’ of all time, saying: "I don't want to hear it, I honestly don't want to hear it. I do like the fact that I'm allowed to say with pride I'm the dumbest actor of all time, I'm like the worst businessman."

Twentieth Century Fox

Even nearly a decade and a half on, the role would have still made him one of the highest-paid actors of all time.

The only person to top this would be Keanu Reeves, who received £193 million ($250m) to appear in all three Matrix films.

However, Damon doesn’t seem bitter about missing out on the lucrative payday and was more frustrated about not being able to work with Cameron.

"I realised in having to say no that I was probably passing on the chance to ever work with him,” he confessed, adding: "So that sucked and that's still brutal. But my kids are all eating. I'm doing OK."

Still, with an estimated net worth of £132 million ($170m), I doubt anyone’s feeling too sorry for him.