Sam Worthington On His Failed James Bond Audition: "I Couldn't Get The Debonair Down For The Life Of Me"

Sam Worthington wasn’t “debonair” enough to play James Bond.

In an in-depth Variety interview, Worthington — who returns to cinemas this week with Avatar: The Way of Water —shares memories of his James Bond screen-test for 2006's Casino Royale, the coveted part that eventually went to Daniel Craig. 

For the audition, the Australian actor flew to London where he put on a tuxedo and even had his hair personally cut by 007 franchise producer Barbara Broccoli, who wanted his hair to match her vision of the super-spy. But channelling Bond's suave just wasn't in Worthington's DNA.

He recalled, “I could play Bond as a killer, but I couldn’t get the debonair down for the life of me. The suit did not fit.”

In the Variety profile, Worthington also brought up his audition for Green Lantern, the DC superhero role which Ryan Reynolds ended up playing. 

He recalled asking: “It didn’t make much sense to me — the suit comes out of his skin

“And I was like, ‘He’s got this powerful ring that can create anything. Well, what can beat the ring?’ The answer was, ‘Nothing.’ I was like, ‘Well, something needs to beat it, or it won’t be very interesting.’”

Worthington eventually landed his own franchise, playing Perseus in the Clash of the Titans series but he struggled with the “great big spectacle” because of the focus on special effects and frequent script changes.

He said: “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.

“I was boring myself with what I was doing. And if I’m boring myself, then I’m sure as hell going to be boring an audience.”

The actor decided to tackle the sequel, Wrath of the Titans, in a different way, but failed to tell studio bosses of his vision for his demigod character.

He said: “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.

“So I decided to develop a dad bod and that I wouldn’t care what I looked like. 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. My arrogance clashed with the studio and the director’s vision, and it turned into a horrible fight...

“I could have handled things differently, instead of showing up on the first day with a big belly.”

Avatar: The Way of Water (PG13) is now in cinemas. — BANG SHOWBIZ

Photos: TPG News/Click Photos