from living in a car to world fame

Sam Worthington It’s a name we certainly weren’t getting used to. When a film starring him became the highest-grossing in history, all the spotlights focused on Sam Worthington.

Where had James Cameron gotten that actor from? The correct answer is: from the top of a mountain. Literally. But let’s go step by step with the protagonist of Avatar: Fire and Ashwhich hits theaters in Spain this December 19.

Maybe, except Avatar and some commercial franchise, such as TerminatorSam Worthington has not had the career that should guarantee leading the first and third highest grossing film since the invention of cinema. However, this does not make the rise to the altars of the seventh art any less accelerated by an actor who, until 2009, had barely left Australia.

A nomad who broke the box office

James Cameron had liked the audition of that Australian boy with military beauty, but he had no way of letting him know. His phone had no signal and an automatic voice tirelessly repeated to him that the terminal was turned off or out of range.

Over time, he learned that the owner of the cell phone, Sam Worthington, had camped on the top of a mountain and that, so close to the southern skies, there was no coverage. Soon Worthington would know other skies, those of Hollywood, clearer, because all its stars live on earth.

Sam Worthington was homeless. He barely had any possessions. Just a car that I used to bounce from one place to another. He only left it to sleep and spend the night in a hotel room he could afford. His savings as an actor were beginning to run out. Worthington converted to nomadism as soon as he was known to be a regular in a Sydney bar. I didn’t want to be like that customer in the song Piano Manthat “I’m sure I could be a movie star if I could get out of this place.”

Hollywood, once visited, reminded him of the bar where everyone knows you, and that resemblance did not excite him too much. In an interview for Variety, Kevin Costner (who directed Sam Worthington in Horizon) revealed that the protagonist of Avatar He doesn’t enjoy his celebrity status.

“In this business,” Costner explained, “you start out believing that you’ll never get to work. At some point, you get a chance and you achieve some success, but what you discover when you do it is that people don’t want you to talk about your movies. What they want is to know everything they can about your politics, your marriage, your intimacy.” And this, Worthington preferred to keep to himself.