Sam Worthington explains why he lost out on James Bond role to Daniel Craig: ‘I couldn’t get the debonair down for the life of me’

Avatar star Sam Worthington discussed his close brush with 007.

The Australian actor was one of the finalists up for the role that ultimately went to Daniel Craig who took over as James Bond for 2006’s Casino Royale.

Speaking to Variety ahead of the release of Avatar: The Way of the Water on Friday (16 December), Worthington recalled flying to screen test for mega-producer Barbara Broccoli, who personally cut his hair to fit her vision for the next Bond.

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

Worthington went on to beat out a host of well-known actors to land Avatar as a relative unknown, director James Cameron told Variety.

“It was a bit daunting because he had an accent like Crocodile Dundee,” Cameron said. “I saw a lot of actors, names you’d be quite impressed by. But Sam was the guy who made me want to follow him into battle. He was the guy who made me want to go into hell with him, and the other actors never quite pulled it off.”

Craig recently revealed that he knew he wanted to kill Bond off after watching Casino Royale at its Berlin premiere.

“I had genuinely thought I would do one Bond movie, then it would be over,” the actor told The Times in a recent interview.

“But by then we knew we had a hit on our hands. I realised the enormity of it, so I said to Barbara, ‘How many more? Three? Four?’ She said, ‘Four!’ I said, ‘OK. Then can I kill him off?’ She said, ‘Yes.’”

15 years and four films later, Craig had his wish.

Avatar: The Way of the Water is in theatres Friday 16 December.