Oscar winner Matt Damon had a chance to star in James Cameron's Avatar and receive 10% of the film's profits, but he turned it down to stick with the Jason Bourne series instead. Speaking to reporters at the Cannes Film Festival to promote his new movie, Stillwater, Damon said he will be remembered as the actor who gave up the most money.

　　"I was offered a little movie called Avatar, James Cameron offered me 10% of it," he said, as reported by Deadline. "I will go down in history… you will never meet an actor who turned down more money."

　　Avatar earned more than $2.8 billion at the box office, and remains the highest-grossing movie worldwide in history. It was briefly overtaken by Avengers: Endgame, but reclaimed the crown when it was re-released earlier this year. Both franchises are owned by Disney.

　　Avatar is estimated to have made $1.2 billion in profit before its release in China, so Damon would have been sitting pretty with at least $100 million in cash.

　　Damon explained that he said no to Avatar because he was filming the Jason Bourne movies at the time and wanted to make the "moral" decision to stay on that path instead of jumping ship.

　　Cameron would go on to cast Australian actor Sam Worthington in the lead role of Avatar, though whether or not he was offered the same 10% is unknown. Worthington is set to reprise his role in the upcoming Avatar sequels.

　　Cameron was also looking at Chris Evans and Channing Tatum for the role of Jake Sully in Avatar before casting Worthington, the director told Empire. "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,'" Cameron recalled. "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."

　　Damon plays a Trump supporter who goes to France to save his daughter in the new movie Stillwater, which is directed by Oscar winner Tom McCarthy (Spotlight) and premieres in theaters on July 30.