Sam Worthington on Fan's responses to AVATAR and admits T-4 made no sense

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While on set for his new film Clash of The Titans, Sam Worthington got the chance to  clear the Internet  air, and the air is thick my friends. He is the star of probably the most hyped film of the last decade, in James Cameron's highest budget ever sci-fi adventure Avatar.

The film's Teaser has become the most viewed trailer of all time on Apple.com in the span of a couple days. And fan reaction has been "mixed" to put it nicely... okay it's been bad. So Worthington addresses the anticipation for the film and the response to the trailer:

It's gotta hell of a lotta hype. I read all what was said yesterday about the trailer. I can see their point...


What? First of all, Sam reads what's being said on that there introweb? In fact, he takes what fans say quite seriously(more on that in a bit.) But Sam goes on to put angry nerds in there place:

...but as I said, it's not meant to be built for an Apple Mac, it's built for IMAX, it's built for 3D, that's what he's designed it for. He's designed it to bring people back to the cinema. It's interesting that he's released that trailer and the next day, he shows it on IMAX. It's one extreme to the other. We get the criticism and then we get the rave reviews of what it really looks like in its own formula. That's obviously going to get people to think and go, 'Damn right! I'm going to go and see this at the cinema.'

Jim has always said to me that he wants to bring people back to the movies, and he's a smart enough man for that to be tactical.


If there's someone out there who can do it, Cameron's definitely the guy. Sam echos what we've been saying here at GT. Avatar is a bigger experience than that of your computer screens. It's like this, think of an album you like. You've played it on your big stereo system at home, you've played it full blast in your car, and you've seen the band perform these songs live. Now imagine having someone who's only previewed that album on their tinny sounding speakers on their laptop. What would you say to that person if they immediately dismissed that album because they experienced it only it's lowest form? What would you say, seriously?

I'm not guaranteeing the movie is gonna be perfect, I simply haven't seen the whole thing. But the 25 minutes of 3D footage I saw at Comic-Con blew me away. As a guy who's played this baby on full blast, all I'm saying is keep an open mind.

Worthington goes on to talk about he was able to take a more collaborative approach to his performance in the film, citing Cameron as the "ultimate collaborator."

He's the boss and he'll have final say, but he'll tell you, 'Gimme what you've got' and the first thing I've said to him is 'I've got nothing to lose, man, I'll give you everything.' So I threw everything at him, every idea, and he'll whittle it down to get what he wants, but that's your job, to offer and offer and offer.

 

If you're designing one of the plants or one of the spaceships, the guys who give him 100 or a thousand different designs and Jim can go and say, 'That and that and this and this' then put it all together to get Jim Cameron's space, his Samson, his dragon, and he's the ultimate at that, then.


Alright, the air is a bit more fresh. But what about the stench left in the air from another Worthington starring role?

Terminator Salvation

One of the summer's biggest let downs was the McG directed Terminator: Salvation, the fourth installment in the franchise created by James Cameron. Cameron's only involvement with T4 was his high praise for Worthington, whom he had just finished directing in... Avatar! McG would snag Worthington to play his man-bot Marcus, opposite Christian Bale's John Connor.

The film was ripped apart by critics and the fans alike. Worthington admits that there were plenty of plot holes that just didn't make sense.

He joked at first:

It was dark, there is no humor. That is what we set out to do.


Then goes on to say:

It's kind of humbling the way they've described your performance against Christian's, but we have no control over that. We just have try and do the best character we can do at that time. I can nitpick with the best of them, man, and go down the list of things I saw on IMDb where they found holes in it and go, 'You ARE f*cking right. If there was a big ten-ton robot coming outside that gas station, surely we would f*cking hear it!' And I missed that! So I go, 'I gotta be a bit better when I'm looking through my scripts!' So that kind of raises my games a bit, 'cause I feel like an idiot for not saying it to McG.


Thank gosh someone feels bad for not calling out McG!!!! Worthington further explains just why he takes what the critics and fans say so seriously:

I am a nerd at heart in the sense that I read what people say, because they're my audience. If you don't know how you're coming across, in my opinion, I think you're cutting yourself off a bit.

I always put acting to sport in the sense that if the fans are booing you, you know you've got to play better. We don't necessarily have the bounce of a theater, but we have the critics online, we have our critics in the newspaper, so I do take it all on-board in order to go, 'Well, they're the ones paying 12 bucks, I've got to step up my game.' Or 'Sam Worthington has to change this,' well f*** it, I'll change that... That to me, helps my profession and links what I think my job is, that's to entertain people.


That's awesome and hilarious. That's one of the most level headed, smart and humble responses to "feedback" I've ever read. Worthington just shot up a couple hundred points in my book.

I find it amazing and refreshing that Worthington takes what is being said out there and instead of whining about it or ignoring it, he uses it to his advantage. Like ha said, it raises his game.

So James Cameron, what are you gonna do to raise your game for the people out there who aren't buying the Avatar hype? New trailer anytime soon??? Or do you have an ace up your sleeve you're waiting to throw on the table? We'll have to wait and find out in Dec. I guess.

Sources: ComingSoon/ HitFix

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