Before 'Avatar,' Sam Worthington Was Broke and Living in His Car: 'I Was Half-Assing It'
This is an excerpt from Sam Worthington's feature story in the 2025 Men's Journal Fitness Special.
Who was Sam Worthington before becoming Avatar's titular hero, Jake Sully? In terms of a rags-to-riches hero's journey, Worthington's path to fame is one of the most inspiring and genuine. The actor came from very modest beginnings before his 2009 breakout success.
Worthington started working steadily in local TV and film. In 2004, he won the Australian Film Institute’s Best Actor award for Somersault, playing an emotionally stunted farmer’s son. But national praise wasn’t enough.
“I was half-assing it—coasting,” he said years later.
Eventually, Worthington sold most of his worldly possessions using a gavel—then sold the gavel, too. He kept a few bags of books and clothes, threw them into a duct-taped Toyota Corolla named Gloria, and moved in.
The Men’s Journal 2025 Fitness Special hits newsstands nationwide on December 26. Pre-order your copy today!
John Russo
“If you’re gonna live in your car, you don’t need a TV or a toaster oven,” he says. “There’s no way to plug it in. Everything went.” Interestingly enough, this journey parallels the humble start of James Cameron, who, before becoming a filmmaker, was working as a truck driver in the early 1970s.
This is the point in most profiles where Zen and minimalism arrive: The protagonist sheds his burdens, purifying himself. Worthington rejects that trope now.
“It was pretty basic,” he says. “I needed money. I thought, for every $15 item I sold, that’s $15 bucks of fuel. My mates were very generous. They knew I just needed to clear my head a bit. At the time, it felt very natural to get in my car and just drive to the mountains.”
A few weeks later, word reached him about an American casting call for an unnamed science-fiction project. Worthington drove to the audition with barely enough gas to get across Sydney and sent in a tape. Somewhere in Los Angeles, Cameron watched it and decided he’d found his guy. The studio didn’t agree, but eight months later, the bricklayer from Perth led the biggest movie in history.