Sam Worthington is impossible to predict. In December, the Australian actor starred in Avatar: Fire and Ash, a blockbuster sequel that grossed nearly $1.5bn and is currently the 16th biggest movie of all time. Worthington, reprising the role of interstellar marine-turned-insurgent Jake Sully, was front and centre. Now, he appears in the scrappy heist thriller Fuze, in a fairly minor, almost dialogue-free part. In the original script, his character was basically written as 'Henchman Two'.
'It's always been bizarre,' Worthington says of his career choices. 'I've never had a plan in that regard. I think people have looked at my career and gone, “What the f*** is he doing?”' He speaks fast, in an idiolect peppered with metaphors and the occasional swear word. There's a slight air of restlessness about him. 'I think it's well known I find interviews and all those things kind of excruciating,' he admits. 'I can get very anxious.'
Worthington came to Fuze in an effort to re-team with director David MacKenzie, whom he had previously worked with on the 2024 thriller Relay and the 2022 miniseries Under the Banner of Heaven. Initially, no one would even give him the script to read. 'They said, “It’s all cast – there’s nothing,”' Worthington recalls. The part they eventually settled on was, he says, 'written like an extra'. But MacKenzie trusted him to develop the character into something more, eventually morphing into an antagonist for Theo James's scheming thief.
For Worthington, every new role is an act of self-discovery. 'Every job is me trying to learn something,' he says. 'Maybe over the last 20-odd years, it’s been to my detriment, but I’ve learned more as an actor than I ever could if I was trying to search for a career. You learn more from s*** jobs sometimes than ones that are revered.'
