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Josh Gad Says He Almost Landed Role in AVATAR but Was Denied for Looking Like "Tall Overweight Smurf" as a Na'vi
Actor Josh Gad (Frozen, Beauty and the Beast, Wolf Like Me) almost landed a role in the 2009 sci-fi epic Avatar, but he didn’t quite have the physical archetype director James Cameron was looking for. In the actor’s new memoir, In Gad We Trust, he recalls that while desperate to find a reprieve from starring in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee on Broadway, he went out to audition for other TV and film roles. And “one of the first things” he tried out for was a “new James Cameron movie called Avatar.”“I put myself on tape and shortly thereafter got a call that Cameron wanted to fly me to Los Angeles for a final callback at his Lightstorm production offices,” he said. If cast, Gad would’ve played “the role of Jake Sully’s (Sam Worthington) best friend and translator to the alien race known as the Na’vi.”Gad continued, “I apparently did not get [the role] because, while James Cameron was said to be thrilled with my audition, when I was turned into a digital Avatar I supposedly looked like a tall, overweight Smurf.”The role then went Joel David Moore, who plays Norm Spellman in Avatar, a close confidant to Jake Sully and an expert on the Na’vi language.The film became the highest-grossing film of all time, raking in $2.9 billion worldwide to date. The sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, currently sits in third place with a lifetime gross of $2.3 billion.Luckily for Gad, his career, both on and off Broadway, has continued to flourish, and aside from his deals with Disney, he is working on several more projects coming up, including his sequel Spaceballs 2, which has been confirmed. via: Variety
Actor Josh Gad (Frozen, Beauty and the Beast, Wolf Like Me) almost landed a role in the 2009 sci-fi epic Avatar, but he didn’t quite have the physical archetype director James Cameron was looking for.
In the actor’s new memoir, In Gad We Trust, he recalls that while desperate to find a reprieve from starring in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee on Broadway, he went out to audition for other TV and film roles. And “one of the first things” he tried out for was a “new James Cameron movie called Avatar.”
“I put myself on tape and shortly thereafter got a call that Cameron wanted to fly me to Los Angeles for a final callback at his Lightstorm production offices,” he said. If cast, Gad would’ve played “the role of Jake Sully’s (Sam Worthington) best friend and translator to the alien race known as the Na’vi.”
Gad continued, “I apparently did not get [the role] because, while James Cameron was said to be thrilled with my audition, when I was turned into a digital Avatar I supposedly looked like a tall, overweight Smurf.”
The role then went Joel David Moore, who plays Norm Spellman in Avatar, a close confidant to Jake Sully and an expert on the Na’vi language.
The film became the highest-grossing film of all time, raking in $2.9 billion worldwide to date. The sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, currently sits in third place with a lifetime gross of $2.3 billion.
Luckily for Gad, his career, both on and off Broadway, has continued to flourish, and aside from his deals with Disney, he is working on several more projects coming up, including his sequel Spaceballs 2, which has been confirmed.
via: Variety
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