At the time, he was relatively unknown internationally.
But now, having become one of the world’s most in-demand actors thanks to his role in Avatar, Worthington wouldn’t have a bar of Bond – just as he wasn’t interested when he was approached to replace Matt Damon in the Bourne spy franchise.
“I’m going to lay down a hundred bucks,” he says with a laugh when reminded he is still 3-1 favourite with online bookies to replace Daniel Craig should he decide to hang up the tux and holster the Walther PPK.
“In fact, I’m going to phone up the Broccolis (Bond’s producers) just to win the money. It’s like with the Jason Bourne series recently.
“We talked about it and part of me goes, ‘That’s a franchise that has been created and helped along by other people’.
“What intrigues me more is the chance to start my own franchise and put my own stamp on a character that is iconic rather than just jumping on something that is already established. I like the risk of getting my own one going.”
In his latest film, The Debt, Worthington finally has the chance to play a secret agent – but it’s about as far from Bourne or Bond as you can get.
In the thriller he plays one of a trio of Israeli Mossad agents on the hunt for a Nazi war criminal, known as the “Surgeon of Birkenau”, in 1960s East Berlin.
“They were young, idealistic people and not necessarily trained killers,” Worthington says.
“That’s the difference between Jason Bourne and James Bond and other fictionalised spies. They are almost world weary, whereas we had an innocence we wanted to portray.”
Worthington was making Terminator Salvation in Albuquerque when he was approached by The Debt’s director John Madden to play the part of crucial part of the repressed, on-edge David.
Madden had seen the England-born, Perth-raised actor in the much-lauded Aussie film Somersault, which won him the Best Lead Actor AFI in 2004.
Worthington is part of a breed of local talent benefiting from the trend of Hollywood looking overseas for “real men”.
The stardom game, however, is not one Worthington is terribly interested in.
He does, however, feel strongly about staying in touch with the industry that gave him his start.
“The greatest thing about doing movies over here (in Hollywood) is that you work with a different calibre of people and you learn so much and bring that back to your own industry and help support it.
“To come back and be able to push each other in that way, that’s the exciting thing, to be able to give back to the industry that helped you start your own career,” Worthington says.
