Sam Worthington gives rare glimpse into family life

In an exclusive interview, Australian actor Sam Worthington has opened up about his life at home with wife Lara Worthington and their sons, ahead of the much-anticipated Avatar sequel.

He is half of one of Australia’s most glamorous celebrity couples (his wife is Lara Worthington) and he starred in the biggest movie of all time (Avatar). Yet Sam Worthington has managed to remain relatively elusive. And that’s just the way he likes it. Now, as he prepares to dip his toe back into the global spotlight with a long-awaited Avatar sequel, Worthington speaks with Stellar about navigating fame while fulfilling a role that is far closer to his heart: protective family man and father of three. “You’re doing your best to have balance, and that’s all you can do”

Once considered a bit of a Hollywood bad boy, Sam Worthington is operating at a much more laid-back pace these days.

Yes, he’s one of Australia’s most successful movie stars with a reported net worth of $46 million and, yes, he’s married to model and businesswoman Lara Worthington, with whom he shares three sons – Rocket, 7, Racer, 6, and River, 2.

However, the Perth-raised actor has made a very deliberate move to stay out of the celebrity scene.

“I’ve tried to handle [fame] carefully,” the 46-year-old tells Stellar over Zoom from Los Angeles.

“It is hard; there’s no book to tell you how to do it. There’s no set of rules. You have to decide what kind of actor you want to be and what kind of person, or celebrity, you want to be.

“No-one’s there telling you how to do it and holding your hand. You just have to figure it out.”

Dressed down in a black top and jeans, Worthington – who worked as a bricklayer before his career took off – is almost an anti-celebrity: he looks and sounds like a regular, knockabout Aussie bloke.

His voice is gruff and gravelly and, despite years of living in Los Angeles and New York, his accent is still very Australian.

Sam Worthington: ‘I have made a few mistakes. And that’s OK. You grow from that’ Picture: John Russo

It’s fitting that, despite being his most famous to date, his role of ex-marine Jake Sully in James Cameron’s record-breaking 2009 blockbuster Avatar and its much-anticipated sequel Avatar: The Way Of Water doesn’t immediately look like Worthington – mostly because Sully is blue.

By Worthington’s own admission, figuring out fame has come with some missteps.

“I have made a few mistakes,” he reflects. “And that’s OK. You grow from that.”

While Worthington stops short of naming those mistakes, there was a 2014 incident where the actor was arrested for punching a paparazzo in New York.

Following his arrest, Worthington avoided jail by taking a conditional-dismissal deal, requiring him to stay out of trouble for a period of time in order for the case to be dismissed.

Worthington and Lara wed in secret that year at a private home in Melbourne while she was pregnant with their firstborn.

(“It was very intimate... It was just our families, less than 10 people,” Lara later revealed on air to the Kyle & Jackie O Show).

Reflecting on the impact of being a father, Worthington tells Stellar: “Now I’ve got kids, it’s more a case of protecting my kids from [attention].

“At the moment, my kids don’t care what their dad does. They don’t look at my job in any spectacular way. They just want me to take them to soccer practice and hang out and watch Paw Patrol. You’re doing your best to have this balance, and that’s all you can do.”

Before his career reached Avatar-levels of success – the first film is the highest-grossing non-sequel of all time, having earned more than $4.5 billion since 2009 – Worthington cut his teeth in smaller, Australian-made indie movies including Gettin’ Square in 2003, followed the next year by Somersault.

I first met Worthington in 2006, when the then up-and-coming rising star had just appeared in a modern, Australian-made film adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

“That’s a long time back, man – whoa,” Worthington exclaims, laughing when I remind him of that encounter.

Back then, he turned up to the interview on his own, and spun his chair around backwards before sitting down to chat.

This time, he’s playing in a different league; in full Hollywood film-junket mode, he speaks with Stellar as movie studio minders hover nearby.

The Avatar sequel (plus a third film to be released in 2024) has been shrouded in secrecy and everything about it, including its running time – three hours, 10 minutes – is making headlines.

Sam Worthington in the first Avatar film, released in 2010. Picture: 20th Century Fox.

When Worthington describes his professional relationship with the movie’s mega-director James Cameron, he says simply, “Me and Jim get along.

“Originally, [Cameron was] a truck driver from Niagara Falls,” he continues. “That’s what he was before he got into filmmaking. Terminator was a little independent film, that’s what people don’t recall.

“He makes amazing blockbusters. He’s worked his way through this industry, he’s a very humble guy, he loves the craft, and we get on because we look at it as our job. It’s a very unique and amazing job to have.

“We do an extraordinary job, but we’re ordinary guys. That’s what we’ve got in common.

“He’ll phone me up and tell me the story of Avatar: The Way Of Water. But then the challenge is, I don’t know how we’re gonna do this. Then he asked me, ‘So, you’re willing to jump in?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, boss. Where do you need me?’

“That’s our relationship: I’m the guinea pig to whatever crazy idea he’s got in his head. That’s how we get along.”

So given he is an actor who doesn’t necessarily want to be famous, one wonders if having his appearance so digitally enhanced – and bright blue – on-screen is a dream scenario.

“Yes and no,” Worthington muses. “[The character has] more detail now, everything you see, we do – we do go under water, we do breath holds, we do everything that the characters are doing – we’re put through our motions.

“One thing [Cameron] always said was, ‘Subtle as you are, it will be your performance.’ It’s not animated in any way.

“This one is even more clearly me. It has my scar, it has my wrinkles. [Sully’s] avatar has aged as I’ve aged. [But] there’s certainly a level of anonymity with it, which is good.”

But the actor does draw some parallels between his character in the new film and his real-life role as a husband and father of three boys. In the trailer, his character says, “This family is our fortress.”

As Worthington explains: “That [line] was the touchstone – we always went back to that.

Every decision Jake makes in this movie comes from that – ‘How do I protect this security, this solid force that I care about so deeply? How do we fortify ourselves, no matter what we’re running away from and, eventually, what we’re going to have to face?’ We would always come back to that.”

Sam Worthington stars on the cover of this Sunday’s Stellar. Picture: John Russo.

And it’s clearly a sentiment Worthington relates to in his personal life.

“Jake is still this warrior, he’s also now a father. Does he continue to be this legendary warrior or can he just be a dad? And that’s where he’s at in his life.

“When the war comes, his sons want to fight. Jake knows the cost that might go with that – he might lose his sons. So he chooses to walk away, which goes against every instinct.

“At the same time, as a dad that’s what you have to do; you have to look after your little ones.”

Avatar: The Way Of Water is in cinemas December 15.

Originally published as Sam Worthington gives rare glimpse into family life