A Touch Of Clash

Rugged, built like a tank and with a very blokey sense of humour, it’s no surprise English-born, Australian actor Sam Worthington is outspoken – with those muscles, no-one’s ever going to take him up on it. It was still surprising when the Avatar star spoke out about his role in Clash Of The Titans – a usual no-no in Tinsel Town. But it seems that when fans and critics alike complained about the admittedly stupid action film, Worthington took note.

“I read a lot of reviews and everyone thought I looked like a fucking idiot,” the actor said. “More was written about my fucking hair in this movie than anyone’s in the whole world – apart from maybe Jennifer Aniston when she had that haircut in Friends that the whole fucking world copied!”
Despite the stir his comments caused, Worthington doesn’t see the problem with actors being openly critical of their work.
“I think it’s like a soccer player talking about his troubles with the game. There’s nothing really wrong with it. I was just saying that in the first one I think I was a conjugate for action. I didn’t get to do much except be a wrecking ball with a big bald head. I knew I wanted to get deeper, which as an actor you always want to do. You want to sink your teeth into a role. But you can get lost in the size of the movie. So in this one I said, ‘If you give me a kid, that’s going to ripple the story, and give me more to play with.’ And so the story becomes richer. If you have Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes it’s going to work with them, and delve into their characters a bit more. So the movie ends up not being a monster mash. It becomes a movie about a dysfunctional family trying to connect with each other. It just happens to be Zeus and Perseus in a world of monsters!”
He also admits that the new director, Jonathan Liebesman, was a huge draw to revisiting the widely criticised franchise.
“He’s the same age as me and he has the same way of thinking – he can be as cocky and confident as I can! And it’s exciting to work with someone like that, someone who’s not living in fear of doing a sequel.”
Wrath Of The Titans sees Worthington reprise his role as Zeus’ son Perseus (this time sporting a nice perm, instead of the much-mocked crew cut), now living as a humble fisherman. Perseus discovers that his name doesn’t allow him peace for long, attracting not only pressurised attention from adoring fans, but trouble from those seeking to destroy him. For Worthington, a former brick-layer who was a relative unknown before James Cameron’s Avatar shot him into superstardom, this aspect of the character resonated deeply, as he’s experienced both the dizzying heights of fame and also a bit of a backlash. After all – everyone loves to destroy a hero.
“I’ve had that in my own country for many years. And here’s a character who’s wrestling with the burden of responsibility, the weight of things that have been thrust upon him. And in a similar way I wrestle with my own job, I’m in Hollywood under the spotlight. But in real life I live normally. So there’s always that wrestle.”
A wrestle that probably isn’t helped by his paranoia-inducing addiction to Googling himself.
“I don’t do it as much as I used to. I think it’s okay if you look at it from a healthy aspect. I mean, my job only exists because of an audience. That’s it. If they ain’t seeing the movies, I ain’t getting a job, I’m going back to brick-laying! So if they’re saying, ‘Why does he have a shaved head?’, or, ‘He’s like an action figurine, there’s no real depth to his character’ – if you listen to that criticism, it can be helpful and you can take it into a sequel if you’re lucky, and up the ante and work on it. Because that’s your responsibility, I think. Your responsibility is to the guy that pays his hard-earned money every week to be transported and have a good time for 99 minutes.”
The internet is already a-buzz with talk of his upcoming film Thunder Run; a motion-capture Iraq romp that also stars Gerard Butler and Matthew McConaughey. Movie aside, Worthington’s hell-bent on selling me on the film’s press junket – and he does a damn good job of it.
“That junket will be good, because it’ll be a bunch of good-looking men – but just with this thistle!” he adds with a self-deprecating chuckle. “I mean you do realise that junket’s going to be fucking off the charts... me, Gerry and Matthew? We won’t get anything done!”
Looking forward to it.

Wrath Of The Titans is in cinemas now.