Three actors screen tested for Avatar. Fox wanted Channing Tatum to star, but James Cameron preferred Sam Worthington.

And there were three young actors that were really nowhere, kind of in their career at the time. All three of them went on to be movie stars. I had to choose between them, and I did a series of screen tests. First, it was sort of a straight audition. Then I set up real screen tests in sets. Like there was a lab set, and there was a jungle set. And Zoe came in and read with everybody or tested with everybody 'cause she was now our baseline.

And Sam was the one I kept going back to. And the studio disagreed. The Fox guys liked the other guys better. You know, I'll say one of 'em was Channing Tatum. So it's like, "Okay, Channing did, well." You know, we're all good with Channing Tatum, right? You know, it could have been Channing Tatum.