Sam Worthington

Sam Worthington is an actor....a young one, I believe.

I think he's been in some recent Hollywood Blockbuster, or he's in an upcoming one? Is he in Avatar? I remember reading that there's an Australian in that.

Well, let me go find answers to my questions.

Oh. He IS in Avatar. I was right. He was also in Terminator Salvation. I'm not sure if I remember that. Tim likes those movies. I wonder if he saw it. I vaguely remember him going to see a Terminator movie. But I might be wrong.

Worthington is not as young as I expected him to be. He's thirty-three. I thought he was in his early or mid twenties for some reason.

He was born in England on 2 August 1976. Sometime during his childhood, he migrated to Perth. The suburb he grew up in was Warnbro. It's kind of confusing because Lord Wiki says Warnbro is in Rockingham, as if Rockingham is part of Perth. I thought Rockingham was a separate city. On Google Maps, it looks like it is.

There's a Waikiki right near Warnbro. We'll be going to the Hawaii version in a couple of months.

Anyway, maybe Perth is kind of like DFW (where I live). It can be considered one city. But then it's also three separate cities (Dallas, Fort Worth, and Arlington).

Well, enough of the confusing geography. Let me get back to Mr. Worthington.

Worthington's Daddy worked at a power plant. Mommy Worthington stayed home and raised Sam and his sister.

Worthington went to John Curtin College of the Arts. It's a school for kids who are gifted in artistic areas of life. Lord Wiki says part of the school was built on top of a cemetery. The cemetery was moved. Families of the dead were supposed to pay for the exhumation and relocation of the bodies. Some did not do this, so there are still dead bodies below. It's all like Poltergeist! I thought Lord Wiki might be trying to trick me....an early April Fool's Day prank. But the school's website backs up that bit of information.

Back to Worthington. I gotta remember I'm writing a post about this guy.

He left school when he was seventeen. Lord Wiki says he dropped out, so I suppose he left before graduating. Anyway, he made his way to Sydney. He did odd jobs, like bricklaying. At the age of nineteen, he auditioned to get into NIDA, (National Institute of National Art) and was accepted. When would that have been?

My trusty calculator says it was around 1995. That's the year I met Tim. It's also the year I went to film school, and then dropped out of film school.

Worthington graduated from NIDA in 1998. That's the year my older sister got married. They celebrated their 12th anniversary on Valentine's Day.

After graduating, Worthington was in a play called The Judas Kiss at the Belvior St. Theatre.

I'm going to save the rest of his career stuff for IMDb. Let me jump down to what Lord Wiki has about personal stuff.

Well, when Worthington was around thirty, he sold all his possessions and ended up with $2000 to his name. He bought a car and lived in it for awhile. I wonder why he did that. Did he just really want that car? Or was it more of a cleansing? Lord Wiki says Worthington equated it to hitting control/alt/delete on the computer. So yeah. It probably a way of saying good-bye to yesterday, and hello to tomorrow.

I'm going over  to IMDb now. Worthington's first TV appearance was in an American thing. He guest-starred in one episode of JAG. I usually don't mention one-time appearances on show, but I'm mentioning this because it seems it was his first. I remember JAG being on, but I don't think I ever watched it.

Okay. I'm going to mention another one time guest star appearance...well, just because this one was an Australian TV show...Water Rats. He did it in 2000, the same year he did JAG. I'm wondering what was going on with Worthington geographically speaking back then. Did he go off to Hollywood in hopes of getting a career? Or maybe the episode of JAG he did was filmed in Australia? It seems strange to travel so far away just to appear in one episode of a TV show.

Worthington also did a movie in 2000. It was an Australian thing called Bootmen. It's a comedy-drama about tap-dancing. Worthington earned an AFI nomination for his role in the film. Here's the trailer. The tap-dancing looks impressive. IMDb says that one of Worthington's memorable lines in the movie was Well, I don't work for you no more, you arse-wipe! I gotta look at these memorable quotes pages more often. They're fun.

In 2002, Worthington was in Hart's War. I'm getting that movie confused with the other war thing with Tom Hanks. Charlie Wilson's War.

Hart's War is the one with Bruce Willis. It's about a lieutenant in World War II who defends an African-American soldier on trial for murder. Worthington is pretty far below in the credits, so I'm not sure he had a very substantial role. Here's the trailer. The movie looks fairly good. I wonder if Tim has seen it. I'll have to ask him.

Also in 2002, Worthington did an Australian comedy called Dirty Deeds with Bryan Brown, Toni Collette, Sam Neil, and John Goodman. It's about an Australian gangster in the 1960's. Worthington earned himself a nomination from the Film Critics Circle of Australia. One of his memorable lines from the movie was I know how to shoot people and blow shit up.

In 2003, Worthington was in the Australian movie Gettin' Square. It looks like he had the starring role this time. He plays a guy who's just gotten out of prison. He's trying to live a new and improved legal life, but he finds it's not that easy. IMDb's trivia page says that the writer of the film (Chris Nyst) is a criminal lawyer, and has represented Pauline Hanson.

Here's the trailer for the movie. It doesn't look like my type of thing. I don't really like gangster films, so I probably wouldn't like Dirty Deeds either.

In 2004, Worthington was in a comedy about fans of AC/DC called Thunderstruck. It involves a dead guy's ashes and a road trip. Here's the trailer. The movie might be okay, but I don't think the trailer advertised it very well.

In 2004, he was also in a movie with Abbie Cornish called Somersault. It's about a teenage girl dealing with sexuality and all that stuff. The movie won many awards, including an AFI for Worthington. And it won best picture.

Here's the trailer. The girl kisses her mom's boyfriend and then runs away. I can imagine how that would make a teenager feel guilty and embarrassed. Although, I think it should be the boyfriend that ran away. Well, he probably left too. I'm kind of curious about how it turns out. Maybe I'll watch it one day.

In the movie, Worthington plays the next guy that the girl becomes interested in....after her mom's boyfriend. Lord Wiki says there's some questions and confusing regarding his sexual orientation. Maybe he turns out to be gay?

In 2004 and 2005, Worthington did ten episodes of a TV show called Love My Way. Lord Wiki says it was a drama about people in their thirties. Here's a scene from the show with Worthington.

That kitchen is small. It reminds me of a NYC apartment. Although our kitchen in NYC was probably even smaller. I'm intrigued with the conversation between the two women. Who are they? How are they related? Who do they both want living with them? The little girl? I could totally imagine myself getting into this show.

In 2005, Worthington was in an American-Australian movie called The Great Raid. It's about the liberation of five hundred American soldiers in a Japanese POW camp. Maybe the Americans were rescued by Australians? Joseph Fiennes is in it. I like him. He's now in one of my favorite TV shows.

Here's the trailer for The Great Raid. Well, I don't hear any Australian accents. Everyone is speaking American. I guess it was just filmed in Australia.... And they used a few Aussie actors.

Also in 2005, Worthington was in a crime-comedy called Fink! I looked for a trailer, and could only find one for Barton Fink.

Worthington did another TV show in 2005. This was called The Surgeon. It lasted for only eight episodes. Worthington played Dr. Dash. That's a cute name.

Here's some scenes from the show. There's a lot of blood. I don't think I could ever be a doctor.

I hope they can save that woman.

Lord Wiki said that Worthington was thirty when he sold all this stuff. That would be AFTER he did all these TV shows and movies. I can't imagine how he ended up with only $2000 dollars. Had he spent all his money on partying or something? Or did Lord Wiki make a mistake about his age at the time?

Well, the woman on the show turned out to not be okay. That's very sad. I know it's fiction; but real people go through that every day. People sit in hospital waiting rooms, wondering if their loved ones survived the surgery or not.

In 2006, Worthington was in Macbeth. I wrote about this movie before, but I don't know why. Let me look at the full credits. Mick Molloy. I guess it must have been him. That's the only person in the credits that I've written about.

Oh! Worthington played Macbeth. So he had a pretty big part there. Here's the trailer. They use the Shakespearean lines, but it takes place in modern times. It's like Lurhmann's Romeo and Juliet.

Here's a scene with the three witches.

I thought I've never seen a movie with Worthington, but I was wrong! I saw Rogue, and he was in that. Here's the trailer. Crocodiles scare me...alligators too. Well, alligators are less dangerous, but they still give me the creeps.

In 2009, Worthington was in Terminator Salvation. Christian Bale played John Connor. That character was the kid in the other movies, right?

Yeah. Lord Wiki confirms that. And he says that Worthington's character (Marcus Wright) was a human murderer on death row. Then he was turned into a machine.

Here's the trailer.


You know, I don't see James Cameron in the credits. He did the other Terminator movies, right? And he's the one who made Avatar. Lord Wiki does say that Cameron had recommended Worthington to the new Terminator director. So I guess he had an unofficial connection to the movie, at least.

It looks like Worthington is the main star of Avatar. His name is first in the credits. Part of the movie was filmed in Hawaii. That's good. Tim and I are excited to go there because that's where Lost is filmed. My friend Tracey (who is going to Hawaii with us) saw Avatar, and I think she liked it a lot. So Tim and I can be excited about Lost, and Tracey's family can be excited about Avatar. I wonder if they've seen Jurassic Park, because that was filmed in Hawaii too.

Here's the trailer for Avatar. It looks pretty good. But why do people from another planet speak English?

A part of me wants to see it, but I don't have enough interest to sit for three hours. I'd rather read the book. Is there a book? It looks like there's not. Lord Wiki says the theme of the movie is like At Play in the Field of the Lords. I read that. He also says that James Cameron plans to write a novel version of the book. If I hear it's good, maybe I'll read it.

Lord Wiki mentions the mix of critical responses regarding the social message in the film...capitalistic Americans raping a society to fulfill their greedy needs. Some critics were happy with the message, and some were not. Someone named Annalee Newitz said it's another one of those movies were a white person becomes the hero in a nonwhite culture. Yeah, I know there's been other stories like that. I can't think of them offhand though. It sounds like one of those instances where you have a movie trying to speak out against racism, but there's subtle gestures of racism in the movie itself.

But.....I haven't seen the movie (Avatar), so I can't make a valid judgment.

Here's the actual editorial by Newitz. She describes the plot of the movie, and then says: This is a classic scenario you've seen in non-scifi epics from Dances With Wolves to The Last Samurai, where a white guy manages to get himself accepted into a closed society of people of color and eventually becomes its most awesome member.

It does sound somewhat racist to me. How could you make a story like that less racist? Maybe have the white person not become the hero of the story? Or if they're a hero, make them a secondary/supporting hero rather than the main one.

Newitz says the movies are about white guilt. Then I guess our guilt is partially absolved by a white person saving the day. I think that's why a movie like Ten Canoes is so refreshing. There's no white people in it!

I think most movie plots that involve people such as Native Americans or Aborigines center on a white person. The white person is the villian. The white person is the hero. We feel sad for the nonwhite people. We are angry at the mean white people. Then we wipe away tears as the nice white woman hugs the little Aboriginal child.

I love what Newitz says here, Speaking as a white person, I don't need to hear more about my own racial experience. I'd like to watch some movies about people of color (ahem, aliens), from the perspective of that group, without injecting a random white (erm, human) character to explain everything to me.

I recently watched the movie Sex and The City. The TV show was about white girls and their white boyfriends. In the movie, they put in a black woman. Jennifer Hudson. We get a little racial variety. And Hudson's character was adorable. Her role was a supporting one. She came to the aid of a character in need, and she had a minor subplot of her own. So if black people can be put in as token characters in movies about white people, white people should be able to have token roles in movies about black people. But Jennifer Hudson's character didn't come in to save the day. She's not the main character. The white people (for the most part) solve their own problems. Are white people the only ones who can do that in movies?

Well, I'm sure there ARE movies where white people aren't the heroes. Strangely, the one that comes to my mind is Mulan. I don't think there were any white people in it.

The villains in Rabbit Proof Fence are white. But from what I remember, the heroes are all Aboriginal. Right? There's not a white man saving the day.

I should probably move on.

Besides the subtle racism in Avatar, I'm sure for the most part that it's a good movie with an important message. I don't think we should boycott the movie, or hate it. But I do think we should explore these ideas that Newitz brought up. I personally don't think denying them helps anyone.

Worthington has six movies coming up. It looks like one is being released this week maybe. The Debt. It's about Mossad Agents....the kind of movie Tim and my parents would love. It's a remake of a 2007 Israeli film. I can't find a trailer for the new movie, but here's the Israeli original. I'd understand it better if I knew Hebrew.

Worthington is going to be in Last Night. It's a relationship drama.

He's going to be in Clash of the Titans with Ralph Fiennes and Liam Neeson. That's Greek God thing.

In 2012, Worthington is set to star in a movie that takes place in Texas. The Fields. Then he has two other movies which IMDb won't tell me about because I'm not part of their IMDbPro club. One is a Dracula thing, though.

Now I'm going to look at the IMDb trivia page for Worthington. They say Worthington said he wanted to be on Dancing with the Stars. Was he serious, or joking?

He didn't plan on being an actor. He went with a friend to NIDA...trying to be supportive. He got in. The friend did not. It sounds a bit like Mel Gibson's Mad Max story.

Worthington was one of the people considered to play James Bond.

He surfs.

Oh! Back to the Bond thing. Now this new article here says that Worthington might be in the running again. Daniel Craig is leaving the role already?

Here's a whole Sam Worthington fansite, if anyone is interested.

Here's an interview in Esquire. They say he was an obscure Australian actor. Was he also obscure in Australia or just in America? We all know that if Americans haven't heard of you yet, you're obscure.

Worthington sure swears a lot in that interview. Maybe this is the type of language expected by Esquire readers. The article says that Worthington's walls are full of charts and graphs of actors. He's sizing up his competition. Would it be horribly rude if I say that's really weird? I think it is. But who am I to talk? I'm really weird too.

The interview talks about how Worthington had no idea what he wanted to do when he was growing up. His father gave him a ticket to Cairns and a hundred dollars. Then he told Worthington to find his own way back. That's pretty cool in some ways. He helped his child out but then he also pushed him to be independent.

Oh! It was a girlfriend that he accompanied to NIDA. They ended up breaking up. The interview seems to infer this was because Worthington got into the school, and she didn't. But I wonder if that's really true.

The article says, When Worthington works, he insists on turning his scripts inside out, making them his own. He doesn't relent. He's a collaborator, not a puppet, he says, and he has no qualms telling the director how his part should be played. I respect that. What was the director I wrote about lately....the one who insisted on having so much control? Well, I forgot. But I can imagine that he and Worthington would butt heads if they ever tried to work together.

Worthington might be a bit zealous in his opinions. He's not afraid to argue, and he'll throw a tantrum. He reminds me of Jack. Jack will stick up for himself. He's strong-willed. For the most part, I highly respect that and hope he maintains that through out his life. But there ARE times when he's a bit too loud and zealous. The ironic thing is when adults yell at Jack for yelling at them. They don't scold Jack for his argument. They scold him for yelling at an adult. Yet, the adults think it's fine to yell at a child. I hate the idea that adults can treat a child a certain way, but it's not okay for a child to do the same. We can lose control and yell at you. But you can't do that to us because it's disrespectful for a child to yell at an adult. I just don't understand that reasoning.

Still. I think it might be better if both Worthington AND Jack gain a little bit more self-control. Well, I should say the same for myself. I've lost control too at times.

The producers of The Surgeon didn't get along with Worthington. If I'm reading this right, they decided to fire him. Then they just canceled the whole show.

I feel bad comparing Jack to Worthington because this article really makes Worthington seem like an asshole. They might just be going for that angle, though. He might have a nice gentle side as well....one that Esquire doesn't want to talk about.

Jack is strong-willed. He'll fight for what he believes in, and he'll protest when he feels something is unfair. I think those are admirable qualities.....ones that are needed in this world. But he's mostly a polite and well-mannered child. He usually very sweet and gentle.

Here's Worthington being interviewed by Rove. Maybe it will give me more insight into what Worthington is like. Never mind. That video didn't work for me. I'll try this one instead. Worthington says that when he auditioned, he wasn't told what the movie was, or who was making it. He was just asked to make a tape. It seems he was annoyed by this, and his rebellious attitude came through in the audition. Cameron liked Worthington, but it took awhile to convince the studios to accept Worthington for the role.

Worthington praises Cameron, says he's a collaborator and not a dictator.

Here's an interview in TimeOut London. About Cameron, Worthington says ‘He’s changed my life, I owe him everything. He demands excellence, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. We connect because we’re tough, opinionated, passionate and love working. The two men get along well. Is it because they're both passionate and hard-working? Or it is because they share a similar vision? Why does Worthington get along with Cameron but not some of the other people he worked with in the past? Will he get along well with any director that shares his level of toughness or only those that are willing to agree with him enough times?

I'm thinking of Jack again. I think he respects people if they're willing to explain their argument to him. He won't back down for no reason, or as an expectation of appropriate behavior. But when I argue with him, he does often say You're right, or You got a point there. He IS usually open to other people's opinions, as long as it's explained in a rational manner. He doesn't need to always be right, and I think that's a very admirable trait.