Why ‘Avatar’ Star Sam Worthington Unplugged from Hollywood Success to Live in a Hatchback

Sam Worthington, 49, rose to international prominence playing Jake Sully in James Cameron's Avatar franchise alongside Zoe Saldana and Sigourney Weaver.

However, Worthington’s road to stardom was not easy. Just as his early on-screen career was gaining serious traction, the Australian actor decided to move out of his home and was living out of a red Toyota hatchback in an effort to clear his head.

Worthington, who was born in Godalming, England, and raised in Warnbro, Western Australia, had just won the 2004 Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actor for the coming-of-age drama Somersault when he realized his success was not bringing him the fulfillment he had expected.

"After Somersault came out in 2004, we won all 13 categories in which it was nominated," Worthington told The Wall Street Journal. "I was 28 and had won best actor."

Rather than riding the momentum, Worthington found himself in the grip of an identity crisis. A year after his win, he made the decision to liquidate everything he owned.

"About a year later, I looked in my mirror and didn't feel fulfilled. I sold everything, including the mirror," he said. "Lived in my red Toyota hatchback by choice, to clear my head."

He expanded on that period in a separate interview with Variety. "I sold everything I owned to my mates because I didn't like who I was," he said. "I needed to get the heck out. I was living in Sydney, and every time I would go to the bar, people would recognize me. I was rebelling against that."

The reset preceded one of the most significant breaks in modern Hollywood history. Worthington was cast as Jake Sully in Avatar, which became the highest-grossing film of all time upon its 2009 release.

Now the actor is back on screen in Netflix's I Will Find You, in which he plays David Burroughs, a man wrongly convicted of murdering his son who breaks out of prison after learning the boy may still be alive.

Worthington told People at the show's New York City premiere that his wife, Lara Bingle, played a direct role in him taking the project on. "My wife liked Harlan Coben's series on Netflix," he said, adding that when Coben reached out, Lara immediately told him, "Take the call."

Lara and one of their sons stayed up until 4 a.m. binging an early screening. "After each episode, they were like, 'All right, we figured it out.' Then the next one, 'All right, we were wrong, we figured it out,'" Worthington said. "Kids don't feed your ego, but it was interesting that my son wanted to watch this."