Who played Jake Sully in James Cameron’s Avatar?

Sam Worthington played Jake Sully in James Cameron’s Avatar.

Jake Sully is a former Marine who travels to Pandora and operates an artificial Na’vi body through the Avatar program. The role required Worthington to perform both live-action scenes and extensive performance-capture work for the character’s digital form.

Jake begins the film as an outsider to Pandora’s ecology and the Na’vi community. Through his relationship with Neytiri and his experiences among the Omaticaya clan, he increasingly rejects the human military mission threatening their home. His transformation is the main narrative arc of Avatar.

Worthington was relatively unknown to many international audiences when the film opened in 2009. Avatar used performance capture, digital environments, and stereoscopic 3D to present Jake’s experiences on Pandora. Zoe Saldaña played Neytiri, while Stephen Lang played Colonel Miles Quaritch, the principal military antagonist.