Josh Gad Looked Too Much Like a ‘Smurf’ to be a Na’vi

Guess he was too much of a fixer-upper to get in the movie. In his memoir, In Gad We Trust, Josh Gad remembers narrowly missing a part in James Cameron’s Avatar. In 2006, Gad was begging to be let go from The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and was told by producer David Stone that he could be set free if he booked another job. “One of the first things I went out for was a new James Cameron movie called Avatar,” Gad explained, auditioning to play Jake Sully’s best friend and Na’vi expert. “I put myself on tape and shortly thereafter got a call that Cameron wanted to fly me to Los Angeles for a final callback at his Lightstorm production offices.”

However, the callback was as close as he was going to get to Pandora. Gad claimed that when production digitized him to see how he’d look as a Na’vi, he looked too much like another blue creature who lived in a magical forest. He shared, “I apparently did not get [the role] because, while James Cameron was said to be thrilled with my audition, when I was turned into a digital Avatar I supposedly looked like a tall, overweight Smurf.” Blue just wasn’t his color.