Josh Gad Says He Was Fat-Shamed Out of ‘Avatar’ Role

Frozen actor Josh Gad was fat-shamed out of a role in Avatar, he writes in his memoir, because “I supposedly looked like a tall, overweight Smurf” when digitally transformed into one of the film’s blue characters.

Gad dishes on his Avatar auditions in his new memoir, In Gad We Trust, writing that the 2009 James Cameron film was “one of the first things” he auditioned for as he tried to get back into film and TV after finding success on Broadway.

The process started off well enough, Gad writes, and it almost seemed like he was going to get the gig. “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,” he writes.

The audition was for the best friend to main character Jake Scully, played by Sam Worthington. Gad adds the character was also a “translator to the alien race known as the Na’vi.”

Though Gad’s audition went well— “James Cameron was said to be thrilled with my audition,” he writes—it was Gad’s look, and specifically his weight, that lost him the role, he claims. “I apparently did not get [the job]” because “when I was turned into a digital Avatar, I supposedly looked like a tall, overweight Smurf.”

The character Gad auditioned for was seemingly absorbed into that of Norm Spellman, the anthropologist character played by Joel David Moore, who takes up the role of Na’vi language translator in the film.

Gad dishes other dirt from behind the scenes of his career for the memoir, including about his Love & Other Drugs co-star Jake Gyllenhaal, who Gad claims advised him not to pursue a career-defining role in the South Park creators’ Broadway show, The Book of Mormon.

When Gad played Gyllenhaal “a demo of a new musical that I had recently done a workshop for in New York, hoping to get his advice,” the actor told him, “Dude, you cannot do whatever this is. This will be way too controversial.”

Of course, Gad didn’t take the advice, and went on to play one of the show’s main protagonists Elder Cunningham for over a year. The role earned Gad his first and only Tony nomination for Best Actor—and won him a Grammy for the hit musical’s soundtrack.