Sam Worthington in Men’s Health- homeless vagabond to international sensation

The Australian star Sam Worthington covers this month’s issue of Men’s Health, THE WORTHINGTONS ARRIVED IN AUSTRALIA looking for new opportunities and “not exactly cashed up.” Worthington’s father supervised the manufacture of glass-reinforced cement. When that job ended, he rolled up his sleeves and found work in a power plant, and then in an aluminum refinery. The family lived a solid blue-collar life in one of the less celebrated corners of Perth, Western Australia. “I didn’t know any different,” Worthington explains. “And when you’re young, you’re not aware of the sacrifices your parents are making.”

It’s important, he says, not to let a working-class past limit your horizons. Worthington himself had been a 19-year-old bricklayer with big dreams when he was accepted into Australia’s National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) after an open audition. “I was given an opportunity,” he says, “and I cherished it.”

Between his graduation from NIDA in 1998 and the filming of Avatar in 2007, Worthington enjoyed 9 years of acting success, ranging from the critically acclaimed film Somersault to the TV drama Love My Way. Of course, the success was in Australia where, as Worthington says, the local film industry makes “13 movies in a good year.”