Sam Worthington on ‘I Will Find You,’ Being the Show’s ‘Damsel in Distress’ and Pushing Back on a David and Rachel ‘Telenovela’ Romance
SPOILER ALERT: This story includes key storylines and details about “I Will Find You,” now streaming on Netflix.
Sam Worthington has his wife to thank for his role in one of Netflix’s most successful series, “I Will Find You.”
The show, the latest adaptation from novelist Harlan Coben, sees Worthington as David Burroughs, a man convicted and sent to prison for brutally beating his young son Matthew to death. After spending five years behind bars, David’s sister-in-law Rachel – a Boston Globe reporter played by Britt Lower – helps him escape to prove that he’s not only innocent, but that his son is still alive. Rounding out the cast are Milo Ventimiglia as Rachel’s wildly wealthy ex-boyfriend Hayden and Madeline Stowe as his seemingly sinister mother. Logan Browning and Chi McBride play FBI agents on the hunt for David.
“My wife’s a Harlan fan, and she was the one who said, ‘You got to take that call,’” Worthington recalls about first being approached by producers for the project. “I said, ‘Why?’ And she goes, ‘Because you don’t do stuff that I like to watch, and I’d like to watch this.’ So that’s where it started, to be honest. It was her instinct.”
As with any Coben series, there are more twists and turns than one can count. I was hooked immediately and binged all eight episodes over one weekend.
“We got early copies of it,” Worthington said. “My wife and my 11-year-old son binged exactly like you did. They didn’t stop.”
Netflix announced that “I Will Find You” was viewed 24 million times in its first four days, making it the streamer’s biggest series debut of 2026. “Harlan said to me, ‘If you work that out, say there’s three people in a household, that’s like 60 million people,’” Worthington says. “I thought that was pretty incredible.”
David Burroughs is a man of few words. His mission is to find his son, and he’ll do whatever it takes to make that happen. In other words, David becomes an action hero of sorts. However, Worthington sees things a little differently. He told Coben and producers to cut many of his lines. “Give the exposition to others, and allow David to be the emotion, to feel the story through David,” Worthington says. “In a weird way, it’s less heroic than I think is in the book than they – the producers and Harlan — first thought because I always wanted Britt’s character, Rachel, to be the hero, and allow David to be the damsel in distress. I think they found that a very odd approach because they were after a more heroic leading kind of character, but I just thought that was a different way into this genre, and it allowed me to not get overtaken by the pulp, and the dramatic turns that it takes.”
Worthington was willing to do most of his own stunt work, but he wasn’t allowed because of his “Avatar” commitments. “There was a lot I couldn’t do because of my Disney ‘Avatar’ contract,” he says. “They said, ‘You’re not allowed to do this.’ I said, ‘Why not? I’m keen. I’m ready. I can do this.’ They were like, ‘James Cameron won’t let you.’”
As “I Will Find You” unfolds, David and Rachel become closer. At some points, there are hints of a romance brewing. The finale includes a shot of the two holding hands. “She’s his sister-in-law, so I always found that very odd,” Worthington says of viewers shipping the duo. “I think we probably pushed back on any big romantic kiss because of that reasoning. I think it would have become a telenovela rather than a melodrama. It might have been too much. But in the end, I like that there is this simple gesture because the story is about hope.”
Hayden is eventually revealed as Matthew’s kidnapper. He’s so desperate to keep Matthew as his son that he’s even willing to kill anyone who gets in his way, including a detective whom he violently murders with a rock and his mother, who he fatally shoots. “The series does start off quite naturalistic, and then it becomes operatic,” Worthington says. “By the time you get to Hayden killing his mom and killing a detective from another country, we know we’re in another genre.”
As for a second season, Worthington jokes it could include Matthew needing a lot of therapy, not only because of the kidnapping trauma, but also because he has to transition from a very pampered, monied life to working-class Boston. Worthington laughs, “You took that kid from this rich big house — is the kid gonna have any resentment towards David?”