“‘IF SHE HADN’T SAID THIS, I’D HAVE WALKED AWAY’ 😱🔥 Sam Worthington Reveals the SHOCK Advice From His Wife That Changed Everything and Led Him to Netflix’s Addictive Thriller I Will Find You”!Sam Worthington has revealed the unexpected moment that set him on the path to Netflix’s gripping thriller I Will Find You 😱🔥 — and the person behind it was his wife, Lara Worthington.

I Will Find You was an easy yes for Sam Worthington.

The Avatar star leads Netflix’s new Harlan Coben adaptation, which finds him playing David Borroughs, an inmate convinced that his young son — whom he was convicted of murdering — is actually still alive.

Worthington’s reason for boarding the project was simple: “My wife liked Harlan’s series on Netflix,” he tells PEOPLE of his wife, Lara Worthington, at the series’ New York City premiere. “When I said he wanted to chat on the phone, she said, ‘Take the call.'”

Twelve of Coben’s novels have been adapted for the screen in the U.K. and I Will Find You marks his first production on American soil. The series also got Lara’s stamp of approval. “She watched it the other day. We got an early screening, so [she] and my son watched it until four in the morning,” Sam says. “They binged them all.”

“After each episode, they were like, ‘All right, we figured it out.’ Then the next one, ‘All right, we were wrong, we figured it out,'” he adds. “I think that’s part of the fun, trying to figure out the puzzle through all the twists and turns and cliffhangers.”

Sam shares sons Rocket, Racer and River with Lara, whom he married in 2014. He says that his boys aren’t exactly his main audience. “I’m not going to ask them to [watch my stuff],” he says. “Kids don’t feed your ego, but it was interesting that my son wanted to watch [I Will Find You].”

Britt Lower and Milo Ventimiglia also star in the twisty new series, which premiered on Thursday, June 18 on Netflix. Sam was Coben’s “first pick” to play David, the author reveals.

“Sam Worthington, as an actor, he brings such gravitas,” Coben tells PEOPLE. “He does so much with so little. There [were] times when we were filming where I said, ‘Just cut the lines. Just go in tight on Sam.’ You can feel his pain, you can feel his anguish [in his face].”

“He’s a generous actor. He didn’t want to be the classic action hero —he’s not the classic action hero,” Coben adds. “It was wonderful to work with him, really. He’s very giving as an actor, too.”

The I Will Find You star has “put a lot into this,” Coben adds, noting that he got “so into the character” that the author “started calling him David” on occasion.

Along with Sam, Lower and Ventimiglia, I Will Find You also stars Logan Browning, Erin Richards, Chi McBride and Jonathan Tucker.

I Will Find You is now streaming on Netflix.