Matt Damon reveals why Hollywood stopped calling him despite being one of its biggest stars
With a career spanning three decades, Matt Damon is one of the most familiar faces in Hollywood.
The Oscar-winning screenwriter is no stranger blockbuster stardom, famed for appearances in the likes of Saving Private Ryan, Interstellar, Invictus and Ocean's Eleven.
With Academy Awards and Golden Globe wins under his belt, he has an estimated net worth of $170m, and also previously co-founded Water.org to improve access to safe water and sanitation around the world.
His on-screen appearances are showing no sign of slowing down either, earlier this year starring in The Rip with friend Ben Affleck followed by Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, which grossed over $1.8 billion worldwide
Advert
But there was actually a time, and during some of the most successful years of his career, that Damon, 56, said the phone 'stopped ringing', with movie execs showing less interest in him for major roles.
"There was this stretch where the phone didn't ring"
In an interview with GQ, ahead of the anniversary of Interstellar, Damon revealed all about the lull which came after some films were less successful than planned.
He said there were 'absolutely' times in his career when he had been made to feel 'cold', particularly after The Legend of Bagger Vance, which he starred in beside Will Smith and Charlize Theron and All the Pretty Horses.
He explained: "The first time was before The Bourne Identity came out. I had done The Legend of Bagger Vance, and that movie didn’t do well.
"And Will was, as he is now, the biggest star. So it’s like, it’s not Will’s fault.
"And then I did All the Pretty Horses with Billy Bob [Thornton], and that was a whole fraught experience.
"There were different ideas between the studio and between Billy Bob about what the movie should be.
"So it ended up getting cut in a way that wasn’t to Billy’s liking and it didn’t do well. And so I had had these misses.
"There was this stretch where the phone just didn’t ring. The silence was…. It was a real rose-colored lenses coming off."
However, this changed after the release of thriller The Bourne Identity, which was 'a big hit'. Damon continued: "There was this whole period of time where nobody was calling, except for Steven Soderbergh, who called and offered me the movie The Informant! He just paid no attention to what everyone else was saying.
"Nobody else was calling. And then The Bourne Identity came out, and it was a big hit.
"It’s not personal. It’s business. And people can’t really go out of their way to help you.
"It’s really a pretty cold calculus that determines whether or not you’re on the list or off the list. And you never know who’s on the list. And the list can be different for different studios, who they’ll green light a movie with."
Actor will take 'a long time off' after shooting
Coming off the back of the success of The Odyssey, Damon said he 'didn't think he was going to work' this year.
He played the lead role of Odysseus, the Greek king of Ithaca in the hit movie, but was then asked to appear in another film which he said he couldn't turn down.
He is currently filming an untitled sci-fi action-comedy directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert.
"I didn’t think I was going to work," he explained "And then the Daniels called me and they had this project that was so out there, and it was such a Daniels movie and it’s so different from anything I’ve ever been able to do that I couldn’t pass it up. "They’re really good people, and this movie’s like a cosmic love bomb for the world.
"So it felt like the right place to put my energy, but we’re almost done shooting it, and yeah, I’m going to take a long time off."
Topics: Entertainment, Film, Celebrity
James Holt
