Recently Matt Damon has been working with such veteran actors as Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro and William Hurt. I wonder is Damon has any concept that in 20 years he will become one of these veteran actors who beats the percentages and does more good films than bad. His stellar work over the years has proved that and he even makes good popcorn flicks such as The Bourne franchise and Oceans 11.
His latest role in Syriana is his most mature performance to date. He plays Bryan Woodman an energy analyst at an energy trading company, living in Geneva with his wife and two children. After a tragedy happens within his family he uses that as leverage to make a deal with a Middle Eastern Prince.
Syriana opens wide December 9th
Daniel Robert Epstein: So is this your first role where you have a real family with a wife and kids?
Matt Damon: Yeah, I think so.
DRE: Not only is it your first time with a family movie but something horrible happens.
MD: That part is such a visceral thing too. I think it makes my story the easiest to connect to emotionally. The stories are all very different, but mine has kind of the biggest punch upfront, whereas some of them build a lot more over the course of the film. With anything happening to children you get that City of God feeling where it is hard to watch.
DRE: Did you approach the role feeling that this is the character the audience would relate the most to?
MD: It didnt really affect how I was playing it, but I did think about it. My storyline is probably the simplest to follow on an emotional line. The movie needs that to feel more balanced.
DRE: What drew to your character?
MD: I read the script and I really loved it. It was so smart and it wasnt reductive about any of the characters. It painted what I thought was a fairly accurate picture about a real pertinent issue. No one walks away clean and that is very atypical for a Hollywood movie.
DRE: Can you discuss the need for this type of adult-oriented intelligent movie?
MD: I really think its about not playing to the lowest common denominator. I think its better if you can elevate the discourse a little bit and I think this movie definitely tries to do that. You only have two hours to tell a story so I think the tendency as an actor or director is to make sure no one is confused but life isnt like that.
DRE: Your character is complicated because hes fiercely ambitious and he takes an action which some of us may find morally compromising.
MD: Yeah and I like that. Its not something to judge and with any of these characters you cant go hes good or hes bad. Two of the heroes of the movie end up blowing themselves up. Its a real attempt to look at something and try and understand it rather than judge or tell the audience that this is the good guy in the white hat.
DRE: Does your character want to help the son of the Emir as a way of shutting down his pain?
MD: My take on it is that he does have ideas that are valid and he does believe that this guy should do business with him. Hes in a place where hes nihilistic enough to suggest some kind of pretty radical things. Prince Nasir is idealistic enough and Brians nihilistic enough that they feed off each other.
DRE: Did you do a lot of research for this role?
MD: I did. [Director Stephen] Gaghan sent me a bunch of books. So I read those and then he sent a bunch of other books. Some of them I read and some of them I didnt have time to read. I only had a couple months to get ready because I was doing Oceans 12 at the time which is the other way I got involved. George had signed to do it and he and Steven Soderbergh threw their support by Gaghan. They said I should have a conversation with Gaghan because Im very director oriented when I choose a movie. That was what convinced me to do it because he really has something to say and hes a really smart guy.
DRE: Did you talk to traders?
MD: Yeah, there were a couple guys there. To be fair, economics and math are not my strong suits. Im a writer, man [laughs]. I tried but its excruciatingly complicated what these guys do. I could not explain it to you. I can give you the peanut butter and jelly version which was enough to play the guy and know what it was he was doing but I couldnt give a lecture on what this guy does.
DRE: Your character uses something personal to him to set up a business deal. It reminds of the way that Harvey Weinstein used your relationship with Ben Affleck back in 1997 to get the word out on Good Will Hunting.
MD: Any business, no matter what youre doing for work, has that cloudy crossover between your personal life and your work life. Harvey was always the master of that because he could get you to do a movie based on your friendships and then he could get you to do the movie for free. Good businessmen tend to know the names of children and wives and husbands.
DRE: What are your thoughts on the CIA?
MD: I think there are different types of people within the CIA, so you cant really cast a net over them. By and large, youre talking about a group of really patriotic people, whose job is to further the interests of their country. CIA guys are basically paid to break the laws of other countries, so foreigners probably really dont like them because theyre in their countries rooting around and breaking the laws.
The way I grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the CIA were the demons, but I think its much more complicated than that. Like a lot of the paranoid thrillers of the 70s people were coming off realizations about the CIAs involvement all over the world. In places like Guatemala, Iran and in Bay of Pigs. I think the movies created a notion of the CIA that is not necessarily accurate, which was that it was this giant spy organization that was everywhere and that knew what you were thinking. Thats obviously been proven totally untrue, given that they cant catch a 65 guy named Osama Bin Laden and theyve been trying as hard as they can for years.
DRE: Does having a relationship with an Argentinean girl [Luciana Barroso] widen your view of the world?
MD: Yeah definitely and also working around the world does. Ive been in so many countries which makes the world feel a lot smaller.
DRE: Can you talk about your work on Martin Scorseses The Departed?
MD: Yeah but I havent seen any cut of it yet. Scorsese is going to cut it for another six months, I think but the shoot went really well and Im anxious to see what it is. I went right from that into The Good Shepard which is with [Robert] De Niro, which coincidentally is all about the birth of the intelligence service in America.
DRE: Was the horror movie Project Greenlight the last one?
MD: Probably, it doesnt look good. Right now, it doesnt even look like theyre releasing Feast because they said they were going to release it over Christmas but I dont think thats happening. Its a good film and it has the best chance of making its money back of any Greenlight movie, which isnt saying a lot.
DRE: Have you ever thought of taking time off from acting to do more writing?
MD: Yeah, but Ben and I wrote [Good Will Hunting] in order to get work as actors and thats happened. Its been great but it has kept us from writing. Although Ben has just adapted Gone Baby Gone from the Dennis Lehane novel. Hes going to direct it next year as well. But Ive just been running around working.
DRE: What did you think of your puppet appearance in Team America: World Police?
MD: I havent talked to those guys [Matt Stone and Trey Parker] since then, not because of that, but because I dont regularly talk to them. I used to see them when I was out in LA and I really like them a lot. I went and saw the movie and I thought it was really funny.
DRE: Tim Robbins refuses to see the movie.
MD: Really? I think its all in good fun. I read in an interview with them that when my puppet showed up, it looked retarded, so they just decided to play me that way. So the only thing I ever say is [in retarded puppet voice] Matt Damon.
DRE: Did you find that funny?
MD: Yeah, its silly but it isnt offensive. If it was some other actor, I probably would be laughing too.
DRE: My wife goes around singing Scottie Doesn't Know [from Eurotrip] all the time.
MD: I hear that a lot! Its got a cult following. The guys that are in the band that sing Scottie Doesn't Know with me were my roommates in college.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
His latest role in Syriana is his most mature performance to date. He plays Bryan Woodman an energy analyst at an energy trading company, living in Geneva with his wife and two children. After a tragedy happens within his family he uses that as leverage to make a deal with a Middle Eastern Prince.
Syriana opens wide December 9th
Daniel Robert Epstein: So is this your first role where you have a real family with a wife and kids?
Matt Damon: Yeah, I think so.
DRE: Not only is it your first time with a family movie but something horrible happens.
MD: That part is such a visceral thing too. I think it makes my story the easiest to connect to emotionally. The stories are all very different, but mine has kind of the biggest punch upfront, whereas some of them build a lot more over the course of the film. With anything happening to children you get that City of God feeling where it is hard to watch.
DRE: Did you approach the role feeling that this is the character the audience would relate the most to?
MD: It didnt really affect how I was playing it, but I did think about it. My storyline is probably the simplest to follow on an emotional line. The movie needs that to feel more balanced.
DRE: What drew to your character?
MD: I read the script and I really loved it. It was so smart and it wasnt reductive about any of the characters. It painted what I thought was a fairly accurate picture about a real pertinent issue. No one walks away clean and that is very atypical for a Hollywood movie.
DRE: Can you discuss the need for this type of adult-oriented intelligent movie?
MD: I really think its about not playing to the lowest common denominator. I think its better if you can elevate the discourse a little bit and I think this movie definitely tries to do that. You only have two hours to tell a story so I think the tendency as an actor or director is to make sure no one is confused but life isnt like that.
DRE: Your character is complicated because hes fiercely ambitious and he takes an action which some of us may find morally compromising.
MD: Yeah and I like that. Its not something to judge and with any of these characters you cant go hes good or hes bad. Two of the heroes of the movie end up blowing themselves up. Its a real attempt to look at something and try and understand it rather than judge or tell the audience that this is the good guy in the white hat.
DRE: Does your character want to help the son of the Emir as a way of shutting down his pain?
MD: My take on it is that he does have ideas that are valid and he does believe that this guy should do business with him. Hes in a place where hes nihilistic enough to suggest some kind of pretty radical things. Prince Nasir is idealistic enough and Brians nihilistic enough that they feed off each other.
DRE: Did you do a lot of research for this role?
MD: I did. [Director Stephen] Gaghan sent me a bunch of books. So I read those and then he sent a bunch of other books. Some of them I read and some of them I didnt have time to read. I only had a couple months to get ready because I was doing Oceans 12 at the time which is the other way I got involved. George had signed to do it and he and Steven Soderbergh threw their support by Gaghan. They said I should have a conversation with Gaghan because Im very director oriented when I choose a movie. That was what convinced me to do it because he really has something to say and hes a really smart guy.
DRE: Did you talk to traders?
MD: Yeah, there were a couple guys there. To be fair, economics and math are not my strong suits. Im a writer, man [laughs]. I tried but its excruciatingly complicated what these guys do. I could not explain it to you. I can give you the peanut butter and jelly version which was enough to play the guy and know what it was he was doing but I couldnt give a lecture on what this guy does.
DRE: Your character uses something personal to him to set up a business deal. It reminds of the way that Harvey Weinstein used your relationship with Ben Affleck back in 1997 to get the word out on Good Will Hunting.
MD: Any business, no matter what youre doing for work, has that cloudy crossover between your personal life and your work life. Harvey was always the master of that because he could get you to do a movie based on your friendships and then he could get you to do the movie for free. Good businessmen tend to know the names of children and wives and husbands.
DRE: What are your thoughts on the CIA?
MD: I think there are different types of people within the CIA, so you cant really cast a net over them. By and large, youre talking about a group of really patriotic people, whose job is to further the interests of their country. CIA guys are basically paid to break the laws of other countries, so foreigners probably really dont like them because theyre in their countries rooting around and breaking the laws.
The way I grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the CIA were the demons, but I think its much more complicated than that. Like a lot of the paranoid thrillers of the 70s people were coming off realizations about the CIAs involvement all over the world. In places like Guatemala, Iran and in Bay of Pigs. I think the movies created a notion of the CIA that is not necessarily accurate, which was that it was this giant spy organization that was everywhere and that knew what you were thinking. Thats obviously been proven totally untrue, given that they cant catch a 65 guy named Osama Bin Laden and theyve been trying as hard as they can for years.
DRE: Does having a relationship with an Argentinean girl [Luciana Barroso] widen your view of the world?
MD: Yeah definitely and also working around the world does. Ive been in so many countries which makes the world feel a lot smaller.
DRE: Can you talk about your work on Martin Scorseses The Departed?
MD: Yeah but I havent seen any cut of it yet. Scorsese is going to cut it for another six months, I think but the shoot went really well and Im anxious to see what it is. I went right from that into The Good Shepard which is with [Robert] De Niro, which coincidentally is all about the birth of the intelligence service in America.
DRE: Was the horror movie Project Greenlight the last one?
MD: Probably, it doesnt look good. Right now, it doesnt even look like theyre releasing Feast because they said they were going to release it over Christmas but I dont think thats happening. Its a good film and it has the best chance of making its money back of any Greenlight movie, which isnt saying a lot.
DRE: Have you ever thought of taking time off from acting to do more writing?
MD: Yeah, but Ben and I wrote [Good Will Hunting] in order to get work as actors and thats happened. Its been great but it has kept us from writing. Although Ben has just adapted Gone Baby Gone from the Dennis Lehane novel. Hes going to direct it next year as well. But Ive just been running around working.
DRE: What did you think of your puppet appearance in Team America: World Police?
MD: I havent talked to those guys [Matt Stone and Trey Parker] since then, not because of that, but because I dont regularly talk to them. I used to see them when I was out in LA and I really like them a lot. I went and saw the movie and I thought it was really funny.
DRE: Tim Robbins refuses to see the movie.
MD: Really? I think its all in good fun. I read in an interview with them that when my puppet showed up, it looked retarded, so they just decided to play me that way. So the only thing I ever say is [in retarded puppet voice] Matt Damon.
DRE: Did you find that funny?
MD: Yeah, its silly but it isnt offensive. If it was some other actor, I probably would be laughing too.
DRE: My wife goes around singing Scottie Doesn't Know [from Eurotrip] all the time.
MD: I hear that a lot! Its got a cult following. The guys that are in the band that sing Scottie Doesn't Know with me were my roommates in college.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 13 of 13 COMMENTS
darthvader said:
Dammit, I was going to do that!
Oh well, at least someone did. ^_^