Mr. Congeniality
MATT DAMON PROVES THAT SOMETIMES NICE GUYS FINISH FIRST
by Bret Love
It has become something of a cliché to suggest that fame changes people, but if you spend enough time around celebrities you’ll begin to understand the root of the stereotype.
When you live your day-to-day existence surrounded by a phalanx of agents, personal assistants, publicists, managers, wardrobe consultants, hairstylists and hangers-on constantly catering to your every whim, yet unable to shop at the grocery store or go out on a date without being hounded by hordes of paparazzi documenting your every move, it’s easy to lose the real world perspective that tends to keep us “little people” grounded. Whether the change manifests itself in the form of an over-inflated sense of self-importance, a retreat to the reality escape offered by drugs and alcohol, or simply the raising of the self-protective walls required to keep one’s private life private, fame seems to inexorably alter a celeb’s life… and not always for the better.
When Matt Damon emerged from relative obscurity with his Oscar-winning breakthrough as co-writer and star of 1997’s Good Will Hunting, he seemed like the kind of guy you hate to see falling prey to the Hollywood hype machine. While longtime BFF Ben Affleck already exhibited flashes of the smarmy charm that would come to define him for the next decade, Damon came across as the shy, unassuming Boston boy next door, with a broad grin and an aw-shucks demeanor that said loud and clear, “I’m just happy to be here.” He seemed like the kind of guy who’d be more comfortable mowing the neighbor’s lawn than getting all gussied up for a red carpet premiere, and talking about himself seemed to rank somewhere just above having a root canal on his list of enjoyable activities.
“I found myself getting more publicly shy when the gala events and big crowds started,” he acknowledges during an interview at the Toronto Film Festival. “Some people embrace it, but to me it's not worth enough to risk my private life being public. I'm not being a monk. I live my life. But it's not cost-effective for paparazzi to follow us when they can only get one boring picture of us walking down the street. I feel like I have an unspoken deal: I won't do anything publicly interesting if they agree not to follow me.”
Yet for all his caution with the tabloids, Damon never comes across as excessively guarded with the media, never takes anything resembling a movie star attitude, never exhibits any hint that there might be secret skeletons lurking in his psychological closet. In interviews over the past 12 years, he’s proven himself remarkably intelligent (he dropped out of Harvard in his senior year to pursue his acting career), with a self-deprecating sense of humor that makes it clear he still can’t believe his good fortune.
Whereas with other celebrities such humility often seems like an affectation they’ll cast aside as soon as they leave the room, Damon’s down-to-earth nature seems genuine. “There is an element that I have,” he confesses, “where I feel like somebody’s going to show up and say, ‘OK, put that down and get the hell out of here! Who let you in here? You know you’re not supposed to be in here making movies! Go get a job!’ I definitely feel like the shoe might drop at any time.”
That grounded nature could be partly explained by the fact that Damon was nearly 28 years old by the time Good Will Hunting and Saving Private Ryan vaulted him onto Hollywood’s A-list. But you can trace the deeper roots of his character back to his childhood in Boston. Damon’s parents divorced when he was three, with Matt and older brother Kyle moving to Cambridge with their mother Nancy, an early childhood education college professor. As a result, the boys grew up in a six-family co-op where the Do-It-Yourself ethos reigned: If something in the house was broken, someone would go to the library, find a how-to book and learn to fix it themselves. Of course, not everything ended up working perfectly, but it taught Damon both the value of hard work and to appreciate the mastery that comes from years of honing a craft.
“The careers that I look to for inspiration,” he muses, “are guys like Clooney and Clint Eastwood, who are acting, writing, directing, and doing it all on their own terms. I love everything about making movies. I love writing and acting and I really want to direct, so I've been taking these last 12 years to carefully study these great directors I've been working with. It's so hard to have a long career in this business, so I just want to be smart about the work that I'm doing and try to have integrity about the choices I make.”
But old-fashioned work ethic wasn’t the only impressive quality Nancy imparted upon her sons. The actor recounts how his mother inspired him to give to charity as a child, sending money every month to causes he cared about. That desire to give back has remained with him, as the father of two (with Argentina-born wife Luciana Barroso) has worked with organizations such as oneXone and Water.org to find clean water for children of Third World nations. Other celebs wear such sociopolitical issues on their sleeves, but Damon has remained relatively low-key in publicizing his efforts. Yet his personal passion for the cause is palpable, and recent trips to Africa, Haiti and India have only strengthened his resolve to make a difference.
“Look, I’d much rather people were listening to politicians about this than actors,” he confesses with what almost seems like an air of embarrassment. “But the politicians aren't talking about this, you know? Every 15 seconds a child dies because of a lack of clean water and sanitation. You can read about extreme poverty and possible solutions, but it's really powerful when you meet the people and listen to their stories.”
From other celebrities such Dudley Do-Right earnestness might provoke eye-rolling, but with Damon it’s an essential component of his core appeal. It’s why we rooted for Will Hunting to overcome his rough ‘n’ tumble roots. It’s why we wanted the soldiers to save Private James Francis Ryan. It’s why we cheer every time Jason Bourne kills a would-be assassin. And it’s a big reason why directors such as Steven Soderbergh (whom he’s worked with on five films), Gus Van Sant (two), Francis Ford Coppola (three) and Paul Greengrass (three, and counting) line up to work with him again and again. Because, even after 12 years in the harsh glare of the Hollywood spotlight, Matthew Paige Damon remains one of the nicest, most sincere, hard-working guys you’ll ever meet. Just don’t expect him to own up to it.
“I don't hold myself to some higher standard of behavior,” he insists with a grin. “You don't have to do a lot to be seen as nice. I guess some people must be such rampant [jerks] that people are amazed when you say hello! I don't know why people like me, and I don't know if I want to know. That might be the kiss of death. I'd rather people not know a lot about me and just go see the movies.”
Fortunately, lately there have been more Matt Damon movies to see. First up was the Oscar-nominated Invictus, director Clint Eastwood’s look at the early days of Nelson Mandela’s presidency, when he championed South Africa’s rugby team’s bid to win the 1995 Rugby Union World Cup as a way to unite his apartheid-torn country. The film features Damon as South African Springboks captain Francois Pienaar, who helped Mandela (Morgan Freeman) bring the nation together through the universal language of sport.
This month, Damon re-teams with Bourne Ultimatum director Greengrass for Green Zone, a thriller about CIA agents on the hunt for Weapons of Mass Destruction and a foreign journalist following their mission. He also has The Adjustment Bureau and Eastwood’s Hereafter scheduled for release in 2010. But the big news at the Toronto Film Festival was Damon’s revelation that he and Greengrass were planning a fourth Jason Bourne project, currently scheduled for a 2011 release.
“It’s very hard to make a good sequel,” he says when asked about the four years between Bourne films. “But we’re really serious about trying to get the script right, because the only thing more disappointing than not having another one of these movies would be to make one that isn’t good. Everyone would say, ‘They should’ve quit after three,’ and we’d feel that way too.”
There’s that pesky integrity again, making him hold out for quality rather than making the quick cash-grab that has characterized Hollywood for decades. He may only be 39 years old, but Matt Damon ultimately comes across like a movie star from another era, less concerned with fame or fortune than he is with making sure he only puts his name on products he can be proud of. He’s the least celebrity-like star you’ll ever meet, perhaps because he doesn’t think of himself in those terms.
"It's still hard to wrap my brain around the idea that I'm a public figure,” he admits. “It's a by-product of the other thing, which is getting the best material and working with the best people. I want to work as hard as I can, and I don't want to let people down. The best I could do would be to look back and say, ‘I don't have any regrets. I tried my best.’ I always try my best, and I think that's probably the most valuable thing I've learned.”
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