Interview with Matt Damon (Green Zone)

By Alexandra Heilbron on March 4, 2010 | Leave a Comment

Tribute.ca: You never cease to amaze me my friend. My good, you were so good in this film!

Matt Damon: Thank you very much, I appreciate it.

Tribute.ca: Having the experience with working with real soldiers by your side for this entire picture. How was it?

Matt Damon:  That is why I am good in this movie! Seriously! This is like having 30 technical advisors next to me the whole time for every single thing. Any time I take a job I’m always thinking I want the people who are the experts in that field to believe me. If I can do that, I have really done my job. So with this one, can I play a believable soldier in 2010, well 2003? I really leaned on those veterans. I henpecked those guys with questions and listened to them very carefully and watched them. It just completely helped me to playing this role.

Tribute.ca: You were truly fearless. I talked to Paul about it. You pushed the limits with the stunts. Do you ever get nervous? Does your wife one morning go “Hold it back?”

Matt Damon:  Anything that is every really dangerous they never let actors do it because we cannot get insured for it. The reality is that there are always great, not even good,  great stuntmen lurking around a Paul Greengrass set. So if something really serious needs to get done they step in and do it.  I am like every other actor that I know. We try to do everything we can because audiences are so smart today: They know if you do the Texas switch and suddenly there’s a stuntman in there. The more of it (the stunts) we can do, the more the performance feels like ours.

Tribute.ca: What is it with you and Paul (Greengrass)? You must have your own hidden language, the two of you together. Why does it work so well?

Matt Damon: Well, Paul has made a bunch of great movies without me. (laughs)  He’s just a great director. We have a great thing going. We love working together. I think we have similar instincts about making movies.  There are few directors, you know Steven Soderbergh, Gus Van Sant, Clint Eastwood, people I’ve worked with a few times: I just show up whenever they ask me because it is just a really pleasurable experience and I always feel like creatively all my needs are met. And then, the icing on the cake is that I actually like the movies.

Tribute.ca: Like I said this year it’s been quite the Matt Damon year! And way more to come. I just want to congratulate you on the Oscar nomination. And best of luck to you. Just have a really good time next weekend (at the Oscars).

Matt Damon: I will. We will have a blast (at the Oscars). Thanks a lot.

Tribute.ca: Have a good one.

Matt Damon:  You too.

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