After decades in the spotlight, Matt Damon has opened up about how the “ruthless” nature of Hollywood has affected his most important job yet: fatherhood.
In an interview with GQ, Damon, who plays Odysseus, King of Ithaca in Christopher Nolan’s highly anticipated film The Odyssey, spoke candidly about the constant uncertainty in the entertainment industry and explained the sacrifices that come with being a father to four daughters.
“For younger people, there’s less of a drive like having to prove something, and accepting a job and doing it exactly and as accurately as possible on your terms. I think about that a lot, especially now that my kids are older. I’m really trying to be here now,” said Damon, father of 19-year-old Isabella, 17-year-old Gia, 15-year-old Stella, and 26-year-old Alexia, from his wife. Luciana’s first marriage. “And it’s hard for me to do that.”
“I think it probably has something to do with my own nature,” he added. “It also has to do with this career, where you’re always trying to figure out what’s ahead, because this business is very uncertain and it’s a very ruthless business. I think those things conspired to probably take me from where I am now more than I would have liked.”
Damon’s first role in Hollywood was at the age of 18, with a single line of dialogue in the 1980s film Mystic Pizza. His breakthrough role was as Will Hunting in 1997’s Good Will Hunting, co-starring Ben Affleck.
“I don’t think either of us stopped for years,” Damon told GQ of himself and Affleck after the release of “Good Will Hunting.” “I mean, I literally worked out of two duffel bags that I had, I think, for five years in a row. And I traveled everywhere and literally went from set to set. And I loved it. It was amazing. I loved what I was doing. I didn’t want to quit. Actors have the same kind of anxiety as the phone going off.”
“There’s a list of things you’ve heard of but never know about,” Damon said. “I mean, if your phone rings a lot, you know if you’re on or not, but you’re not… There’s no official list, but one studio might get a movie greenlit, but another studio might not greenlight it. I’m very aware of that. I’m always conscious of that.”
But in part, this job has helped him adapt to being a father.
“I feel like being a father has made my job a lot easier in a lot of ways,” Damon told Fatherly in 2021. “All the emotions that you used to have to get to are now available to you. You don’t have to twist around to find something. It’s just sitting there all the time.”
Damon said he has slowed down significantly over the past decade when it comes to pursuing roles, as he focused on staying home with his family as well as working within Artists Equity, the production company he founded with Affleck.
“My youngest is a freshman, but I’ve been through this a few times and I know how quickly the year goes by,” he told GQ.
But when the opportunity came to play his latest role in The Odyssey, he was hooked.
“I’m a little perplexed,” he told GQ. “This was a really strange movie for me personally, considering where the movie business is going. The whole time I was making this movie, I was feeling nostalgic because it felt like the movies from when I started, and I know that’s going away. I knew it was the last chance I had to do something like this.”
Damon has had to navigate the pros and cons of work-life balance as a father, but at the end of the day, he knows that life moves fast.
“Your kids show up. It’s like the soul is there and it does what it’s going to do,” he said during an appearance on Travis and Jason Kelsey’s “New Heights” podcast. “The nurturing part is very important. You help them with that, but they quickly become their true selves.”
As for his parental advice?
“Don’t blink,” he told Brother Kelce.
