Matt Damon
Spotlight By: Andrea Tuccillo
Click here for another interview with Matt Damon! It's no secret that this has been a good year for Matt Damon. He has worked along side Martin Scorsese in the Golden Globe nominated The Departed, and he also had the chance to work with Robert De Niro in De Niro's second directional venture, The Good Shepherd. Not to mention he welcomed his first child, a daughter named Isabella, just six months ago. Damon's good fortune is on public display, but his character in The Good Shepherd is guarded with secrets. Such is life when you're a CIA operative.
In the film, which co-stars Angelina Jolie and De Niro, Damon plays Edward Wilson, an honorable young man who gets recruited into the newly founded Central Intelligence Agency during the Cold War. The work takes its toll on Wilson as well as his relationships with everyone around him, as distrust and suspicion begin to overtake his life. The stoic character required something different of Damon: a subdued, mostly emotionless performance. Wilson rarely cracks a smile. Damon cites De Niro's directorial skills for guiding him through it.
'It would have been harder with a different director, but because it was Bob I just trusted that it was the right way to go,' he says. 'He was very specific about that. I mean, for one the guy's in counter-intelligence'he's not going to tell you how he feels. And I think the other thing is that we've become used to, as audiences, seeing these performances that are really indicated and over the top and if you really look at human behavior people just don't do things the way you see them in movies.'
Damon received a call from De Niro seemingly out of the blue asking him to take on the part, and he quickly jumped at the chance. The Good Shepherd had languished unmade for about eight years, with various other actors attached, before it finally all came together. Damon was honored to work with the legendary DeNiro and he credits his director for having a unique filming style that's based on repetition and attention to detail. 'One thing he does that is different from most people is, usually when a magazine of film is loaded it's eleven minutes and you do action and you do cut, but once [De Niro] says action he never cuts the camera,' explains Damon.
This allows for a relaxed environment for the actors. They are able to go over a scene multiple times without having to break character.
After The Departed wrapped filming, Damon literally began working on The Good Shepherd a few days later. Filming both movies so close together enabled him to gain some insight into the similarities between Scorsese and De Niro and what makes them both great.
'It's impossible not to draw parallels between them,' Damon says. 'They both really have a good understanding of human behavior. That's why Bob is responsible for so many great performances and why a lot of those great performances are in Marty's movies. They both really know when something's real and when its not. They've kind of made their careers on that.'
Being around such admirable directors has Damon itching to get behind the camera as well. So far he has the titles of screenwriter and actor, and he feels that adding director to that list would be a natural progression. But for now he's content with playing new parts which for him, is always a learning experience.
'It's like golf; you can never perfect it,' he says. 'Every role is different. Every day on a film set is different because the set of challenges are different. Whatever shot you're trying to get is different, the location's different. It's just always a kind of different problem to solve and that's what's fun about it.'
One new challenge Damon is currently undertaking is fatherhood. And just because he's famous that doesn't mean he can shirk his fatherly responsibilities.
'There's no way you can explain to a newborn, 'I'm a Hollywood actor. You don't need your bottle right now I'm going to sleep!'' says Damon. 'No, the rules are the same for everybody. And I like it, I like the shared responsibility. It's better for me and my wife that we both do the stuff. We have a system.'
Next up for Damon is the third installment to the Bourne trilogy, The Bourne Ultimatum, due out sometime next year. But for now, the spy movie most on his mind is the more historically accurate, and currently relevant, The Good Shepherd.
'At a time when our democracy is being threatened by secrecy,' says Damon. 'I think it's good to have a movie out there that asks some of those questions about power unchecked and those secrets.'
