With his darkly brilliant turn in The Talented Mr. Ripley, Matt Damon asserts his status as the boldest actor of his generation. So why's he so afraid to enjoy his hard-earned success?
a few excerpts from an interview by Christine Spines for Premiere Magazine (January, 2000):
The phone rings. It's very, very late now, and Damon is slumped in an armchair, giggling into the receiver.
“We got fucked! We got so fucked! It’s just another fucking!” It’s the postgame wrap-up call. The voice on the other end belongs to Ben Affleck, calling from the set of Bounce, a movie he’s making in Los Angeles--with ex-girlfriend Gwyneth Paltrow. The conversation goes on much the same way for about 15 minutes, revisiting the botched call in utter disbelief until Damon signs off in hysterics: “Keep the faith!”
“Ben goes, ‘You know what I realized after I broke the portable color monitor and everybody on set really freaked out and thought I was crazy?’" Damon recounts, almost in awe. “‘We were supposed to lose this game!’“
Damon almost looks vindicated by Affleck’s act-first-think-later response to the game, to life, and to celebrity. While the two have been catapulted to fame in tandem, their responses to the experience couldn’t be more different.
Affleck has been visible, outspoken, and clearly relishing the perks of the job. Damon, however, has been wary and visibly uncomfortable with celebrity’s penetrating glare. For example, while Affleck seemed able to handle his public romance with Paltrow with a certain level of ease, Damon’s relationship with Winona Ryder has been kept tightly under wraps. It’s a topic he’s forbidden himself to even mention: When he lets her name slip in a conversation about a movie (Buffalo 66) that they both liked, he buries his head in the couch pillows, refusing to address the topic further.
But when asked whether he thinks he can ever stop worrying about how he’s perceived, he seems to search for the answer.
“What do you think?” he asks with a hint of fear. Answer: Uh, uh, you make a big effort to be nice to people, and uh, uh, you’re very diplomatic...
He half smiles, like a kid who’s been busted for cheating on his homework. “Why do I feel like you just broke up with me?” Damon says, never comfortable with being exposed, even if he’s asked for it. But unlike the scared, skinless liar he plays in The Talented Mr. Ripley, Damon knows full well that giving the people what they want is only useful up to a point.
“I’m still convinced we have all qualities,” he says, perched on the edge of his coffee table. “I am just as much a cynical bastard as anyone else.”
He almost seems relieved to have said something about himself that hints at the Damon who’s not looking to be all things to all people. His shoulders look a little lighter as he stands on the enormous wraparound porch that surrounds his temporary home.
Maybe he’s ready to finally come out from his hiding place.
Then, a last-minute reconsideration. “Let them believe the golden-boy thing,” he says, retreating back inside. “That way they leave me alone.”
full interview found here
