With already more than 100 projects to his credit (cinema, series, documentaries), Matt Damon – 54 years old, is a very prolific actor. Above all, as we can discover by taking a look at his filmography, the actor has an impressive range of acting since he also alternates dramatic roles (Oppenheimer, Will Hunting) that fun (Ocean’s Eleven, Two in One, Alone on Mars), without forgetting his experiences on the action side (Jason Bourne, Elysium).
A complicated shoot for Matt Damon
And inevitably, with so many projects behind him, Matt Damon has a dizzying number of anecdotes. And among the improbable and memorable stories that have punctuated his career, we find in particular that of his preparation for the cult film We must save Private Ryan. A landmark work in his career, which however was not easy to experience at the time.
In question? While his character, soldier James Francis Ryan, was separated from his comrades, Steven Spielberg (the director) made sure that he was also separated… from his playing partners. Guest of the show Hot OnesMatt Damon confessed that the filmmaker had deliberately excluded him from a training camp with a terrible intention in mind.
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An actor as hated as his character
For those who may not know, Steven Spielberg had in fact organized a very special preparation for the actors of the film who, for 6 days, had to live surrounded by real soldiers, with the same military rules. Horrible weather conditions, simulated attacks, manipulation of firearms, sleep reduced to a minimum… everything had been designed to put them in the atmosphere of the story in order to give credibility to their attitudes on screen.
However, as Matt Damon revealed, he was the only one to escape this infernal preparation, even though he wanted to join the team. The reason? “Spielberg made me escape so that the other actors would blame me“, he declared in comments taken up by Slashfilm. A sadistic manipulation, but again thought for the good of the story: “They all went through this experience together, it united them. But since I was playing the character they were supposed to find and he was hated because of the risks he made them take, Steven deliberately took me away from them to stir up this feeling“.
