Matt Damon has been entertaining audiences with his versatile acting for decades. The actor, however, revealed that being in the spotlight has caused him much more than he expected. During an interview, the actor opened up about the “ruthless” nature of Hollywood and how it has affected his job as a father.
In an interview with GQ magazine, The Odyssey star got candid about the constant uncertainty of the entertainment industry and explained the sacrifices he had to make in his personal life, especially as a father of four girls.
Talking about balancing both his work and family, Damon shared, “There’s less of that kind of young person’s engine of needing to prove something and more about, like, accepting work and doing it on your terms and doing it as precisely and as well as you can. I think about it a lot, especially as my kids are getting older: really trying to be here now, and it’s hard for me to do that.”
He continued, “I think maybe that has to do with my own nature. It also has to do with this career where you’re always trying to figure out what’s ahead, because it’s such an uncertain business and a pretty ruthless one. Those kinds of things have conspired to, I think, maybe take me out of where I am more than I’d like.”
Damon was only 18 years old when he received his debut role in Hollywood. It was a one-line dialogue in the 1980s film Mystic Pizza. Later, his breakthrough role came in 1997 when he played the role of Will Hunting in Good Will Hunting alongside Ben Affleck.
Remembering his first break, Damon shared, “I don’t think either of us stopped for years,” referring to himself and Affleck. “I mean, I think I worked five straight years, literally out of these two duffel bags that I had. And I travelled everywhere and just literally would go from set to set. And I loved it. It was great. I loved what I was doing. I didn’t want to stop. There’s that insecurity of actors of like, the phone’s going to stop ringing.”
He further revealed that fatherhood has made his job “easier” in a lot of ways. Previously, during an interview on Fatherly, the actor shared, “All those emotions that I used to have to reach for are just readily accessible. I don’t have to twist myself into knots to find something; it’s just sitting right there all the time.”
During the GQ interview, the actor revealed that he has significantly slowed down chasing roles over the past decade as he likes to spend more time with his family and daughters. Damon is a dad to Isabella, 19, Gia, 17, and Stella, 15, as well as Alexia, 26, from his wife Luciana’s first marriage. Up next, Damon will be seen playing the role of Odysseus in Christopher Nolan’s highly anticipated film The Odyssey.
