Matt Damon interview

EVER SO HUMBLE, MATT DAMON IS REDEFINING WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A STAR.

When you live your dayto-day existence surrounded by a phalanx of agents, assistants, publicists, managers, wardrobe consultants and hangers-on constantly catering to your every whim, and you're unable to shop at the grocery store without being hounded by hordes of paparazzi documenting your every move, it's easy to lose that real-world perspective. Whether the change manifests itself in the form of an inflated sense of self-importance, a retreat to the escape offered by drugs and alcohol or simply the raising of the protective walls required to keep one's private life private, fame inexorably alters a celeb's life… and not always for the better.

When Matt Damon emerged from relative obscurity with his Oscar-winning breakthrough as co-writer and star of 1997's Good Will Hunting, he seemed like the kind of guy you'd hate to see fall prey to the pitfalls of fame. While longtime BFF Ben Affleck already exhibited flashes of the smarmy charm that would come to define him for the next decade, Damon came across as the shy, unassuming Boston boy-next-door, with a broad grin and an aw-shucks demeanor. He seemed like he'd be more comfortable mowing the neighbor's lawn than getting all gussied up for a red carpet premiere, and talking about himself seemed to rank somewhere just above having a root canal on his list of enjoyable activities.

"I found myself getting more publicly shy when the gala events and big crowds started," Damon says. "Some people embrace it, but to me it's not worth enough to risk my private life being public. I'm not being a monk. I live my life. But it's not cost-effective for paparazzi to follow us when they can only get one boring picture of us walking down the street. I feel like I have an unspoken deal: I won't do anything publicly interesting if they agree not to follow me."

Yet, for all his caution with the tabloids, Damon never comes across as excessively guarded and never exhibits any hint that there might be skeletons lurking in his psychological closet. In interviews over the past 12 years, he's proven himself intelligent (he dropped out of Harvard in his senior year to pursue his acting career) and forthright, with a self-deprecating sense of humor.

For some celebrities such humility looks like an affectation they cast aside once the interview is over, but Damon's down-to-earth nature seems genuine. "I feel like somebody's going to show up and say, 'OK, put that down and get the hell out of here! Who let you in here? You know you're not supposed to be in here making movies! Go get a job!'" he says. "I definitely feel like the shoe might drop at any time."

Such sentiments may be explained by the fact that Damon was nearly 28 years old by the time Good Will Hunting and Saving Private Ryan vaulted him onto Hollywood's A-list. But you can trace the deeper roots of his character back to his childhood in Boston. Damon's parents divorced when he was three. He and his older brother Kyle moved to Cambridge with their mother, Nancy, a college professor of early-childhood education. As a result, the boys grew up in a six-family co-op where the do-it-yourself ethos reigned: If something in the house broke, someone would go to the library, find a how-to book and learn to fix it. Of course, everything didn't always end up working perfectly, but it taught Damon not only the value of hard work, but also to appreciate the mastery that comes from years of honing a craft.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Damon admires those who have taken decades to refine the tools of their trade. "The careers that I look to for inspiration are guys like [George] Clooney and Clint Eastwood, who are acting, writing, directing and doing it all on their own terms," he says. "I love everything about making movies. I love writing and acting, and I really want to direct, so I've been taking these last 12 years to carefully study these great directors I've been working with. It's so hard to have a long career in this business, so I just want to be smart about the work that I'm doing and try to have integrity about the choices I make."

Damon's enthusiasm for philanthropy was also instilled at an early age. The actor recounts how he got an allowance of $5 a week, and his mother, who was involved in many charities, inspired him to send money to causes he cared about. In recent years, the father of two (with Argentina-born wife Luciana Barroso) has worked with organizations such as oneXone and Water.org to find clean water for children of Third World nations, and has taken recent trips to Africa, Haiti and India to research his pet cause.

"Look, I'd much rather people were listening to politicians than actors," he says. "But the politicians aren't talking about this, you know? Every 15 seconds a child dies because of a lack of clean water and sanitation. You can read about extreme poverty and possible solutions, but it's really powerful when you meet the people and listen to their stories."

From other celebrities, such earnestness might provoke eye rolling, but with Damon it's a component of his appeal. It's why we rooted for Will Hunting to overcome his rough 'n' tumble roots. It's why we wanted the soldiers to save Private James Francis Ryan. It's why we cheer every time Jason Bourne kills a would-be assassin. And it's a big reason why directors such as Steven Soderbergh (whom he's worked with on five films), Gus Van Sant (three), Francis Ford Coppola (three) and Paul Greengrass (three and counting) line up to work with him again and again. Because, even after 12 years in the glare of the Hollywood spotlight, Damon remains one of the most sincere guys you'll ever meet. Just don't expect him to own up to it.

"I don't hold myself to some higher standard of behavior," he says. "You don't have to do a lot to be seen as nice. I guess some people must be such rampant [jerks] that people are amazed when you say hello. I don't know why people like me, and I don't know if I want to know. That might be the kiss of death. I'd rather people not know a lot about me and just go see the movies."

And there will soon be many more to see. First up is this month's Invictus, director Clint Eastwood's look at the early days of Nelson Mandela's presidency, when he championed South Africa's rugby team's bid to win the 1995 Rugby Union World Cup as a way to unite his apartheid-torn country. The film features Damon as South African Springboks captain Francois Pienaar, who recognized the significance of the competition and ultimately helped Mandela (Morgan Freeman) bring the nation together through the universal language of sport. Given the uplifting nature of the story and Eastwood's exemplary record as a director (three Oscar nominations in the last five years), the film has been picked by quite a few pundits as a possible Oscar favorite.

In March, Damon re-teams with Bourne Ultimatum director Greengrass for Green Zone, a thriller about CIA agents on the hunt for weapons of mass destruction, and a foreign journalist following their mission. He also has The Adjustment Bureau and Eastwood's Hereafter scheduled for later in 2010. But the biggest news is a fourth Jason Bourne project, currently scheduled for a 2011 release.

"It's very hard to make a good sequel," he says when asked about the four years between Bourne films. "But we're really serious about trying to get the script right. The only thing more disappointing than not having another one of these movies would be to make one that isn't good. Everyone would say, 'They should've quit after three,' and we'd feel that way, too."

Holding out for quality rather than making the quick cash-grab has made Damon one of Hollywood's most successful actors. In the last five years alone, his movies have earned 11 Oscar nominations between them and he has appeared in five films that made more than $100 million at the box office. But the 39-year-old actor seems less concerned with popularity than he is with making movies he can be proud of.

"It's still hard to wrap my brain around the idea that I'm a public figure," he says. "It's a byproduct of getting the best material and working with the best people. I want to work as hard as I can, and I don't want to let people down. The best I could do would be to look back and say, 'I don't have any regrets. I tried my best.' I always try my best, and I think that's probably the most valuable thing I've learned."

MATT DAMON ON…

… ROBERT DI NIRO: "Bob was just insistent on absolute naturalism and realism. He's a student of human behavior. It's all details with Bob. I've never seen an actor as famous as him walk into a room and do what he does: He just absolutely disappears and watches everything."

… ANGELINA JOLIE: "There would be 25 to 50 photographers waiting just because she's in the building. That would just eat away at me, but [she and Brad] just leave it behind them. You get so caught up in all this celebrity stuff and you forget that she's an incredible actress. I don't know how she handles that stuff. I definitely couldn't do it."

… MARTIN SCORSESE: "It was like the dream of all dreams. 'Hey, did you hear Martin Scorsese is directing a movie about Boston?' For me, that was it. [The Departed] was a really easy yes for me."

… BEN AFFLECK: "We can do a movie that we act in, or I act in and he directs, or we co-direct, or we co-write and co-direct. We both put our heads down and worked pretty hard in this last 10 years, so hopefully the next 10 years will be about doing better work and doing more together."