Matt Damon

It is a superstar. And that star is Matt Damon. Matt Damon is joining us. Boston's own so good at so many things, such a professional. And in the peak of his career in a huge movie. And we're going to talk about a lot of things today. We're going to talk about long lasting professional relationships and how important they are. We're going to talk about hating pranks. But loving a little bit of reality TV. We're going to talk about shooting in caves and working with giant puppets. And we're going to talk about the Odyssey,

the the new film that is out, the giant new film by Christopher Nolan that he is the star of he plays Odysseus. He's on the journey babe. But before we, we get to talking to Matt, we are going to talk to somebody who knows our guests who wants to speak well behind their back and give me a question to ask them. And we have a great get. We've got a little indie filmmaker named Christopher Nolan. He is on the rise. Keep an eye out for this kid. He's doing great work.

And Chris Nolan is joining us. And we are very, very excited to talk to him. And let's see if we can, we can get him on the zoom.

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I am. Do anything without tea. I also am an excessive tea drinker. What's your brand? Belgrade. Oh, I see. I enjoy a black tea who makes your Earl Grey. Twynings. I see. Have you heard of berries tea? Yeah. But you don't like?

I would say that I would never accept the Irish contingent. But every country, every nation has their own

particular blend. Twynings works for me. Well, thanks for talking today. I'm very, very excited to talk to Matt. Um, congratulations on another incredible film. Thank you. How do you compete with the imagination of people who have read and studied the Odyssey? I mean, it's like you're competing with the idea of the Odyssey in a way. I mean, you can't. And I learned this, you know, we all learn the things that work on the dark and my trilogy. Like you, you couldn't compete with people's

idea of that amazing character and the, at the time, 75 years of history behind it. There's a 3000 years of people. Imagine it. It's worth it. You see, you can't compete with it. What we realize, addressing character of Batman, and I brought that very much to the, the Odyssey is

“you have to trust that what people want from you is you're most sincere attempt to do”

justice to the material, to do it with this seriousness and with an appreciation of the original text, but it has to be your own interpretation. Certainly I, as a film girl, respond to that and other people. If I go see a movie and I realize that people have loved this and have really tried to give you an experience and try to put something across in the way that they really believe it's great. I think I think people cut you a lot of slack for that because yes, you cannot compete

with people's own imaginings when they read it text. If we are to care, that Odysseus makes it home, we need to care about the person trying to make it home. We need to just feel like they even care about home. And there's something about Matt, as just an actor,

“I think that's innate in him and able to express that. What made you cast him in this film?”

Well, you know, I go into nine or ten other people, but I don't want to go that anymore.

Now, the truth is, I actually don't think about actors when I'm writing. I try not to

try to really just just live through the characters in the writing process and then come out of the other side and go, "Okay, how is this going to work? Who are we getting for this?" And Matt really immediately popped into my head because you're looking for this what you're talking about, they're kind of empathetic ability to draw the audience into a

can project an iconic, frankly superhero presence. I mean, he's, you know, he's the guy from

the Martian or we bought a zoo and then a goodwill hunting and then he's Jason Born. And to be able to do such disparate things and sort of fuse them into a character, it was exactly what I needed. It also worked with Matt twice before, and I knew that the way we wanted to take the son and that was really important to us in making the Odyssey was to try and get out there and find a way to bring the audience with us, put the audience on the deck of his shit and

climb mountains and go into the psychops cave with him. So, you know, I needed a partner. I needed somebody who would leave from the front and just dive in and do all those crazy stuff without complaining about it. And he's just, he's such a wonderful place in his life of career. He really

“appreciates what he gets to do. He understands how good he is at it. I think, you know, in a really”

comfortable way and a really great way. And he just leads from the front. He gets everybody inspired with him. And I think without that, you know, we would have crashed in Born horror, but he sent from from a practical point of view. You can't have an Odysseus complaining that it's cold or it's late or, and I mean, you put him through the ringer. Put him through the ringer and what's fun about working with Matt is, you know, he's a great writer himself. You can have

really, really specific and detailed conversations about script, about how we're going about things. But he also doesn't, he doesn't talk for the sake of it. You know, he doesn't want to just use his son and what he hears. I don't know ideas about the character. He still doesn't go as often figures out who he is. And then bring us out to the floor, which is, yeah, really fun to do it.

“Well, he has to go rest because he has to work out a thousand, do like five thousand”

sit-ups a day because you're insisting on making this. Let's face it, middle-aged man. Yeah, he isn't exactly the right place in his, his time of life and everything to do it.

And I actually had a, I had a, I don't remember whether Matt is first wardrobe fitting was

would be fitting all of the supporting cast, all the guys who play his crew and some young directors and everything. And they all come in and they've all got tattoos, which is a nightmare for a period film. It means hours and shakers. You have to cover all that up and then put the costume on and then ring in a window near a cost you will rub it away at then. And I, you know, I thought, okay, we're here's Matt, you know, he takes a shot of the fitting and he's got a

fucking tattoo. And I was like, you know, you as well, like what? And it was, you know, a very small, tasteful tattoo, you know, neighbors, children and all that. You know, he said to me, well, he thought it would be perfectly honest. I thought my bare bicep days were over.

“I said, okay, fair enough. The truth is, I think they're just beginning, but, you know,”

yeah, little extra time in the chair. Do you have to physically train to get ready for a film too? I mean, it is exhausting to be directing you like, do you do, do you physically train when you're getting ready to go on set? No, I don't. But, you know, it's actually kind of a natural process, but because what happens before you shoot the film on a film like this is you start jumping on planes and getting in vans and driving on a business and you go off to scounder find these places.

And I do that with my design and just the two of us, we go off and gradually we add people to that group and we make multiple trips, but we cover thousands of miles down, we're just constantly climbing up hills and you know, that and the first couple trips are bad, you know, I'm like, well, you're not up to this, like how we can walk around. And you're doing that thing where you're like, "I know it's beautiful, but maybe that maybe you're doing this." This is something a little

good clip said to them. Yeah, exactly. Well, congratulations. It's just such a triumph and

everything you make is so incredible and just what a career you've had. And I asked my

guess a question from someone I speak to beforehand, and we talk well behind their back and then we ask a question of them. And I want to get to that, but just one last thing before I do, which is your wife Emma Thomas is so instrumental in the stuff that you make such a badass, so incredibly talented. And I don't really have a question other than I just want to remind people of your beautiful union. I'm just thinking right now, I wish I'd also leave the room before I

did the interview because she heard a lot. Emma, Emma, have you ever heard the end of it? Emma, I mean, just like, hey, hi, you're such a badass. Even now, I'm going to believe you for that. Oh, me. I mean, it's so cool how you guys work together and what you do together and how you work

lot of everything that's there. That's all. I mean, no question, other than how isn't it great to be married as such a cool lady? It's very great to be married as such a cool lady. It's very great to have such a great producer on the film. So, I mean, you take something like this. It wouldn't. It would be really, I'm thinking, without her calm, clear, you know, we'll get through this, we'll find a way, so that said to Billy. So, thank you. Bring it on. Yeah, of course. So, do you have a

question, you think I should ask Matt specifically about the project or about him or anything you want to know about him, bigger, small, that you don't feel like you know. There is a question that

“I've tried to ask him for, and I've never got a clear answer. So, I think you might have better luck,”

which is so Matt, I as I'm sure you know, but he's obviously is an amazing actor,

wonderful movie star as well as we're talking about. He's also a great writer. He's an academic award-winning writer, as he occasionally reminds me. He's a piece of something in the script, but an a fantastic producer produced, you know, best picture nominees, or as films he wasn't in, you know, everything. And I'm pretty curious, and I haven't got a straight answer from about this, is to why he hasn't directed. Oh, great question. It's something he could have chosen to do.

He's, he's so knowledgeable, you know, you get on a set with him. He knows more about everything on set than, than anyone, well, almost anyone. I'm going to claim a little bit more knowledge of what I want to do on my set, but he's pretty, he's, he's pretty in control every aspect,

“you know, holding it this head, it does what everybody's doing. Which is one of the reasons is”

it's a great collaborator as an actor, because he's not just looking at his par. He's looking at how what he's doing is advancing the story, and he's very, very cognizant, respectful of all the other things. I'm trying to balance it, so it was how the scene we're doing interacts with the rest of the narrative. Okay, I'm going to ask him that, and I'm going to say that you said that he would make a great director. I, I don't know if I actually said that. Oh, okay. I was just curious

just to why. That's a try. I think he, yeah, he has such a clear ability to be able to step into that role if you wanted to. So I'm, I'm curious, I mean, maybe there's, maybe there's something about him, then. Have you ever acted? I have thought too much respect for what I could do to try

and try and try it on their toes. I know, we always say on a set, everyone should just do

everyone's job just for one take. Yes, I, I think nobody's afraid of being the director. They all

“think a bit of a great character. Yeah, do it. You have to do it. Yeah. But I think that made that might”

be the meance you get from that. It might be that he knows so much about it and he's seen so many people do it. He doesn't, he doesn't fancy sitting in the hot seat. Yeah, awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for your time. Thanks for for your incredible work. I'm going to let you get back to your tea. I know it's sitting right under frame and we all know any good director. They've set up the tea in the beginning. We need to see that tea very soon. This is going to be a part of the story.

Thank you, Emma. If you're still there. And really nice talking to you. Thanks, Chris. My story. Yeah, you too. Take care. Bye. Bye. This episode is brought to you by Subaru. There's something about being on the road that has a way of leading to those unexpectedly memorable little moments. And in the all new 2026 Subaru hybrid, it's like the destination isn't even important.

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that we got to see it. Great. And it was so great to be able to see it. Like, congratulations. Thank you. It is such a huge movie. Yeah, it's the by far. The biggest thing I've ever been anywhere near. It's a kind of big and it is big and it's so loud. It's a really loud movie. Yeah. Get brain. I'm access intense. Yeah. Yeah. I'm access intense. Yeah, it's it's incredible. Yeah, the whole experience was like that. It was just yeah. It was, it was awesome.

Not Damon's here, everybody. Sorry. We're jumping into the Odyssey. But like, but I wanted to

It's one of those things that sticks with you, of course, because it's like in many ways, probably the most famous story ever told me. I watched it and it's been swirling around in my head obviously because of what it represents. But I'm thinking about it as this meditation on aging, okay. I, no, no, I hear you and I agree because it, you and I are the same age. It feels like there's this moment in life now where it's like there's a past and all of the

wreckage or whatever joy and love and drama that comes with that and trauma that comes with the past. This like real present that like is really hard and there's like a lot of people you're taking care of. Aging parents, kids and then this version of how people think we are or are we still the version that people think we are. It's a very cool, I've been thinking about it a lot because it's just really hitting me at this age. Does that, does that resonate at all? It definitely

“does and that's what I love about this movie and about the script. Like he is, he's a really”

underrated writer. I think just because he's such a brilliant director that kind of overshadows

his writing is, I've read three of his scripts now because this is the third movie I've done with

him and they're they're they're just so well written and and thematically this touches on so much and what I love while I love hearing that is because because to different people it's going to mean completely different things and where you are in your life where we both are and I was like that peaceful resonate with us but for instance there was a guy who worked on the film named Dough who's a who's a navy seal and we were on the boat one day out in the middle you know the

the ocean and and sailing back and he just turned it turned to me and he said and we started talking about the screenplay and you know this is without having seen the movie and he said I think this is the most you know the best movie about PTSD that I've ever read or seen you know and it's like so I think it depends on where you are and where you've been and and that's

“what's so great about the Odyssey is that's why it's survived for you know 3,000 years”

because it works for everybody you know everybody you encounter it encounters it at a different place in their life and it's got some resonance for them. I asked this to people my age because I found this life life is getting better and it certainly feels I mean from the outside not knowing your life feels like you've been able to just keep making more stuff that you enjoy and like just growing as an artist and let's have what is great about being our age. I think honestly I

think that I think that that look for the the business we're in is tough and I think you know

the first time we met and work together we were probably in our late 20s early 30s and you don't

know how things are going to work out you don't you know there's so much up in the air and and and there's a lot of pressure and you know there's a lot you want to do there's a lot you

“feel like you have to say everything feels ahead of you that's right yeah and and then I think”

the place we're at now or at least speaking for myself is a play there's a greater sense of calm yeah I think and and and really like when Ben and I started a company together a few years ago it was partly because we were like what are we doing like this is the most joyful to like our dream like that we had when we were kids literally children together you know teenagers well you met what ten and eight or something but then we really were bizarre kids who were

serious about acting and we were in the union and you know and at 16 and 14 years old we were going to New York together to audition for stuff and our friendship was you know found it on quite a bit of common experience but that it was central to it and and very unique to the two of us and and and here we are 40 years later and it's like we should make every single movie we can together you know I mean because it's an unusual you said this before that year we were really

good at partnerships like and feels like Chris is another one like you know that where you're like I'm a really good at picking people who can be partners in my life and the fact that you guys still work together this many years later and that you love working together it's unusual it's just like it's like what do you like but were you with it? I think for us we've experienced so much of life together you know it's not a it's not a friendship that could ever be replicated just because

we grew up together and which which meant so we were together all the time you know we you know writing a screenplay together and I think I think working together is one of the great things about

writing with him was always the fact that there was a deep and a biting love and respect

underneath everything that was never in question it's very helpful yeah and when you're working

a pretty quick shorthand about what work is nothing nothing is taking that personally when you're

“creating something like that it's just it's just the allegiances to the thing that we're making”

and we're trying to get there as quickly as we can and as efficiently as we can and and and there's a deep trust if you like you can get hung up on an idea sometimes you know as a writer and and and dig in and and sometimes you can be wrong and if you have somebody that you trust that much um they'll also they'll also hear you out yeah they'll they're humble enough to know they might be wrong too yeah so it's just a very easy experience and it also ends up being just really fun

because you're doing it with you know for me it's like you know my closest friend for 40 years, 45 years it's like yeah um who else would I want to hang out with and do yeah I Tina and I went on tour this year we've been friends now for like over 30 years and we have a similar dynamic which is we just work so well together like we don't we don't care about the same thing like we don't like we have similar things that we don't stress about right and then things that we're

like this is really important we have to get this right. There's a theory that the age you meet people like you were 10 bends eight I'll compare I'm gonna compare you guys to the Beatles so get ready it's coming from you not me. Paul McCartney no you said I had to. Paul McCartney you squeezed my arm when you came in and you said you called me Paul McCartney before this of his own but no but like it was like Paul McCartney's a couple years older than George Harrison

and they always had an older brother younger brother dynamic just because they they're

two years apart. Do you guys have an older brother younger brother dynamic? No sit like same age dynamic. No and in fact Ben is an older brother and I'm a younger brother because I'm older than him so I'm sure we find and I have noticed that you know my wife is also an older sibling and there's

“something about that and I think that makes it easy you naturally fall into your into your role”

like as a younger sibling I had one you know my big brother and he was like a god and it was just I just had to follow him around. My mom you know she worked she was like my brother joined the YWCA swim team because his girlfriend was on the YWCA swim team so I had to join the YWA's the YWCA swim team you know doesn't like like I could swim okay it didn't love it but you know

I was on the swim team and and so I think so but I it never occurred to me that I could protest

right you know what I mean whereas an older sibling is questioning everything because they're the ones who are kind of trailblazing and they're kind of responsible. Yeah you can tell an older sibling right away. Yeah for sure you really can and they're also like translating life to other their siblings even though they're they could be like 12 months older than you and they're like here's how it goes. Yeah yeah yeah. Who's the thing about this? But you brought up your mom I my mom is a

my both my parents are teachers growing up your mom is an educator author like academic you guys grew up in Boston as we know famously. I also did sometimes you do feel like you got out and people are like oh good for you if we get out you know and sometimes they're like I'm still you know

“here and you're like that's great. I have no judgment about that that's fantastic. Your life is”

great in terms of they have a feeling about. Well Kaczynski had this as this great character called bitter Boston guy and he and he he leaves occasionally voicemails and they are just I mean but it's like no good for you yeah yeah good for you no I'm sure you're real busy and you know if you big life and everything and from what I understand you're a bico snow now I mean not to Boston but to New York and I get it you know and it's just and it's one of those and they go it goes on and on

for like five minutes and I'm just crying by the end of these things you know I said to myself if I go up there and talk to her she's not going to talk to me she probably won't remember me she won't remember me but I remember you I remember you and good for you and then lastly on behalf of all Bostonians I'm sure you've talked about this a lot too but I don't think I know on behalf of all of us where were you when we won in 2004 on the red talks one I was so I was making a movie called

Seriana and and that was shooting at the time and Dubai and and I was watching all the Yankee games and in fact I was in Geneva during during the when we clinched against the Yankees and I was supposed to work the following week and Dubai and George Clooney thank God was a producer on the movie and I called him immediately and he said I already read that the entire schedule you can go home so I came back I landed at JFK I was I was living in New York I landed at JFK the

game was just starting I made it to my apartment by like the second or third inning and we won

that game you know obviously we won all four but but once we won that game I knew that I

there was just like well I didn't want to jinx anything yeah we used to scream at my mom to leave the room she couldn't if she was holding all the whole time totally yeah and I do feel like something psychically changed for all of us when that happened like I know I did for my family my my dad like was it felt like a release of a long awaited something you felt like the Odyssey this can be true but it is the Odyssey about that wait a minute what did your mom think

about you not finishing Harvard by then I mean I was working they they were really close to finish I was I was in fact I I probably I probably did five years of classes there because I would go and then there was one semester the last semester I left I was two weeks away from the end of the semester so I'd done everything all I had to do was take the finals but the rule was at the time at least you had to take your finals at the exact moment they were

offered in Cambridge and I was like I'm number five on the call sheet you think I'm going to shut a movie down for three hours four different times like I just had to eat the semester

“do you ever have a fantasy about going back I think I used to like there was it but but”

but I also you know I was an English major and in fact I started writing goodwill hunting four class I just had wonderful professors and and and that professor really encouraged me

to keep going with it I didn't know what I'd never tried to do that and and in fact I I wrote

what we were supposed to write a one act play and I wrote I wrote the first act of a three act movie and but at that point I'd already been leaving and going you know I mean I was kind of out in the world working so I wasn't like sweating grades the way I was kind of in the I was I was kind of out of the pipeline and I was really in school for myself at that point and I and I went to the to the guy and I said I I think I failed your class I like but this is the first act of a movie

and and he read it and he gave me a straight A and he just said don't stop keep going like he gave me all this encouragement and that was when I just took it out and showed it to Ben it's so cool because you can you can also tell that respect to your teachers in the film like it's in good behind and we grew up around educators and like we're saying the obvious but it

“is still wild how people can remember the teacher oh my god the three teachers I have multiple”

teachers me too that we're like you're doing good hang in there just that those like positive reinforcements about anything you were doing yeah so okay you guys moved Hollywood congratulations you win an Academy Award you do good well hunting everybody's favorite movie give the best

each ever you bring your moms it's incredible and we didn't have a choice but from that moment

like where you know you've been working to your point what you were saying you've been working for a long time we know you then we meet you then and I'm the same age as you I'm watching you like be my age like entering into some system and you're from Boston and it's like oh okay we don't have to live near the game to be in the game basically what did your relationship to work now because when you're young we talked about you're like I want to do this and then you start

getting these things then like so then what what did your relationship to are you tired

“long question asked that I'm personally asking for myself sometimes and yeah but but I think that's”

that's where this I feel like and for both Ben and me I that that we are at the same time kind of stepped into this new phase of life and really felt it yeah what is that new phase that that we we just want to work on it it's it's about it's about really the pursuit of of joy

you know in our lives and in our work and and like this movie I never would have I think 20

years ago I would have bitched a lot about you know I don't think I that actually had told it was like the physical discomfort in making this movie that everybody everybody had to go through the entire crew so the experience of doing this movie though it was the hardest movie that I've ever done by far was so joyful yeah it really and and and and and also it it felt more like an expedition than a movie because of how we made it and to know that every single person around

you was was weathering those same difficulties and pushing themselves like it's just this feeling of you know of being a part of that that team of people was just it was it just it it it it was it was one of the best feelings I've ever had that's very cool I mean you're making me think of that like Sanskrit idea that life is what you say it is basically right so you can be like this is

opportunity I'm getting to do yeah and I definitely from the moment Chris gave me the part I felt I felt that because first of all he it's first of us it's one of the great roles of of all time yeah and and he was going to make this thing at the scale that it deserved to be made and not and like pretty practical right like all right like that's like you know make it the way David Lean would have made it right the way somebody made it 80 years ago it's that for people that are

going to see it and you guys can tell us if it's too spoily and we'll cut it but like there's scenes where cyclops is your meeting cyclops who by the way I was proud of myself I was like is that

bill or when you got him right yeah he's amazing he's amazing we're just getting married

yeah amazing and um and I was like oh my god is that bill or with face that I find out is a giant puppet yeah what the fuck that is wild it's what it's really wild when you realize we shot

“it in an actual cave and so there's no sound state that's why so we we would hike to this cave”

and it was called Zeus's cave they say it's where Zeus was born and we would hike up to this cave and the rigging that the guys did in this cave they basically turned it into a sound stage almost yeah right there were there were I mean it was just in could the amount of the amount of work that we wanted to doing this was like and about you shot a place is that no one had ever been allowed in and like we had nobody would be crazy enough to try to shoot him was what it really was like honestly

we go every time I would go or show up and I would start laughing I would be kidding me like we're going up there yeah that's for yeah like so what are we shooting well we're not shooting anything to be get up there because that's where everything is so yeah that's wild so that part of it was that's what I mean about an expedition and it was and we were all in it together we'll hike up the mountain and and and and and in that in that cave that was you know Chris was like no I'm

kind of 60 foot puppet and so so basically he does as little special effects as humanly possible

which means you can do quite a bit without without CGI and where he needs it you know he you know he understands what year he lives in and he has the absolute best special effects teams they really help you know try to figure out how we can do everything almost just about everything in camera so good so good so good so steuers is very good that's a lot of the fact that the stev don't know how to build computer world focus mani chip finance tip such the was out mega

“but that's what the system complicit yet just a few photos of the real story of the world and fathom”

thing they're good it's very good metrizo steuers it's some amount of racism you'll be upgeben much like i compared you to pomecarty i'm gonna compare the Odyssey to SNL but SNL is not that that's not that's another thing that i i told you i i you know um but but similarly there's a few places left that's like we have a show tonight and you know because you've done it hosted many times and you're like everyone's just it's like comedy emergency room everyone's doing

the best version that i can do in a time that they have and therefore everything feels really human yeah it's very cool that way like things feel practical and tactile and stuff and you've done

the show a bunch of times i don't know if you remember we the first time you would say i think

i was it was like 2002 i was like my second year there i have a great picture of us me and drag and you have your like arms around us and we look like ten years old babies such babies and we're all

“like oh world but it was i remember um just starting when you came and i remember that exact feeling”

like holy shit look at all these talented people trying to make something like real and human basically what was it like to what is it like to do that show do you like doing it i still remember yeah i love doing it and and i um that first time the reason i did it Patrick my age and called me and said you're hosting Saturday and live and i said okay like but i i don't have anything coming out because no Bruce Springsteen's the musical guest we're going to get to hear two songs from

Bruce so i was like oh yeah great huge fans of Bruce Springsteen so so that was really why it did it and um and and i remember going on the on the Monday night for the you know the little pitch in Lawrence office and everybody pitches these ideas and then everybody went um but let's go to a bar and i was like guys we have a 90 minutes to do by Saturday like how are you people so calm like like i think there's like a there's like a push like where people have to like force

force panic almost and get anything creatively done i was fully panicked on Monday but i then

want i stayed up overnight till like five in the morning popping into different rooms and writing with people and you know and and love that part of it and then and then from the read through on Wednesday it's just you just shot out of a canvas yeah you're it's done in five minutes yeah yeah and the minute you're done you're like okay i got it let's do it again and yeah and the rush that you get is incredible yeah yeah yeah i actually we were looking up since stuff because i was like what did i do with

“Matt and there's a sketch that i do not remember and i was a better chance i'll remember it”

because i've done it but i have zero memory of it you played a doctor i saw it and i was like no idea what the joke is sorry i guess it's my commercials i'm using is this the one where Cornell where we're we're we're we're it's everybody's name Matt Damon is that the she's like maybe that's it sounds like that's it all i know is okay here we go excuse me yeah yeah yeah that's amazing that's that's really amazing

hearty the ice man yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah they're a doctor Matt Damon yeah i'm a chief of my family art what you do oh my god are you Matt Damon yeah this is so weird my name is hearty okay now we're heightening we're two minutes in and that would be the introduction i haven't seen that's really funny i i did not remember i mean it is i remember because i've probably i've think of hosted the show three times and i've and i've come on and done

“guest spots but that means i've probably done less than 20 sketches in my life so i think i”

probably remember all of them you would think you will but i i i i mean i it's so done and then at the end i think someone comes out and is doctor Julia serving i think that's the part i think that's that's it i forgot how it happens but it's like Matt Damon Matt Damon Matt Damon Matt Damon Ben Affleck and doctor Julia serving i don't think it played that well i thought it was funny i know but it's a good example of like you know there are hosts who like you know especially in your

first time you don't really know the power you have you know you no one really tells you the power that you have where you can be like i don't want to do that but there are hosts that are like i like to pick the funny stuff and then there are hosts that like i want to pick the stuff that i'm in a lot or that you know like and that's a real ensembley sketch you don't get to do

much in that but i said that i but i always say to learn like just i want the best show like i i

“just you know this last one i think we cut five sketches after dress and you know that i was like”

in heavily and i was like whatever makes it you know also you've got a younger cast and it's like they're trying to like establish themselves and like all right if you've got something for them to do that you know what i mean like you all have to do this next week you know yeah but but a lot of people don't really take that in like and i don't even necessarily mean it's a bad thing they're just like focusing on others like things like you have this ability you always have i think to

pay attention to like the environment that you're in what what other people need i mean i think it's what makes you such a good producer i think it's what makes you such a collaborator like

that isn't always people's process they just don't know how to take all that in

and yeah i i guess like i always just defaulted to the the the better the thing is you're making that for everybody yeah right and i i really do you think that way about movies too i don't always take the best role you know and i mean i i i i i want to be in a good movie you've been in so many good movies god damn i mean that's interesting you say that because um like even in in um in or seller that role that you take is a really surprising role to take with you

yeah Chris undersolded to me actually because Chris i was really happy to get the call from him and he and he gets like trying to manage my expectation said you know how they say there are no small parts only small actors and i said yeah and he's this is a small part that's like okay but i read it i'm saying no this is a terrific part like it's a really great

i mean it's it's not it's not big but it's a it's a really good part and so uh yeah it's always

about if if there's something i feel like you know worth doing it doesn't have to be the biggest thing yeah i mean uh you got to work with so many amazing people uh if it's okay i want to just

either meet or work with and i like love talking about them and you've talked about him a lot but

can can we just talk about robin for a second because i had the experience that as i'm sure you

did of like feeling like i got to watch him um use his gift to make young people feel like they had some kind of future whatever they were doing that was basically he he would come robin Williams would come and improvise at ucb and like jump in uh the theater the improv theater that um i was a part of and he would just show i mean people lose their minds he would show up and he'd talk to 20 all of us 20 year olds like we were like smart and funny and like change our lives

what was he like what was it like to work with him when you were so young yeah he was like that generous yeah that was just his yes just do we was yeah it's just like overflowing with generosity like as a as a as a creative partner to work with the do scenes with and obviously this was something that we'd written we'd had we'd been holding on to this thing for five years and how seriously he took it how prepared he was interestingly he was very he did a lot of takes

at his uh what would did he feel like he didn't have it like would he want more because he wasn't quite sure yeah and and and and i remember Terry Gilliam telling me like Terry Gilliam gave him a after they did the fisher king and robins brilliant that movie and Terry gave him a report card at the end and it was and had all these different things like creativity you know energy all the stuff you know hey hey a late night phone calls f because robin would get home and he would call

and it we and he was a ruminator he was a ruminator and he and and there were things we went back and and and didn't another pick up of a thing and we shot at 15 times already and Ben and I knew

“we had it gust knew we had it yeah um and he'd just and I think that's might be the comedy background”

where it's like i'm gonna refine this joke yeah there's always a joke always something about

that i can grab in there yeah and and he and he and he had this this like you know and he was like indifetigable like the guy just had so much energy that and so we went over budget in film i remember every day at lunch we would send out to codac they'd come back with more film because we were burning through a lot of film really just for him to feel yeah like we got it yeah you know i mean Ben and I knew like i mean even like the last line of the movie that was not written

he was just supposed to come out and read a letter and and and and and it was just supposed to the camera was supposed to sit on him for as long as he wanted as he thought about this boy's driving out of town and he's on his way you know he's gonna go see about the girl and and robin we left the camera rolling and and we were shooting up at him and uh and i was i was right next to the camera because every time he came out when he when he when he opened up the letter i said it

so that he could hear my voice mm-hmm and so Gus and I the director and you were standing by camera yeah and he wasn't meant to look at me but just so he could hear me and and he must have done 15 takes and he'd put the envelope back and he put it back in the mailbox and then he go in and we'd still be rolling and then he'd come back out and he did you know a few without saying anything and then he just started improvising lines and unlike the ninth line

he opened the door and he looked and he read the letter and he said son of a bitch he stole my line and I grabbed Gus like i mean it's like you know when you get a piece of dialogue falls from heaven and you know and you just know and but robin went back in and he did it five six more times he

“came back and i remember Ben wasn't on set that day for some reason or maybe he couldn't fit”

up where we were and so he was back and i just couldn't couldn't get to him fast enough to tell him you're not going to fucking believe what he said listen and and Ben the second he heard it like that's it yeah we knew like that's the but but robin must have known because it came out of him but like when that line comes out of me if ever i'm lucky enough to come up with something on the spot that just comes out in the moment and it works i know it and now i'm now i'm a dog with a

bone you know what i mean i'm not going to go start trying i love about improv i have to say is it's like so many ideas are flung around and they're a lot of them are jewels and they're just thrown for free yeah like it's like here's ten more yeah and you're like whoa whoa these are like let me pick these up like each one could be interesting but like when you're with like an incredible improviser

it's like i have a million of these like these could these are now these are never going to go away

“that's what see i when i wrote i wrote a movie that uh not many people saw called promised land with”

John christensky and john and i joke about it because john's like Ben he's got a super computer on board his he goes really fast and i'm much more i don't know i got i got a comet or fifty six

would throw out a line of dialogue we'd be sitting in the kitchen writing and he throw out a

line of dialogue and my face would do something like this and john would read that as he hates it and then he'd give me another one and then another and then and now he's given me five lines of dialogue and i'm and i just go i'm like stop like right i'm still on the first one john i think the first one's really good now i got to think about all these other ones because i think they're really good too do you see you know give me a minute um and and i think you know yeah you're

right they're like jewels that are falling around and i'm like somebody who wants to pick up each one

“and go like yes we're gonna we're gonna put this thing together like a Swiss watch and that's why”

i think sometimes it's it's always like i mean it's it's it's interesting to watch people

be able to be okay with this that speed and stillness it's what like film actors do so well as they allow things to just stay and when you're coming up in like in the from a comedy perspective like speed is yeah or you get yourself a steam to everything and you just have to sometimes just like stop you just stop it with that in mind what was it like to work with Phil Hoffman who like what a incredible actor what was it like to be because your character is really you have to

square off with him in this way that is i mean he's so intimidated he's just i think he's good and he was he was right in everything but holy shit he's talking about a role where you come in and i mean he that scene the scene where he comes back where i kill him and down to mr. Ripley spoiler alert spoiler honestly it's a long trip he he i loved him because he you know we'd rehearse there was a whole month of rehearsal and and we got to know each other and and

“and but i hated him so much that day yeah you know what i mean and he but because that's how he”

really it's like he like built the energy for that scene it was like like like a fucking marvel superhero coming out of him and and suck me right into it and we had this day of working where and we liked each other yeah you know what i mean but that was not yeah that wasn't in the room yeah and and uh i just remember it's that i've i've said i say it all the time because it really is the truth when when when you're working with a great actor they're great enough for

both of you and it's like it's like just just paddle into the wave right stand up and that's it and and you just get transported and and that was what he was i mean he was just

phenomenal phenomenal yeah he's he's he's incredible and his the energy was great i used to go and see

them and did you ever do anything like did you do see a lot of theater in New York when you were no no i was working already and the last play i didn't in fact Phil was there we we did he

“i think he was doing Jesus hopped the a train or he was directing it i can't remember but we were all”

over and then go in it was doing proof and casey af like an hour and summer we're doing uh this is our youth we were all in the west end in the same summer none of us saw each other's plays because we were on the same schedule but we were all it was like the Ripley reunion kind of right and i think Jude was like doing something that summer too but we were all uh um do you ever get a i'm sure you'd offered all the time do you ever want to do something on Broadway i've thought

a lot about it uh it's the schedule that that until until my my youngest is a freshman and once she's out of the nest um i would definitely uh do do it yeah it's just it's just not a great schedule for parenting it's a crazy schedule i i all the all all the SNL ladies are on Broadway this summer like they're all dryches in rakey horror on as in uh schmega dude and my is doing oh marry right now i'm like watching them all do it and i we've had a bunch of um Broadway actors on here i just

i'm having the hardest part of your day be the end of your day every day sometimes twice a day it's brutal yeah so hard and i remember for even if this is 20 something years ago doing that play and i love that play and i love Kenny Lonergan um but the this elation coming off stage when things went when it was like oh my god that was something and then that would last like five minutes and then i'd go i have to do this twice tomorrow and and i remember thinking why didn't

someone just filmed that you guys are making this so unnecessarily difficult you can be in the kitchen we can be in Toronto we can share what you should be at the festival what's happening um yeah but uh but yeah i mean i you know cheetos doing a baby is doing proof right yeah that's right saw that and he's fantastic but how fun were those oceans movies by the way speaking of cheeto that looks like i mean what a boom dog you guys you guys were like having cappuccino and he was

and it was just a wonderful group of people and we and in the group chain you know it's like as the movies went along you know then suddenly you know people were married people had babies you know we were loaning diapers to each other you know i mean it was just a nice kind of run of of life for us yeah you mentioned cloney we have a fun thing with uh i don't know if you remember us in cloney and you because what what a Hollywood thing i just said you have a fun thing

me you and cloney and you know but when we when we poked fun in him at the Golden Globes and he's got a great as do you great sense of humor about himself um i i do you know this that he made

stationary yeah okay so not the first time he's done this by the way and i've told i've said this

is face i'm not talking behind his back i don't like pranks i don't fuck it i'm not a prank guy you i don't like it i don't it makes me stressed he loves him enough for all of us he does he loves him and and i'm like don't do your weird pranks on me and he's like oh okay and anyway teen and i hosted the Golden Globes we made a joke that now that you were in tv you're basically a garbage person

“because you heard that's what just tv and you were in the movie section anymore and you of course”

laughed and played along with it George cloney made stationary pretending he was you and sent us like a strongly worded letter saying that would really hurt i really hurt my feelings no did he tell you he's gonna do it okay god no no the way i found out and by the way the only the only reason i found out was because you guys sent me some like fruit basket something so just like i was so bewilder we were like we think this is a prank but that's right yeah you were uncovering our basic just in case it's not

kids are really fast get but and then i called one i think i called teen i was like what the fuck she lived right down the street from me at that and we were i was on the upper west side and uh and then we you know we put it together pretty quickly yeah i was cloney's doings but um but but yeah i guess soda burgers i want to have to make that but what such a well crafted movie

“that's him i mean i've done i think ten movies he's working yeah yeah i i i will i will do the”

phone book with Steven soda burger right i absolutely love working with him and what do you love about working with him well he's just he's he's he's it's like he sees the matrix yeah like i really i mean by the time it's so we we did behind the candelabber in 2012 so good he but the the steven wood i'd get to work we'd we'd shoot a scene i'd go home at like five o'clock because steven operates the camera is the editor um is the cinematographer um and the director

and i'd go home and the kids were little and you know we'd bay them we'd we'd give him

dinner read a story put him asleep i'd come downstairs by like eight seven third year eight o'clock

and on my iPad there was a new delivery and i'd open it up and it was the scene we shot that day fully scored as it was going to appear in the movie when it came out nine months later holy shit yeah so for Michael and me you know you're you're you're playing this relationship which is this kind of dysfunctional relationship a kind of descent into like drugs and it you know and and it and it unfolds over time and so to to to to calibrate the performance

it's difficult but not when you can watch yeah what you just did here's the scene that's gonna happen after this and here's the scene that just happened before this i know and then it's Steven's like all right i'm starting on Michael's face and we're you you know exactly where you

are at all times and it's unbelievable it's like and i always say like the only excuse an actor has

and it's a legitimate excuse if if if you suck in a movie is i didn't know a movie i was in yeah that's a totally fair like if the director just couldn't communicate the tone and didn't you know couldn't it's very easy to to be in the wrong movie oh that guy here's another silver story like where i did this movie with him the informant and yeah i love that one and and and we shot a scene where my character had to apologize to the entire town basically it's just

stood up in court and we had the we had the um the transcript of what he said and those were my

“lines and so we're in illinois i think springfield illinois in the court house he was actually in”

and the entire cast is there because they're all sitting in the gallery and they're the people that i need to apologize to and so i stand up and i i started to apology and i get i get legitimately choked up i don't mean to i'm trying not to and and i get through it and Steven's it's kind of shooting a wide shot the other side and i hear cut and he walks over and i'm sitting at the defense table when he kind of he comes up and he goes no i'm like no

yeah i know you're in the wrong movie and i went oh okay give me in the right movie and he sits

there and he thinks for a second and he goes do it like an awards acceptance speech oh incredible

direction oh because it was like yeah this guy this was this guy's movie it wasn't i i'm i'm admitting but it was everyone's here for me yes that's right this is incredible this is like wow

“yeah right and i think that's what i said like wow yeah and it's like so interesting now both scenes”

in a vacuum also like you know it's it makes sense of like i had a real emotion like i really felt something isn't that what i'm supposed to be doing it's connected to the part of me this is that's how this is supposed to go oh yeah but not if you're in the wrong movie okay and so Christopher Nolan um the Odyssey we're talking about it you're back with him again you've made three films with him so we do the thing where we we talked to somebody before our guest comes in and

talk well behind the back and i talked i got to talk to Christopher and um uh and timid i was long timidated to be honest he's very timidating um uh more suit drank tea um and uh is so good at directing and just such an affordable artist and like really such like the director of this decade and in so many ways and you know this because you've worked with him so many times but he's asking a lot of you and you just said earlier like that's the part that you're realizing

oh i'm not gonna play about this i'm actually gonna i'm gonna decide that this is gonna be the most like fulfilling incredible experience but it is still a physical experience like it still means

“that you have to get in probably the best shape of your life and as a person of similar age it's”

like it's it's one thing running and punching and in born in your 30s it's way different to be getting jacked in your 50s it's really hard it was a complete complete life style change right so like everything goes away so you know planning it like i in any other time i tried to

do something like that it was always like well of my time my workouts and my thing and this was like

no just everything yeah just put your feet on the foot on the gas and that's it and that's the only way to do it and eat a little less but no like no gluten no no gluten which changed my life are you still no gluten you don't have any desire for it anymore because of the because of the um... because of what it does to me yeah like i do always sensitive to it i didn't know well well it's funny you say that because i feel like our generation like a lot of food allergies and stuff

“or whatever or sensitivities we didn't really have that like they don't we didn't talk about that”

we didn't talk about it and i didn't realize the level to which it was affecting me and in fact my like like it's completely changed my life these last couple years of not just if not eating it and so that's made it like it's a bummer like i'm a big fan of bread but and beer and you know i mean like i i you know pasta and pizza and all that stuff but but yeah how i feel is just

so much better yeah incredible okay and then um uh sleep what's your sleep situation do you

sleep yeah i mean we do love to sleep i do you got teenagers in the house but you know like once you had kids did you ever sleep well again no like all the way like it was until they got older like it was this huge stretch where i didn't sleep for i felt like for like 10 years yeah i feel like i'm like a been a lighter sleeper but on this on this movie there was we like me and the PA's we had this kind of joke called the Odyssey 5 if you can get five hours like you were thrilled

that's tough yeah that's not a lot of sleep but it was enough yeah it was enough i get it but i did realize that five is the cut off because there were some four nights there were some no nights i had two nights where i did not sleep because you were working no because i i got home and i was like overly tired yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah i'm just sitting there and i missed the window and now i'm panicking because and you're like tomorrow i literally have to like lift a rock through

the mud yeah like like every day i have to do spring tomorrow all day yeah yeah it seemed like so hard it was hard it was hard for everybody yes that's where it made it that's where it's made it wonderful it's funny you talk about other departments because Chris is question for you yeah to question for you um which is basically like um why haven't you directed he said and i quote um you would be an amazing director you'd probably be better than me

haha he lies in interviews that says that says that's what lovely thing to say uh that's

that movie promised land so i think 2012 but i ran long on another movie and and i i would have

“had to come down home put my bags down and leave again and so i i i i i bowed out and then called”

Gus fansant who then stepped in and directed it so um so as a producer i made the movie better um and then another movie that john krasinski and i commissioned Kenny to write Manchester by the sea and i was gonna directed and then as the script as it started to come in i was like Kenny this you gotta do it um and i was gonna play the part and we were about to start shooting but like we were behind we couldn't get the production office open we were like five weeks out and i called Kenny

and i was like i'm putting you in a position to fail here like let's take a breath and i didn't have anything for two years or i'm sorry i had worked for two years and Kenny was ready to go when i was like all right the only person i'm given this role to his Casey because we'd all done the play together in London and we're all friends and and i'm like this is this is the best role that i've seen in a long time um and uh but uh but we were able to we were able to get it

“finance with Casey and and he stole that Oscar from you that's how you return the favorite”

took your advice i like say i gave it to me i'm sure he wouldn't mind that right yeah yeah after after everything is part open yeah and that performance allowed you to have it allowed you um okay lightning round as we end you four girls you have you you've talked so much about how great it is like you know you do you know the fact the research shows that like the

more daughters you have the longer you live did you know that i believe it i've never heard that

before that yeah there's a um research that says like you get like a year or something added to your life with each daughter and mothers lose a year for each child they have so congrats yes of course we were girl the dads get that doesn't matter the dads get all the years and the mothers with her away that sounds totally fair no but um having having all these women in your life in your house

“like and and all like you i'm well what's the biggest joy it's speaking about joy what's the”

biggest joy about watching them get older and grow up and become real people in the world what's you know wow i mean they're they're they're in just incredible i mean they're they're all they're so different um um and so different from one another and they're like launching into the world now in different ways like there yeah my um you know i've got one about to turn 28 one who just turned 20 and then we still have two in the nest 17 almost 18 and 15 yeah um they're just they're just

amazing they're my favorite people yeah you know and i feel very lucky that you know i grew up

with just a brother and it was just a side of the the the human experience that i just didn't have access to and and i and i and i got that and the you know that next chapter of my life and it's it's just been beautiful okay and you're comfort watch what uh what are you like what you know i was thinking about it's like wow and that's like changing the channels and watching movies there must be a lot of times you're like i was in that i work with that person you know like i

almost got that part there's a lot of movies that you've been in and a lot of movies that you know a lot about or that you've produced or that so what is a comfort watch one that you can watch where you can check out and be like if it's on i'm watching it usually will ferris movies like you know like in our house you kind of can't go wrong with him like he we've we've watched you know stepbrothers and taldegan nights and all you know again and again and again um blaze of glory too

oh my god you know and will spec is a great friend of ours yeah and that is one of the that that's definitely in the pantheon oh my god that movie how fun and dumb that movie is so genius okay and water how do we fix it oh my god and this is a speedrun but i mean i've been reading

the work you're doing it's incredible what what should we be doing what what can we do you could go

check out water dot org and you can donate directly or there's this new what we have a get blue which we launched this summer which is if you see anything that says get blue on it if it's or if you know there there's there's hoodies and t-shirts at the gap let's say get blue there are you can go to starbucks and get a blue matcha or a coconut refresher and proceeds from that we'll go to water dot org into the work we're doing and we've we've reached 92 million people so far

you know which is which is really something because we we we do it through micro finance through the small micro loans and had we stayed with drilling wells uh it would have taken us 600 years to get to where we are right now so it's uh the it's scaling it's a sustainable solution and uh there's a lot more to be done yeah it's amazing talk about the auto semen yeah that's a

you're watching right now that's making you laugh video um a scene from a show i literally last night

“okay great so my kids were watching this thing called love island oh yeah the teens are obsessed”

i couldn't do it i can't do i i get too much yam embarrassed yeah i couldn't but but before we and then we literally sat down we had some friends visiting then they have a teenage daughter and and they're staying with us and so the kids at dinner were like we're gonna watch this thing so we sat down and it didn't come until nine and so we're flicking and there's something called temptation island oh yeah and so and so we look at the little thing and i'm like you

guys want to give this a shot for an hour before love island comes on and i mean it was it did not disappoint and my wrong that temptation island is if you make out or have sex you're out no i from what i could understand okay that's i mean that's called too hot to something i was i watch episode one of season two last night and it was they introduced these four

“couples so i want to see couples yeah four and married couples travel to a tropical”

island to have their fidelity testing which do they bring in people they bring in hot singles it was so funny so they they bring in the you know the hot singles and all the guys come in and like rip their shirts off and they're like you made a mistake bring in her hair bro i got a what i don't know how long you last i we we did make it through an episode um but it was like really funny oh that's great and my friend she was whoa she was she's visiting with her

daughter and we were howling but um but it's these four couples and you're like and you know and the kids are like trying to either taking bets on which couples are gonna make it like you know guys i i doubt if they all just we're faithful to each other there wouldn't be much of a show so i have a feeling like someone's gonna buy some cracks in the veneer also the acting exercise

“of having to come in and be so confident it's unbelievable i know it's unbelievable the women”

and the man they're just you've never seen more confident people couples get all you know they

do these in depth interviews and then you know where they're where it's just like you know he's had a problem with fidelity in the back he's time it's this time he's gonna prove it by going to temptation island and like you see these guys like they get split up in the steps so the the four guys who are in the couples they get split up from their partner and they go into a house with these you know ten gorgeous women yes and her spots are there like

you see the these guys start to crack within thirty seconds well i mean i didn't know it was gonna be like it's also the they're they're like they're all in their 20s and they're all like you know you know i mean this it means she really means a lot to me we together for 15 months it's like i mean after six months i mean i had my laps and i was unfaithful to her but since then i've been and you're just like this is a fucking disaster i don't know if i'll hang in there

i made it through one episode we had some laughs i love that the kids your kids are like i don't know they seem pretty in love and you're like i'm a feeling someone's gonna fall just from a writing perspective i can tell you we're gonna need some a little more conflict it would be so sad too for that casting and they're like good news is you got temptation out and oh my god exciting bad news is you're not coming into tempting you if the people why not we just thought it would be

better if you were the lady that worked at the island well Matt thank you so much you're coming

to do and this was such a blast yeah congrats on this incredible movie and all of work you do and

thanks so much for being here i appreciate it thanks god well thank you so much Matt Damon home town hero of mine uh Boston boy done good thank you for coming and what a pleasure to talk to you and your work is incredible so congrats on that and keep doing it and for this polar plunge you know Matt talked very briefly about something that he created a global nonprofit at water.org but what it really is is an incredible organization founded by himself and Gary White and they

provide micro loans to you know make sure that there's clean water and proper sanitation all over the world so it's pretty awesome i mean sometimes on these plunges i talk about oh i don't know a song i'm listening to or i could use this plunge to you know goof around about the martian but no i want to just remind you to go donate time energy or money to water.org and um go see the

thanks for listening good for good hang okay bye. you've been listening to good hang the executive

“producers for this show are Bill Simmons genoise berman and me amy polar the show is produced by the”

ringer and paper kite for the ringer production by jack Wilson cats belaine kaya mackmullen and

ala is an iris for paper kite production by sand green joe level and genoise berman original music by amy miles [MUSIC PLAYING]