Matt Damon revealed on Jakes Takes while promoting Oppenheimer that he once fell into a depression halfway through shooting a movie that wasnt panning out how he hoped it would when he accepted the gig.
Without naming any particular moviessometimes you find yourself in a movie that you know, perhaps, might not be what you had hoped it would be, and youre still making it, Damon said. And I remember halfway through production and youve still got months to go and youve taken your family somewhere, you know, and youve inconvenienced them, and I remember my wife pulling me up because I fell into a depression about like, what have I done?
She just said, Were here now, Damon continued. You know, and it was likeI do pride myself, in a large part because of her, at being a professional actor and what being a professional actor means is you go and you do the 15-hour day and give it absolutely everything, even in what you know is going to be a losing effort. And if you can do that with the best possible attitude, then youre a pro, and she really helped me with that.
Damon did not name the movie in which he fell into a depression, but he has openly spoken out in the past about acting in films he knew were heading for disaster. One such movie was The Great Wall, Zhang Yimous poorly-reviewed 2016 monster movie that generated controversy for its white savior narrative. Damon played a European mercenary who is forced to team up with imperial Chinese forces to fend off an alien threat. The film didnt make it past the $50 million mark in the U.S. despite a $150 million production budget.
I was like, this is exactly how disasters happen, Damon said on the WTF podcast in 2021 about filming The Great Wall. It doesnt cohere. It doesnt work as a movie.
Damon added at the time, I came to consider that the definition of a professional actor; knowing youre in a turkey and going, OK, Ive got four more months. Its the up at dawn siege on Hamburger Hill. I am definitely going to die here, but Im doing it. Thats as shitty as you can feel creatively, I think. I hope to never have that feeling again.
In Christopher Nolans Oppenheimer, Damon stars as Manhattan Project director Leslie Groves. The atomic bomb epic opens July 21 from Universal Pictures.