The controversial 2015 role Matt Damon called a “fucking bummer” to play: “I was surprised”
All good things must come to an end, and as it applied to Matt Damon, one of the hottest streaks of his career came to a screeching halt when one performance failed to generate an ounce of goodwill.
He’s always been one of Hollywood’s most consistent A-listers, but there must have been something in the water around 2014, with Damon suddenly taking it upon himself to embark on a four-film run that any actor would kill for, and he didn’t even appear onscreen in one of them.
It may have only been an extended cameo, but he was integral to the narrative of Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, which soared past three quarters of a billion dollars at the box office, notched five Academy Award nominations in the technical categories, and claimed the prize for ‘Best Visual Effects’.
Several months later, Damon headlined Ridley Scott’s The Martian to add another title to the long collection of films where he’s either in need of rescuing or making a long journey back home, earning a ‘Best Actor’ nomination in a ‘Best Picture’-nominated film for his second consecutive sci-fi smash.
Jason Bourne may have been the weakest of the quarter in which he played the title character, but it also earned the most money, showcasing that the gap between his last outing as the amnesiac secret agent had done nothing but cause hearts to grow fonder in his absence, making him three-for-three.
The fourth and final feature on Damon’s incredible run saw him showcase his skills on the other side of the camera. He was forced to drop out of the lead, which won Casey Affleck an Oscar, but he produced and had final cut on Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester by the Sea, yet another ‘Best Picture’ nominee.
Unfortunately, when Zhang Yimou’s The Great Wall started production in March 2015, it didn’t take long for the big-budget fantasy to come under fire and generate widespread controversy for casting Damon as the main character in a Chinese production, directed by a Chinese filmmaker, set in China, with a largely Chinese cast and crew, bar himself, Willem Dafoe, and Pedro Pascal.
“It was a fucking bummer,” the star confessed, after the first footage only increased the ire. “I had a few reactions. I was surprised, I guess, because it was based on a teaser; it wasn’t even a full trailer, let alone a movie.” Despite Yimou clarifying that the role was never written for a Chinese actor to play, it did absolutely nothing to dampen the whitewashing accusations being thrown The Great Wall‘s way.
Even more of a bummer was actually making the thing, with Damon realising long before principal photography wrapped in July 2015 that the movie was doomed, backlash or not. It was an experience he hated every second of, and it didn’t do him any favours that, even after he’d finished filming, he remained on the defensive up until and beyond its release.
