The filmmaker Matt Damon calls a “genius”
There are few actors who genuinely embody the spirit of American cinema quite like Matt Damon. Known for his ability to throw himself far into his characters in films as widely ranging as Good Will Hunting, The Martian and Saving Private Ryan, Damon has undoubtedly emerged as one of Hollywood’s most enduring icons.
As such, Damon has been privy to collaborating with some of the greatest directors of all time. These include Gus Van Sant, Steven Spielberg, Christopher Nolan and Ridley Scott, which proves the kind of reputation he has carved out for himself since his arrival on the acting scene in the 1990s.
However, Damon hasn’t managed to work with every director he might have wished to, including David Fincher, known for Seven, Fight Club, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Gone Girl. Damon once compared the American director to the great Stanley Kubrick in a moment of genuine admiration.
“I never worked with Fincher, but Affleck did on Gone Girl, and so I went down and visited the set one today,” Damon once noted. “Fincher has that, like, Kubrick thing, where he can’t unsee what he sees. And so I sat behind him one day while he was directing, and it was this scene where Ben and Rosamund Pike walk into this bookstore.”
He continued, “And when the camera rolls, they call ‘Background’, which is for the extras, the people in the book store, and then they call ‘Action’. So when he calls Background and then Action, a background actor walks across the frame, and the scene’s about to start, but Fincher’s already in monologue. He’s going, ‘Who the fuck walks like that?’”
By that point, though, both Affleck and Pike were on the other side of the set, running through the scene. However, Fincher could simply not get over the background actor walking in front of the camera. Damon knew then that the actors would have to redo the scene despite already “they’re acting their hearts out”.
Damon concluded, “Fincher goes, ‘Cut’, he takes his headphones off, and he’s like, ‘What the fuck was that?’ He looks at me, we’re sitting there, and as we’re talking, a makeup artist comes on, and David goes, ‘That’s how you walk’. I think for people like that, it’s almost like a curse because he can’t unsee what he sees, and that’s the genius, right.”
This anecdote goes to show the kind of obsession with perfection that Fincher possesses, most certainly in line with his predecessor, Kubrick. With such a fine eye for detail, Fincher’s films come out the other side of production as works of the highest order and have earned the praise of so many of his contemporaries, including Damon, who hitherto hasn’t worked with the “genius” director.
