The musician Matt Damon called “a god in my eyes”
He might be an actor first and foremost, but Matt Damon wouldn’t deny that he largely owes his career to his abilities as a screenwriter, which elevated him from a jobbing thespian to an in-demand rising star almost overnight.
Of course, both he and co-writer Ben Affleck had plenty of credits under their belts before Good Will Hunting was released, but two lifelong best friends in their 20s penning a script that wins the Academy Award for ‘Best Original Screenplay’ is inevitably going to have a stratospheric effect on their standing.
He’d hardly become prolific with the pen, though, after his reunion with Gus Van Sant on 2002’s Gerry marked Damon’s only credit as a writer in the 15 years following Good Will Hunting. When he notched his third, he co-wrote Promised Land alongside John Krasinski from a story by Dave Eggers, which also gave him the opportunity to channel his musical hero.
Once again helmed by Van Sant, the 2012 drama stars Damon and Frances McDormand as representatives who pitch up in a small town to secure the drilling rights for a huge corporation. Unwisely believing the down-on-their-luck townsfolk will happily accept their offer of economic stimulus, they face increasing levels of opposition from locals who are ardently against their fracking operation.
Promised Land shares a title with a song from Bruce Springsteen’s 1978 album Darkness on the Edge of Town, and one scene in the movie features co-star and co-writer Krasinski belting out ‘Dancing in the Dark’ at karaoke. Is it a coincidence, or is Damon a massive fan of ‘The Boss’? As he explained to The Guardian, the latter is probably underselling it.
“Springsteen’s a god in my eyes,” he confirmed. Not only that but after celebrating “masterpiece” The Rising and the “intelligent takedown” of Magic, the star singled out Springsteen’s politically-charged Wrecking Ball for its scathing assessment on the downsides of the ‘American Dream’. “It doesn’t feel like an act,” Damon continued. “It doesn’t feel like he’s trying to pretend that he still has the common touch. I think he believes what he believes, and that’s very real.”
Taking his fandom one step further, Damon revealed that while he hadn’t even heard Wrecking Ball before penning Promised Land, he saw it as “the visual expression of his last album.” Heading directly to the source, he decided to inform Springsteen of this to his face, which led to a rather bemused response from the veteran rocker.
“I hadn’t heard the album before we wrote the script, but John Krasinski and I went to hear him in Madison Square Garden at the first show that he did of Wrecking Ball, and he played the album and I went: ‘Fuck! That’s the movie,'” he said. “I went back to see him afterwards and he asked: ‘What are you working on?’ And I said: ‘It’s like the movie version of your new album.’ And he goes: ‘What the fuck does that mean?’ And I said: ‘I don’t know, man! But you’ve got to see this thing when it comes out. I’m telling you, it’s the movie version of your album.'”
Not that Damon’s adoration of Springsteen was a revelation, considering the very first time he hosted Saturday Night Live in 2002. The actor’s agent called him and told him unequivocally that he was fronting the show despite having no new project to promote, with that confidence stemming solely from the fact ‘The Boss’ was already lined up as the musical guest.
