How Matt Damon got final cut on a movie he wasn’t even in: “I was the compromise”
Only a select few directors in the industry are given final cut over their films, and outside of maybe Tom Cruise and one or two others, it’s hard to think of any actor who gets the same privilege. And yet, Matt Damon ended up being handed the creative keys to a movie that he wasn’t even in.
It was an unusual set of circumstances, to say the least, with Hollywood politics playing a huge part in a call that hasn’t been made too often in cinema history. The Academy Award-winning screenwriter and A-list star didn’t abuse his position of power, though, instead using his clout to highlight the director’s work.
There were several factors in play, and one of the most notable was a disastrous picture. Writer and director Kenneth Lonergan’s second feature from behind the camera, Margaret, was finally release six years after it had finished shooting, with the filmmaker becoming so disenchanted by the constant delays that he tried to hand the movie over to Martin Scorsese to hammer into shape.
As a result, he struggled to find backing for his proposed follow-up, Manchester by the Sea. Fortunately, he had a friend in a high place. Damon and Lonergan had been friends since the early 2000s, after being introduced by their mutual friend, Casey Affleck, who was cast in the lead role. The project had initially been developed alongside John Krasinski, who was planning to star with Damon directing, but when it was handed over to Lonergan, the latter remained on board as a producer.
“Casey doesn’t have a ton of bankable stats, and Kenny’s a negative,” was how co-producer Chris Moore succinctly put it. “Kenny is at a certain place right now that he really wasn’t in… his reputation was really sullied,” Damon explained, referring to the Margaret debacle. In order to keep the financial backers sweet, it was agreed that he, and not the director, would have final cut.
“I was the compromise,” Damon confirmed. “It was just a way of keeping everybody calm. Kenny had this reputation of not being able to cut anything down. I knew I would never need it.” While Manchester by the Sea did run for a leisurely 137 minutes, the production went off without a hitch, meaning the Good Will Hunting and Bourne favourite didn’t need to wield his producorial power.
The hands-off approach worked, with Lonergan’s film recouping its budget more than eight times over at the box office, winning him an Oscar for ‘Best Original Screenplay’, landing Affleck the prize for ‘Best Actor’, and earning further nominations for ‘Best Picture’, ‘Best Supporting Actor’, and ‘Best Supporting Actress’, which was all accomplished without the spectre of Matt Damon looming ominously in the background.
Lonergan hasn’t helmed a feature since, although his friendship with Damon did come full circle in a way when he played the role of Herbert Greenleaf in the Netflix series Ripley, a fresh adaptation of the Patricia Highsmith novel that once gave the rising star one of his first major leading roles.
