Matt Damon says financing ‘Small Things Like These’ “felt like a dream”
Ahead of Small Things Like These, based on the Claire Keegan novel of the same name and starring Cillian Murphy and Emily Watson, opening the Berlin Film Festival, Matt Damon has described working on the film as “a dream”.
The historical drama has been financed by Damon and Ben Affleck’s Artists Equity production banner, and Damon has spoken of how the film asks its audience to care about the medium of cinema.
Speaking at the press conference for the movie in Berlin on February 15th, Damon claimed, “there is enough audience in the world that still do [care about cinema]” despite ongoing financial challenges in the sector and geopolitical issues.
Reflecting on when he entered the film industry in the 1990s, Damon said, “you would see movies like [Small Things Like These] all the time,” before pointing out the fact that the industry is “constantly in flux.”
Small Things Like These sees Cillian Murphy play a coal merchant who discovers that his local Irish convent is actually a malicious institution/asylum that houses so-called “fallen women”.
“This film does not pander,” Damon commented. “It is asking the audience to care about cinema, and I believe that there is enough of an audience in the world that still does.”
“[It] felt like a dream for us,” he added. “For us on our side, it was a very easy proposition. We were facilitating an environment where [the creatives] could do this work and explore these things, so it was really about getting out their way.”
Meanwhile, Murphy explained how he “fell in love” with Keegan’s novel and instantly “very much wanted to play the part”, which inspired him to purchase the rights to making the film.
Check out a clip from Small Things Like These below.
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