Matt Damon names the single greatest scene of his career: “The best time I’ve ever had”
As you’d expect from an actor who made their big-screen debut in 1988 and has spent most of the last three decades on the A-list, Matt Damon has starred in his fair share of memorable scenes.
They don’t even have to come from his most memorable movies, either, as his Eurotrip cameo can confirm, or his two outings in Taika Waititi’s Thor films, where the actor played an actor playing the character played by another actor, making them as self-aware as they were amusing.
Whether he’s beating the shit out of a would-be killer with a newspaper in a Bourne flick, stealing Denzel Washington’s thunder in Courage Under Fire, delivering an emotional monologue in Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan, or schlepping around in Steven Soderbergh’s The Informant!, he knows how to steal ’em.
Asking anyone with an extensive filmography to trawl through their personal archives and single out one scene as the greatest moment they’ve ever experienced in front of the camera sounds like a tall order, but Damon didn’t hesitate. He’s been in some classics, but pitting his wits against a generational talent was a moment he’ll never forget.
In Anthony Minghella’s The Talented Mr Ripley, a film Damon holds in the highest regard as one of his finest achievements, the title character’s duplicity gets him to where he wants to be. However, not everyone is susceptible to Tom Ripley’s immaculate charm, with Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Freddie Miles instantly seeing through the façade.
The two share an intense exchange when Freddie shows up to quiz Tom on the disappearance of their mutual friend, Jude Law’s Dickie Greenleaf. The former knows something is up, and the tension gradually ratchets up in an isolated two-hander that stands out as one of the film’s most engrossing sequences.
It’s a six-minute masterclass, albeit one that doesn’t end well for Hoffman’s character, and Damon called it the pinnacle. “He was the best, he was incredible,” he remarked of his scene partner. “He was a very special guy, and one of the best actors to ever live, I think. That scene I did with him in that movie was the best time I think I’ve ever had.”
“Just in terms of being with someone who was so locked in,” the Academy Award-winning writer explained. “It was just awesome.” When Freddie discovers that Tom has assumed Dickie’s identity and returns to confront him, the writing is already on the wall, and he gets bludgeoned to death by a statue for daring to uncover the truth.
It’s arguably the best scene in The Talented Mr Ripley, and even if you disagree, you can’t argue with Damon calling it the finest scene of his entire career, because he was the guy who performed it.
