The “obscene” 2006 movie scene Matt Damon found bizarrely inspiring: “Pull out the big dildo”
Under normal circumstances, a call to arms that leads to the unleashing of a gargantuan sex toy on set would be a cause for concern, more than anything else. And yet, for Matt Damon, it was a moment of unexpected creative inspiration.
There are a thousand different ways for an actor to approach their performance in any given production, but finding common ground with a massive dildo would be somewhere near the bottom of the list, if it would even make the list at all. Usually, it wouldn’t, but there were extenuating circumstances in this case.
Namely, a co-star who’s developed a reputation and a fondness for using prosthetic phalluses to penetrate their way into character. It wasn’t the first time they’d brandished a whopping fake dong on a film set, but it was the first time that Damon had seen it up close and personal, and instead of wondering what the fuck was going on, he used it as a different kind of performance aid.
We are, of course, talking about Jack Nicholson, Hollywood’s dildo extraordinaire. After a successful argument with director Bob Rafelson on The Postman Always Rings Twice, the three-time Academy Award winner got his wish and was allowed to stuff one down his pants to simulate an onscreen erection.
Working with the filmmaker again on Man Trouble, the notorious hell-raiser and womaniser was insistent that if he were denied the right to use a dildo ahead of shooting a sex scene, he’d kill everyone in the vicinity. He got his way, funnily enough, only to be left furious that the audience didn’t notice his simulated stiffy.
On Martin Scorsese’s The Departed, Damon gained firsthand exposure to thespianism’s duke of dildos, and he liked what he saw. “Well, a funny thing has happened, and Jack has some ideas,” the legendary auteur informed the picture’s Colin Sullivan. “So Marty says, ‘Well, OK, I’ll just get to it. Jack’s going to wear a dildo!'”
“So we went in the next day and rehearsed it,” Damon explained. “And Jack’s idea was, ‘So here’s the deal; I’m going to come in, and I’m going to sit there in the overcoat, and I’m gonna turn around and pull out the big dildo, and we’re all gonna laugh.'” You wouldn’t want to argue with one of the greatest actors of all time, so he didn’t, and the star’s improvisations went ahead.
For some actors, it’s just Nicholson being Nicholson, but for Damon, it “brought this incredible new element to the character,” one that “made him more obscene in a way that felt authentic, because these guys sublimate sex into violence, and violence into sex, and it really is how a lot of those things did occur.” Not only that, but he used Frank Costello’s bravado to inform Sullivan’s weakness.
Or, as he put it, “We’re in this macho world where everyone’s beating each other up and throwing people through walls, and Jack’s a sexual dynamo, so here’s what I want to do: I want to lose every fight I’m in, and I don’t want my dick to work!” If you’ve ever watched The Departed and wondered why Sullivan, who lives life on the edge as a mobster who’s infiltrated the police force, can often come across as such a wet blanket, despite his dangerous existence, the answer is simple: it’s because of Jack Nicholson’s dildo.
