“It was pretty funny”: the only Matt Damon movie trashed by an American president
Like every other actor, Matt Damon has made his fair share of terrible movies. Unlike most actors, though, one of them was publicly called out for being crap by the President of the United States.
Of course, these days, it’s commonplace for the White House’s current incumbent to go on long-winded rants about anything and everything, with the entertainment industry frequently in the firing line. And yet, it wasn’t WWE Hall of Famer Donald Trump who delivered a withering verdict on Damon’s output.
Billy Bob Thornton has made his stance clear that actors shouldn’t be using their platform to wade into politics, but his All the Pretty Horses star didn’t share that opinion. They can both agree that the movie they made together was harshly treated and butchered beyond recognition, but they draw the line at keeping their professional lives and political beliefs separate.
Damon, who campaigned for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election, appeared to have lost some of his enthusiasm for the commander-in-chief, revealing three years later that he’d been disappointed in his failure to follow through on several campaign promises, and his misgivings made it all the way to the highest office in the land.
Anyone, politician or not, who had the misfortune of suffering through The Great Wall would be well within their rights to shit all over it, and Damon wouldn’t stop them, because from his perspective, it’ll take some beating to be knocked off its perch as the worst movie he thinks he’s ever been a part of.
Instead, though, Obama pointed to a mildly successful and moderately entertaining sci-fi flick. “Just the other day, Matt Damon… I love Matt Damon, love the guy. Matt Damon said he was disappointed in my performance,” the president shared. “Well, Matt, I just saw The Adjustment Bureau, so… right back at you, buddy.”
The Adjustment Bureau wasn’t that bad, even if it wasn’t great, and the Bourne star has definitely made at least a handful of films that are much worse, but since it was his most recent release, Obama went in for the kill. Damon did manage to take it in his stride, even if he couldn’t resist firing a return shot across the bows to the White House.
“I have to say, it was pretty funny,” he agreed, before getting a dig in. “Whoever came up with it, it was a terrific joke.” Then again, maybe he has a point. Either that, or Obama spent his spare time watching Damon try to defy the laws of fate itself to romance Emily Blunt, thought it was rubbish, and immediately thought to himself, ‘That’s definitely going in my next speech.’
Wherever the truth lies, the fact remains that The Adjustment Bureau has the unique distinction of being the only Matt Damon movie named and shamed by the most powerful person in America, unless he makes something else that gets underneath a certain somebody’s skin in the next couple of years.
