The role Matt Damon didn’t think he could play: “I didn’t want to look like a jackass”
Matt Damon might be Hollywood royalty these days, but he had to toil away for a long time to get there. He made his big screen debut with a minor role in the film Mystic Pizza before taking more bit parts in films like Edward Zwick’s Courage Under Fire and the baseball-themed weep-a-thon Field of Dreams. It wasn’t until he and best buddy Ben Affleck co-wrote and starred in 1997’s Good Will Hunting that things began to change.
Following his breakout role, Damon’s career went from strength to strength. The late 1990s consisted of films like Saving Private Ryan and The Talented Mr Ripley, while the early 2000s landed him Ocean’s Eleven and The Bourne Identity, both of which would generate major franchises. In between those parts of his career, there came a curious movie called The Legend of Bagger Vance, which teamed the rising star up with legendary actor/director Robert Redford.
The Legend of Bagger Vance is a weird film. Damon plays Rannulph Junuh, an aspiring golf prodigy who is traumatised after serving in World War I. His fortunes change when he meets the titular character (Will Smith), a mysterious caddy who can coach him back to his former ways. With his confidence returned, he enters a tournament to save his ex-lover, Adele (Charlize Theron), from financial ruin.
If you were a studio executive wondering whether or not to option this madcap idea, you’d be well within your rights to have doubts. You wouldn’t be the only one, as Damon himself also wasn’t sure he could pull this off. “I told Robert Redford I didn’t know much about golf,” the star told Hollywood.com. “I heard it was pretty hard, and I just didn’t want to look like a jackass. And he said since I played baseball, I would be fine.” Professional golfers and baseball players alike would probably have a lot to say about that assessment, but hey, it’s Robert Redford. If he says it’s OK, then it’s OK.
Getting in good golfing shape wasn’t Damon’s only concern about the project. “When you talk to Redford, you’re drifting out of Roy Hobbs [Redford’s role in The Natural] and all of his other characters. You feel like you’re going to have a seizure or something,” he continued. “I think he’s got really good radar for it, so he knows when you’re totally phasing out, and he brings you back in. I think he’s so used to it. For so long, he’s been walking down the street and watching people pass out. He’s so down to earth, so strangely normal, he really kind of dispels that.”
To improve his skills, Damon learned the game from Tim Moss, a seasoned PGA pro. As the film was set in the 1930s, and golf gloves weren’t invented until much later, he kept his hands taped up to simulate what it would have been like for players at the time.
Unfortunately, Damon’s sacrifice didn’t pay off, as the film was met with middling reviews and poor box office receipts. This led to a downturn in the young actor’s career, but at least he had proved himself wrong and got to show off his skills to a Hollywood idol. Isn’t that all that matters at the end of the day? Well, not if you ask an accountant, but you get the point.
