The role Matt Damon wasn’t allowed to turn down: “I’m not gonna let him say no”
Actors as big as Matt Damon turn down movies all the time, which comes with the territory of being a star on that level. However, only once has he turned down a movie that he ended up making, for the sole reason that the person making it wouldn’t let him.
Sometimes, the conversation ends when a performer declines an offer, sometimes, a heftier paycheque can sway their decision, and there are rare occasions when their will is simply worn down from being asked repeatedly. On one hand, it was someone that Damon really wanted to work with. On the other hand, no really was supposed to be no.
Then again, when Robert De Niro comes calling, it’s a lot harder to resist. He’s one of the greatest actors of all time, and someone that almost everyone in Damon’s generation has dreamed of sharing the screen with. And yet, even a two-time Academy Award winner and all-around industry icon can find himself quietly rebuffed, not that he let it stop him.
13 years after the release of his directorial debut, A Bronx Tale, Martin Scorsese’s muse stepped back behind the camera for 2006’s The Good Shepherd. A long-time passion project, the ground almost fell out from beneath him when Leonardo DiCaprio bailed on the lead role to make The Departed with Scorsese, of all people.
Scrambling for a new star, Damon, who’d also been cast in The Departed, was at the top of the list. It was a script he’d been aware of for years, and it felt like the right film at the right time. “I was suddenly old enough to play the part; it had fallen apart with Leo, and he had all of the pieces kind of together,” he explained to Jan Gajewski. “He had this moment where he knew that if he couldn’t get me to do it, the whole thing was going to fall apart.”
Unfortunately, the Good Will Hunting scribe was about to dive into Steven Soderbergh’s The Informant, which forced him into an awkward conversation with De Niro. “I was like, ‘I can’t believe I’m saying this to you, but… no,'” he recalled, with screenwriter Eric Roth revealing how The Good Shepherd‘s director reacted to the rejection.
“Bob told me, ‘He said no to me, but I’m not gonna let him say no to me,'” he shared. “But that’s Bob for you; he’s a dog with a bone.” Eventually, the two parties agreed that it was time they dipped into their list of contacts, with De Niro telling Damon, “Look, I can talk to Marty if you can talk to Steve.'”
Scorsese pulled some strings and reconfigured The Departed‘s shooting schedule so that the actor would be free to make The Good Shepherd, whereas Damon’s phone call with Soderbergh was a much more straightforward affair. “You want to do The Good Shepherd,” the latter guessed, so he did everyone a solid and pushed The Informant into the next year.
Everyone got what they wanted eventually, and the only downside was that after all the hassle and jumping through hoops, the film underperformed at the box office and earned reviews that could generously be called tepid. Still, De Niro got his man, and that’s all that mattered.
