by Paul Fischer
by
Paul Fischer
Matt
Damon has much to celebrate these days. Not only can he talk with pride about
his starring role in Robert Redford's
The Legend of Bagger Vance,
but during the week of the film's opening, he happened to be turning 30. Ah, the
big 30, not that young Matt worries about this particular milestone. "I don't
know how it is for you, but for me, people always ask those questions the minute
you have a birthday. Do you feel older? And it's like: Of course not. 8 hours
after than the last time. But I guess this one is significant somehow. I guess
I haven't internalized that."
Damon's boyishness masks a clear maturity and eloquence, not the down and out guy struggling to find his place in the world, like the character he so effortlessly plays in Bagger Vance. "I think there's always a tendency to assume that people are like from some kind of external idea or at times vapid reporting about what's going on. I don't feel I know what anybody's life is like who I see kind of in the news."
Based on the novel by Steven Pressfield and set in 1931, The Legend of Bagger Vance tells of WWI veteran Rannulph Junuh (Damon), once a skilled amateur golfer, who agrees to play Bobby Jones (Joel Gretsch) and Walter Hagen (Bruce McGill), two of the game's most distinguished players, in a 36-hole match. Since Junuh's swing is not what it used to be, a mysterious gentleman named Bagger Vance (Will Smith) is recruited as his caddy. As Bagger helps Junuh to get his game back, Junuh discovers that many of Bagger's lessons apply to life as much as to golf.
Damon admits that
the character had certain resonance with him. "There's a certain amount of disillusionment
which I think we all have, the older we get. We see how things kinda work, we
all become a bit cynical probably. It's interesting in a sense that this is the
guy [in Bagger Vance] who was like the golden child and he had everything,
because he thought there were certain rules that applied, and every time he played
by these rules, life was wonderful and he was always very successful. But the
fact that there is a reality that is chaotic, that isn't governed by any rules,
and he realizes that, is enough to send him into a tailspin. He's a victim of
his own success, in a sense 
that
once he realizes that life isn't all governed by a set of rules, he just completely
abandons it."
Damon had no hesitation in agreeing to do Redford's film, not so much because of the role, but Redford came a calling. "Good Will Hunting is obviously influenced by Redford's Ordinary People, not only because of the dynamic between the therapist and the central character, but it's one of our [Ben and mine] favorite movies, so I couldn't say no. The odds of working with directors that are this good are really slim."
In the cynical world of Hollywood, Damon is an example of someone who doesn't seem to have been victimized by success, unlike so many of his contemporaries. The secret of maintaining a semblance of sanity, Damon argues, "is to do with really great friends and family. What success has really done for me is made me a lot stronger than I already thought before it happened. It may sounds trite and hokey but your deep relationships are what defines you; the rest of it's bulls**t."
A
product of Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was born on October 8, 1970, Damon
grew up in prosperous surroundings with his tax preparer father, college professor
mother, and older brother. At the age of ten, he made the acquaintance of one
Ben Affleck, a boy two years his junior who lived down the street. The
two became best friends and professional collaborators. Educated at Cambridge's
private Rindge and Latin School, Damon was accepted at Harvard University, where
he studied for three years before dropping out to pursue his acting career. During
his time there, he had to write a screenplay for an English class: it went unfinished,
but it would later be dusted off and turned into Good Will Hunting.
Arriving in Hollywood, Damon got his first break with a one-scene part in Mystic Pizza (1988). However, his film career failed to take off, and it was not until 1992, when he had a starring role in School Ties, that he was again visible to movie audiences. As the film was a relative failure, Damon's substantial role failed to win him notice, and he was back to laboring in obscurity. It was around this time, fed up with his Hollywood struggles, that Damon contacted Affleck, and the two finished writing the former's neglected screenplay and began trying to get it made into a film. It was eventually picked up by Miramax, with Gus Van Sant slated to direct and Robin Williams secured in a major role.
Before Good
Will Hunting was released in 1997, Damon won some measure of recognition for
his role as a drug-addicted soldier in Courage Under Fire; various industry
observers praised his performance and his dedication to the part, for which he
lost forty pounds and suffered resulting health problems. Any praise Damon may
have received, however, was overshadowed the following year by the accolades he
garnered for Good Will Hunting. His Oscar win and strong 
performance
in the film virtually guaranteed industry adulation and steady employment, something
that was made readily apparent the following year with lead roles in two major
films. The first, John Dahl's Rounders, cast Damon as a former card shark
trying to make good, despite the temptations posed by his ne'er-do-well buddy
(Edward Norton). Despite a name cast and preliminary hype, however, the film proved
a relative critical and financial disappointment. The same could not be said of
Damon's second film that year, Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan.
As Ryan's title character, Damon headlined an all-star line-up and received part
of the lavish praise heaped on the film and its strong ensemble cast. The following
year, Damon further increased his profile with leads in two more highly anticipated
films, Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley and Kevin Smith's Dogma.
The former cast the actor against type as the title character, a psychotic bisexual
murderer, and featured him as part of an improbably blonde and photogenic cast
that included Cate Blanchett, Jude Law, and Gwyneth Paltrow. Dogma also allowed
Damon to go against his nice-guy persona by casting him as a fallen angel. One
of the year's more controversial films, it reunited him with Affleck, as well
as Smith, who had cast Damon in a bit role in his 1997 film, Chasing Amy.
Matt and Ben remain
close pals, though with all the work they do with each other, one would assume
that by now, they 
are
well and truly sick of each other. "Funnily, we see each other less now than during
our teens and twenties. If we were tired of each other, we would have been tired
of each other a long time ago, trust me. We have very similar sensibilities about
a lot of stuff."
With the good Hollywood life that Damon has attained, there is the price he pays for success: Loss of privacy. The thoughtful actor remains philosophical. "Right now it's hard to wrap my brain around the idea that I'm a public figure. It's a by-product of the other thing, which is getting the best material first and working with the best people. That's what a movie star gets." He concludes that his basic philosophy working in Hollywood "is I want to work as hard as I can and I don't want to let people down. For me, the best I can do is to just look back and say: 'I don't have regrets. I tried my best.' I always try my best, and I think that's probably the most valuable thing that I've learnt."
Damon will next be seen in All the Pretty Horses, Ocean's Eleven, Third Wheel and The Bourne Identity.
Copyright © 2000 Paul Fischer. All rights reserved. Images TM and © 2000 Dreamworks LLC.