Face to face with Matt Damon
At the last Oscars ceremony, cinema’s “action man” wore an exceptional watch, a Midnight Planetarium by Van Cleef & Arpels. But when it comes to diving, jumping from dizzying heights or leaping about in extreme situations, Matt Damon appears to have a little weakness for TAG Heuer models…
You will soon be playing Jason Bourne again. When it comes to this role, isn’t it a little ironic that your mother had such a resolutely “peace and love” hippy-style attitude that she forbade you and your brother from playing with fake guns at home?
(Chuckles) True enough! My mother could not stand hearing about war, even of the make-believe kind. So she gave us building bricks, pieces of cloth, paint sets or modelling clay and she encouraged us to show imagination in our games. So my brother invented characters and costumes, and I dressed them up and did improvisations. Today he’s a sculptor and I’m an actor! That being said, I hate firearms. Letting guns do the talking never solved anything. Anyone is capable of holding a weapon, while negotiating, discussing things and taking the time required to avoid conflicts is a far more subtle process!
Speaking of time, do you remember when you bought your first watch?
The very first watch I bought goes back to when my old pal Ben Affleck and I were really going through some tough times. For years, we belonged to the category of young actors waiting by the phone hoping that a producer might throw them a small bone to gnaw on. We also experienced the disappointment of being led to believe we were likely to get such or such a role and then seeing someone else get the contract. Anyway, on one occasion Ben and I were on our way to an audition in New York when we came across a guy on the street selling counterfeit watches for 10 dollars. I said to myself “A Gucci watch for 10 dollars, that’s incredible!” So we both bought some of them, hoping to make an impression. Needless to say that none of them were working a month later!
Moral of the story?
Beware of counterfeits! It’s really throwing money out the window. But at the time, I was very unaware.
I’ve read somewhere that you bought an exceptional watch with your very first actor’s fee!
You’ve got to be kidding me! My very first role was in a made-for-cable film named Rising Sun. That was back in 1990. I used the money to help my mother finish her doctorate. I was really proud of being able to help her and it made me feel like a real man. I’m actually not a particularly materialistic person. Ownership for ownership’s sake is not my thing. I don’t have a private jet or a yacht. My only true wealth is my family!
What about the most beautiful watch you have ever bought for yourself or been given? Your “guilty watchmaking pleasure”?
One of the most beautiful watches I’ve ever been given was when filming The Bourne Identity. It was a TAG Heuer. On completing the second Bourne movie, I asked if I could keep the TAG I wore on set. I was told the model no longer existed, but they added that if I were to part of another “Bourne” film and my character needed another watch, they would be delighted to give me a new TAG Heuer model (Editor’s Note: a TAG Heuer Link Chronograph). Three years later, during the shooting of a new episode in this franchise, I was able to wear this ultra-rugged watch that proved extremely resistant on a day-to-day basis. I can assure you that it was subjected to all manner of hard knocks during the action scenes. Out of respect for tradition, I don’t like timepieces equipped with a lot of electronics. I’m still very much a “three-hand watch” guy. In a way, I’m a bit like Jason Bourne, who is fundamentally against technological supremacy. Nonetheless, I admit that I found it cool to know what altitude you’re at, your heart rate or the temperature, and to have an alarm…
Nonetheless, in The Martian, just as in Good Will Hunting, you played characters totally at east with figures.
I can handle very basic equations but have absolutely not got the maths skills of those two characters I’ve played! Both Good Will Hunting and The Martian pay homage to intelligence. In these films, we show that a clever mind can help you get you out of the worst possible situations. The Martian is also a tribute to ecology and recycling, because Mark Whatney is able to use the means available to him to make potatoes grow on Mars and thereby optimise his survival rations.
If you had a watch equipped with a special app and could choose one in particular, which would be your first choice?
It would be a somewhat improbable app. I would like it to tell me the date and time when earthlings will migrate en masse to another planet in the solar system. I think it’s time we started thinking about that! As I see it, we as human beings are already past the point of no return. Our planet is dying, which means we are already heading towards extinction! The only chance for humankind would be to settle on another planet. But what worries me is that once we are up there, we might end up repeating the same stupid mistakes as on Earth when it comes to managing the environment.
A think a watch should be “synchronised” with your lifestyle, and mine is pretty fast-paced…
Matt Damon
In Monuments Men, you play a curator from the Metropolitan Museum de New York. In real life, are you a connoisseur of art and particularly of watches, which can be real artistic gems?
My brother is a painter and a sculptor, so I have a lot of his works in my home. I also like a number of up-and-coming artists. As you know, some people love to surround themselves with a lot of highly rated artworks and I can understand that. They are beautiful to look at and they procure a definite sense of satisfaction. You are aware of having something rare in your immediate surroundings. As far as I’m concerned, when I buy a canvas, I’m not thinking in terms of investment. In other words, it’s not about enhancing my social status. The same goes for watches. I own a few, but I don’t plan on starting a collection and definitely not on hanging them on the wall. A think a watch should be “synchronised” with your lifestyle, and mine is pretty fast-paced… (Chuckles)
