Matt Damon has a handful of unforgettable roles in his filmography, but his work in the Bourne franchise will always remain the most iconic. With the three films based on the novels by Robert Ludlum, Matt Damon revamped the action genre before finally saying goodbye to the franchise after the fifth film, Jason Bourne (2016). He was not a part of the fourth installment, Jason Bourne.
Needless to say, filming the Bourne films was a one-of-a-kind experience for Matt Damon, but he went on to do another film that reminded him of his time on the action franchise – The Martian (2015). Since the films belong to totally different genres, it was not the story that took Matt Damon back to Bourne. Rather, it was the experience he had on the sets.
How The Martian Reminded Matt Damon of the Bourne Films
In the Bourne films, Matt Damon had to shoot a lot of scenes where he was on his own with no other actor near him. Then, when he shot The Martian, he had to do something similar all over again, which is why the film reminded him of Bourne.
In an interview with Smithsonian magazine, Damon was asked if there was any other film that had some similarity to The Martian in terms of these “one-man show”-like scenes.
To this, the actor replied,
The closest thing would probably be the Bourne movies. I end up on my own, usually, in those, at least in the second two. But that was the appeal of this. It was so different from anything I’d ever done before. I have these long monologues to nobody.
Despite this, Damon was a little hesitant to join The Martian as he had done a very similar role just one year ago. The only reason he said yes to playing Dr. Mark Watney was the film’s director, Ridley Scott.
He said,
I never would’ve considered doing it had it not been for a world-class director. It’s a very risky thing to do, but I had faith in Ridley being able to strike the right tone for it.
The film, which had Damon getting trapped in a dilemma about whether or not to be a part of The Martian, was none other than Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar.
Matt Damon Almost Said No to The Martian Because of Interstellar
In Scott’s space epic, Damon’s character gets stranded on Mars after a mission gone wrong. After being hit by debris, Mark is presumed dead, and the rest of his teammates leave the planet without him. Later, it is revealed that Mark is alive and thus begins his journey of surviving on a strange planet all alone.
Just a year before, Damon played a similar role of a stranded astronaut in Interstellar, Dr. Mann. Thus, worried about playing two similar roles back-to-back, the Oppenheimer actor would have said no to The Martian if it wasn’t for Scott.
He told Smithsonian,
Two great directors came to me within a year of each other. They’re very different movies, but the circumstances of the characters I play are exactly the same! [Laughs] That irony wasn’t lost on me. Luckily, they’re very different in feel and tone and theme. I just couldn’t say no to Ridley.
When he voiced his dilemma to Scott, the filmmaker had just one thing to say to him: “Nobody gives a **** about that!” And thus, Damon became a part of The Martian, a film that gave him his sixth Oscar nomination. He also won a Golden Globe for Best Actor for the role.
Stream the first four Bourne films on Peacock Premium and Max. Jason Bourne is available to rent/buy on Prime Video.
You can also rent/buy The Martian on Prime Video and stream Interstellar on Paramount+ as well as Prime Video.
