Matt Damon looked the opportunity of working in a cinematic masterpiece and a global box office success right in the eye and probably thought, ‘Let me pass that on to someone else.’
Ranked among Forbes’ most bankable stars, Damon, 52, has made quite a fortune throughout his career in Hollywood with the films he’s starred in collectively grossing more than $3.88 billion at the North American box office. That figure could’ve been even more enormous if the Oscar nominee hadn’t turned down Harvey Dent’s role in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. But because he did, the offer was passed on to Aaron Eckhart instead and Damon missed out on being a part of one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed movies of all time.
Why Matt Damon Declined Harvey Dent’s Role in The Dark Knight
Aaron Eckhart’s iconic portrayal of Two-Face in The Dark Knight (2008) was received with immense praise by the audience. But before the London Has Fallen star stepped into the shoes of Batman’s adversary in the movie, the role had been offered to none other than Ocean’s Eleven actor Matt Damon.
While Harvey Dent’s role might’ve paled in comparison to Christian Bale’s Batman or Heath Ledger’s Joker, the character still contributed significantly to the Christopher Nolan-helmed film. If only Damon knew, that the “small role” he was turning down at the time was part of a film that would end up being hailed as a cinematic spectacle of all time.
In an episode of Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast, The Good Will Hunting star revealed how he’d refused the role in the $1 billion superhero film because he already had a big project lined up during that time.
“Well, ‘Dark Knight’ was a small role that I was offered…It wasn’t Heath or Christian’s part…There was some other big movie, some big part that I was doing where I was like, ‘Well, I can’t play Harvey Dent, this is a relatively small role, but I am headlining this other thing.’ But you gotta be sanguine about it and go, ‘It all works out.'”
That wasn’t the only Batman project he’d missed out on though. The Martian star had auditioned for Batman’s Robin on two different occasions – for DC’s Boy Wonder in Tim Burton’s Batman (1989) and Batman Forever (1995) which was directed by Joel Schumacher.
But besides the fat paycheck that he would’ve bagged through The Dark Knight along with the popularity, what Damon regretted the most was not being able to collaborate with one of the most brilliant filmmakers of the 21st century. Lucky for him though, that changed after he worked with Nolan on the Academy Award-winning science fiction, Interstellar.
Matt Damon Was Content With Getting A Small Role in Interstellar
While the Bourne Legacy star missed out on the golden opportunity of joining forces with the renowned British-American filmmaker on The Dark Knight, he recuperated his losses a few years later by working with Nolan in 2014’s Interstellar. Though he secured a relatively less prominent role in the sci-fi film, Damon was thrilled about it all the same given how he was dying to be a part of “that troupe.”
“Sometimes you look at a role, it’s good, it’s a good role in a great movie—I subsequently did a small role in one of Christopher Nolan’s movies in Interstellar. I wanted to be part of that troupe, he works with the same actors over and over again, but I wanted to be on that ride.”
Thanks to Damon not passing down that role too, Interstellar ended up becoming one of the biggest films he’s ever appeared in after it grossed more than $700 million at the global box office.
Interstellar is streaming on Paramount + and The Dark Knight can be streamed on HBO Max.
Source: Happy Sad Confused podcast
