Matt Damon is one of the renowned movie stars in Hollywood who established his leading star persona by working in films like The Talented Mr. Ripley and the Bourne franchise. He is also known for being great friends with several A-listers, with one being his Batman star, Ben Affleck. The duo share a long-lasting friendship however there is one more person with whom he shares quite a complex friendly relationship!
Matt Damon Shared How Jimmy Kimmel Started The Fake Feud
In a 2021 interview on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show, Matt Damon revealed how his long feud with Jimmy Kimmel impacted their lives. He admitted that he had “never met” with the host when he decided to give the star an iconic shoutout that went on for years – ‘Sorry Matt Damon, We have run out of time!’
He shared at the time,
“He literally pulled my name out of thin air one night.”
“And the way he told me this story, he said he had like a, he said ‘I had a ventriloquist and a guy in a gorilla suit as my guests. And I just said kind of as a throw away, my apologies to Matt Damon when we ran out of time.'”
He further mentioned how Kimmel could’ve named some other celebrity, who has been more famous than the star like Brad Pitt, George Clooney, or someone else.
“But he just, for some reason, maybe I had a movie out that week or something, but he just said my name.”
He admitted that the duo kept their feud going as he shared,
“And it changed the course of both of our lives. We’ve kept this feud going for, you know, it’s gotta be 15 years now. I’ve had a lot of fun doing it.”
Not just Damon, the TV host also addressed the topic stating his perspective on how he ended up naming The Martian Guy in his monologues.
It All Started With a Bad Day at Jimmy Kimmel’s Show
In a 2013 interview with NPR, the American TV host explained how he ended up taking Damon’s name on his show. He talked about having a “bad show” one day in 2005 when he took his name in amusement. To his surprise, the show producer liked the idea and the rest is history.
“We had a bad show. … The guests were bad, and I was feeling pretty bad about myself at the end of the program. And I decided to say, for the amusement of one of our producers who was standing next to me … ‘I want to apologize to Matt Damon. We ran out of time.’ … And he got a kick out of it, the producer, so I just started doing it every night to amuse him.”
As to why he popped into my head, he shared,
“Matt Damon was just the first name that popped into my head. I was trying to think of an A-list star, and somebody we absolutely would not bump if he was on the show. … The legs on this bit are unbelievable to me.”
He was surprised as he never imagined that his repetitive joke would entertain fans for years. Due to the same, the duo became great friends.
Source: SiriusXM
