Matt Damon can be said to be the undisputed king of blown opportunities. The actor, 53, turned down the opportunity to star in one of the biggest films ever made in history when he refused to be the lead actor in James Cameron’s Avatar. That’s not all; he declined the chance to become one of Batman’s most infamous rogues.
The Good Will Hunting star was offered the role of Harvey Dent / Two-Face in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, which was later bagged by Aaron Eckhart. Surprisingly, though, Damon explained that it was “a small role that I was offered.”
One might assume that the recent release of Nolan’s Oppenheimer marks the director and actor’s first collaboration. But Damon did appear in Interstellar, albeit in a very small and evil role. As he disclosed during the Oppenheimer press tour, Nolan was very “direct” about the role’s size when he extended the offer to play Dr. Mann, saying, “This is a small part”.
The Dark Knight: The Reason Matt Damon Rejected Harvey Dent’s Role
There is no denying that Aaron Eckhart did a fantastic job as the brash Gotham district attorney Harvey Dent. His believable character arc and shining light on Gotham’s future allowed him to shed his good-guy image and take on the character of a supervillain. Matt Damon‘s portrayal of Harvey, who established the line separating good and evil, would have been intriguing.
Unfortunately, scheduling conflicts with a major project he was leading at the time prevented Damon from accepting the role.
During an interview with The Playlist, the Mystic Pizza star went over his reasoning, explaining:
“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.’ At this point, I passed on the biggest payday in the history [of cinema] accidentally, so I could never do worse financially, I could never commit a worse financial error.”
Apart from the substantial income and fame that he would have gained from The Dark Knight, Damon’s greatest regret was not being able to work with one of the most talented directors. Fortunately for him, however, that changed after he collaborated with Nolan in Interstellar and recently in Oppenheimer.
Also Read: Matt Damon Won’t Return to Jason Bourne 6 if 1 Condition isn’t Met: 5 Stars Who Can Replace Him
Matt Damon Revealed Christopher Nolan’s Hilariously ‘Direct’ Interstellar Pitch
In an interview with Fandango, Matt Damon and the cast of Oppenheimer discussed their previous collaborations with Christopher Nolan as well as his most recent biopic. The Stillwater actor—who always seems to have the best stories—cited how Nolan pitched Interstellar to him as an example of how “direct” the director is. Damon expressed:
“Chris is very direct. Like when he offered me Interstellar years ago, he said ‘You know they say there are no small parts, there are only small actors?’ and I’m on the phone and go ‘Yeah!’ [And he goes] ‘This is a small part’.”
This hilarious answer shows how much of a sense of humor the director of Inception has. Even though Damon has a relatively small role in Interstellar—as Nolan himself admitted—the former did excel in the film and gave the main character a great deal of conflict. With Interstellar grossing over $700 million worldwide at the box office, Damon’s decision to accept the role also made it one of his biggest roles to date.
You can watch The Dark Knight on HBO Max, while Interstellar is streaming on Paramount Plus.
