Some of the biggest names in Hollywood have never won an Academy Award in their careers and some of them even pretend like they just don’t care. One of the most established stars of Hollywood, Matt Damon does not fall into that category though. Damon has already won an Oscar Award once very early in his career and the actor once revealed in an interview why he believes it was too important for him to win one at such a young age.
Matt Damon opens up about how he realized that Oscars was an absolute waste
Matt Damon won his first Academy Award at the age of 27 along with his long-time friend, Ben Affleck for Best Original Screenplay for their psychological drama movie, Good Will Hunting. Once on The Graham Norton Show, the host Graham Norton asked the actor how he felt about winning an award and what did he that night after he won it. Damon revealed that he returned to his then-girlfriend’s place at the time and had an epiphany. He said,
“I couldn’t sleep, I was still kind of buzzing. I was sitting there and I remember very clearly looking at that award and thinking very very clearly…I literally looked at it, I was alone with it, and said to myself ‘Thank god, I didn’t f**k anybody over for this.’ I suddenly had this thing wash over me where I thought, ‘Imagine chasing that and not getting it and getting it finally in your 80s or 90s with all of life behind you and realizing what an unbelievable waste of your, you know what I mean?'”
Matt Damon further went on to talk about how winning the award at such a young age changed his outlook on these Awards drastically.
The Martian actor talks about how winning the Oscar changed his life
Despite describing the Oscars as a waste, Matt Damon opened up about how he was still grateful for winning that award at such a young age as it helped him get over it. Damon further revealed that if winning an Academy Award is a hole in someone’s heart, even winning it “would never fill you up.” He said,
“I felt so blessed to have that awareness at 27, to learn it because I wouldn’t have known it unless I knew[won] it. My heart literally broke for a second. I imagined another one of me, you know an old man kind of going like, ‘Oh my god, where did my life go? What have I done?’ and then it’s over.”
Good Will Hunting allegedly took 5 years in the making and became one of the largest critical and commercial successes when it came out in 1997. The movie went on to gross almost $225 million against a budget of $10 million. Robin Williams also won an Academy Award for his portrayal of Dr. Sean Maguire in the movie.
Good Will Hunting is currently streaming on HBO Max.
