The actor opened up about some much-needed advice he received while making what he called a 'losing effort.'
While Matt Damon has led a number of movies that have topped the box office and even garnered him accolades, including one Oscar win for co-writing Good Will Hunting and several other Academy Award nominations for acting, he admitted there has been a time where he found himself in a "losing effort," causing him to fall into a depression while on set.
"I think, without naming any particular movies, that sometimes you find yourself in a movie that perhaps might not be what you had hoped it would be and you're still making it," Damon told Jake Hamilton, host of the YouTube interview series Jake's Takes, while promoting his latest role in Oppenheimer.
"I remember halfway through production -- and you've still got months to go and you've taken your family somewhere, you know, and you've inconvenienced them -- and I remember my wife pulling me up because I fell into a depression about, like, 'What have I done?'" Damon recalled, referring to Luciana Barroso.
"And she just said, 'We're here now,'" he revealed.
"I do pride myself, in a large part because of her, at being a professional actor. And what being a professional actor means is you go and you do the 15-hour day and give it absolutely everything, even in what you know is going to be a losing effort," Damon went on to say, while answering Hamilton's question about the best professional advice he's ever received from his spouse.
He added, "And if you can do that with the best possible attitude, then you're a pro. And she really helped me with that."
Damon first met Barroso while filming Stuck on You in Miami, Florida, in 2003. Two years later, in 2005, they became engaged and were married in a private ceremony by December of that year. Together, they have three daughters, Isabella Damon, 17, Gia Damon, 14, and Stella Damon, 12. (The couple also shares a stepdaughter, Alexia Barroso, 24, from his wife's previous marriage.)
While he didn't get into any other specifics about the project, Damon has made a number of films since 2005, including hits like Contagion, The Departed, Downsizing, Ocean's 13 and, most recently, Air on Prime Video.
Also, in that group is The Adjustment Bureau, which he and co-star Emily Blunt joked about making together while the two were speaking with Hamilton about their latest project, Oppenheimer, from director Christopher Nolan.
In the historical drama about the godfather of the atomic bomb, which will open in theaters on Friday, July 21, Cillian Murphy leads the sprawling ensemble cast as theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, while Blunt plays his wife and botanist Katherine "Kitty" Oppenheimer and Damon portrays the director of the Manhattan Project, Leslie Groves.
While speaking with ET, Damon and Blunt shared how excited they were to work together again, even though they don't share much screen time together in Nolan's latest period film. But for them, even just one scene in the anticipated new release would have been worth it.
"I mean, he is such a groundbreaking, extraordinary director -- I would have done one scene. I mean, I would have done anything," Blunt raved. "I think everyone felt that. You see all the cast that are in this movie and there's the huge, vast, ranging number of actors who showed up for him. It's just a testament to him and the kind of excellence he demands. People want to be a part of that. It's fun for us to be around it."
"Nobody says this out loud, but everybody feels lucky to be there," Damon agreed. "You're a part of a great director's vision, so it's very exciting."
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