Matt Damon Says Clint Eastwood Shut Down His Request to Film More Takes: ‘Why? You Wanna Waste Everybody’s Time?’
Matt Damon appeared on the “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” podcast and remembered Clint Eastwood shutting him down during their first day on set together. Damon has appeared in two Eastwood movies: 2009’s “Invictus,” for which he earned an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor, and 2010’s “Hereafter.”
“So I was playing a South African rugby player, and that’s a really tough accent to do,” Damon remembered about his first Eastwood movie, noting he “spent six months” working with dialect coach to nail the accept of rugby player Francois Pienaar. “[The coach] would come in from 9 to 5, Monday through Friday. It was a lot of work.”
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“I showed up [on set] and I am ready and it’s my chance to work with one of my heroes,” Damon continued. “The very first take, I did it… There are a number of ways I’m thinking of doing the scene and he just goes, ‘Cut, print, move on.’ I go, ‘Hang on, hang on, hang on, boss. I want to, you know, I want to do another one. That was the first one!’ He goes, ‘Why? You wanna waste everybody’s time?’ And I went, ‘No, I guess we’re moving on.’”
Damon stressed “there was a kindness” to Eastwood’s rejection and called the filmmaker “a lovely guy,” adding: “His whole mentality was… your crew will go to the ends of the Earth for you if as long as you’re not taxing them on every shot.”
Eastwood is famous in Hollywood for not giving his actors many takes during filming. The 95-year-old icon’s most recent film was 2024’s “Juror No. 2” and was billed as his final directorial effort.
Watch Damon’s full interview on the “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” podcast in the video below.
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