The Bourne Identity: Interview

Interview by Clint Morris

Interview with Matt Damon
Actor in The Bourne Identity film.

Sitting in his suite at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Melbourne, Matt Damon looks barely half of his 32 years. But behind those eyes and cheeky demeanor lies a man who has been "living it large" for the past five years.

In that time, he's won an Academy Award, dated some of Hollywood's most beautiful women and starred in a string of hit films – including Good Will Hunting, The Rainmaker, The Talented Mr. Ripley and Ocean’s Eleven. In town to promote his latest film, The Bourne Identity, it's a subdued Matt Damon who sits down to talk to Clint Morris.

Damon is convincing as Jason Bourne

Based on Robert Ludlum's 1980 espionage yarn, The Bourne Identity is a contemporary spy thriller with a difference.

If anything, because it features an actor you wouldn't normally associate with high-voltage action, but as Damon says, if he hadn't done so much physical training to prepare and immerse himself in the role of Jason Bourne, the audience may never have gone for it.

"Say, for starters, I picked up the gun and it looked like I didn't even know what I was doing, the audience would pick up on it. So I had to spend hour after hour loading and shooting pistols," explains Damon.

Damon also explains that he had to disseminate himself with martial arts and boxing to credibly play the film's titular super spy, starting with Kali style martial arts.

"I'm still boxing. I've started enjoying it, even after the movie's finished," he says.

"I mean, when I did The Talented Mr. Ripley, I had nothing to do but look like I was playing Piano, and even that I didn't play. I've done a little horseback riding for The Pretty Horses and a spot of Golf, naturally.

"I had a heap of people teaching me all different aspects of fighting and training. I did Boxing with one guy, pistol shooting with another, weight training with a guy named Jonathan and a guy named Chick on the much more physical stuff. Six hours a day on this stuff," explains Damon.

"In terms of pistol shooting, this was also pretty important to get right. I mean, I can always tell an L.A Cop that's off duty. Say he's at a bar; he stands there with his gun in his holster still. He's off, but he still looks the part.

"They wanted me to look the part too. Even though some of those moments with a gun may only be little moments, they're vital. It was big leap for me to take on this role, so we had to make it work."

One extra task Damon had as Bourne was to look like he was a pro-driver of the Mini Car, but sadly, he was knocked back at his offer to drive it. "They took us out to this Formula One track and they never let us even drive it," he laughs.

The car chase scene will impress

"They had those guys who did Ronin do it. You know, the guys that did that awesome car chase in the movie! I'm glad they used Mini's though. It's a small detail, but it comes across so much better than if they had used, say, a Ferrari.

"That Geena Davis film, The Long Kiss Goodnight, was a loose take on The Bourne Identity, and they didn't do any of that, so in some ways we're going anti-American, but it could have been a throwaway film otherwise. They're already comparing this film to The Italian Job, which is good. I see it more as a homage to that though."

Damon says that although he had read the original novel that the film is based upon, director Doug Liman was aiming for something different, so he didn't need to take it into consideration an awful lot. "It's a pretty famous airport novel in America. There's like the Ludlum shelf, the Clancy shelf and so on, it's always there.

"I read it when I was, like, 21 – 22, when I was flying around and couldn't get a job," he laughs.

"When Doug Liman asked me to do the movie, I was quite surprised. I mean, in the book, the guy is a lot older and it's very passé, not to mention set in the Cold War. But Liman told me he didn't want to do James Bond, he saw it more as a European Le Femme Nikita, a throwback to the kind of movies they made back in the 70's: loud and big."

Budgeted at $60 Million, the actor says it's almost a low-budget picture in terms of Hollywood standards. "Yeah, it was weird. Prior to Ryan, I had done a $65 Million dollar movie, and then Oceans Eleven was about $80 million, but this was the first time I myself was headlining a 60 million dollar movie, and I thought this was big business.

"But everyone keeps telling me how small it is, suddenly it went from being this huge movie to the underdog picture of the season," he laughs.

Director Wolfgang Peterson, who has been signed to direct Batman Vs Superman, says he'd like a "Matt Damon type" for the roles of the film's titular superheroes, which Damon is very honored to have said about him.

Damon enters the 'action-hero' guild

Does Damon see young actors, such as himself, Ben Affleck and Vin Diesel as the new breed of action hero? "I guess so. I was never mentioned in this genre, before I did Bourne, but now my name has been lumped in there now.

"I guess the old pro's like Stallone and Schwarzenegger are still doing the same old thing, so it's good to see something new."

But Damon says a lot of these actors aren't taking 'superhero' roles in the hope of one day getting freedom to do more risqué movies. "No, I don't think so. That used to be the way, and what would happen is an actor would do a big superhero movie or action movie in the hope of then going on and doing a more risqué art movie or something. Instead, that movie would bomb and their career would be in shambles."

Matt's good friend, and equally bankable box office star, Ben Affleck, still ribs Damon about whatever movie he does, regardless of whether it's big or not. "We joke about it. I guess now we're in the bigger leagues, but Ben still rings up and says things like: '...doesn't look like your movie's going to do anywhere near the box office business of mine.'

"It seems everyone thinks like this - I was with Eddie Burns (his co-star in Saving Private Ryan) at a Yankee game, and the popcorn vender said to Eddie 'Hey Eddie Burns! I loved your movie... But what's with it only opening on 800 screens?'"

Damon says director Kevin Smith even likes to keep him down to earth. "I was in Philadelphia recently with Ben who is shooting Kevin Smith's new film Jersey Girl. Smith wanted me to do a cameo, but because he's aiming for something other than a dick 'n' fart joke movie this time, and more something on the scale of Jerry Maguire, I didn't think it was a good idea.

"I said to Kevin that wouldn't having me pop up in a cameo look odd in the movie. You know what he said? He said: '...what the f*%* is wrong with you, can't we work together now man!'" Damon laughs. "Of course I'm going to do the cameo."

Damon is also appearing in friend George Clooney's next movie Confessions of a Dangerous Mind as a favor. "We had this show called ‘The Dating Game’ and I appear in a fictional episode of that. There's Brad Pitt as contestant number one, then I’m contestant number two, and this ugly guy as contestant three. The camera then pans on the third guy, and suddenly he's picked."

Next up for Damon is the movie Gerry, re-teaming him with Good Will Hunting director Gus Van Sant and co- star, Casey Affleck. "This is a very different movie. Gus had to take out a bank loan to make it, scrape every cent together. Not because it's no good, but just because of the subject matter. I mean, it's essentially just Casey Affleck and me walking around the desert.

"It could have had Tom Cruise in it and would have had trouble getting funding."

And, despite their schedules, Damon also says he'd like to write something new with Ben. "Ben is shooting a film now, and then he has one more to do. After that we might sit down and write something again. It might be Halfway House, which we planned on doing earlier."

The Bourne Identity opens September 26

Click here for the The Bourne Identity review.

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