Matt Damon earned an Oscar nomination and scored one of the biggest commercial successes of his career with Ridley Scott’s “The Martian,” but he initially planned to turn the movie down because he feared it was too similar to Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar.”
During a new Harper’s Bazaar UK conversation with his “The Odyssey” co-star Anne Hathaway, Damon revealed that he personally met with Scott intending to decline the role of astronaut Mark Watney. Having recently played Dr. Mann, another astronaut stranded alone on a distant planet in Christopher Nolan’s film, Damon worried audiences would see the two performances as repetitive.
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“I actually once went to meet Sir Ridley Scott to turn down ‘The Martian’ because I had just done that part in ‘Interstellar,’” Damon explained. “And I got so in my head. I said, ‘Well, I just played a guy stranded on a planet. I can’t then go play a guy stranded on a planet.’”
Scott, however, immediately dismantled the actor’s concerns with an especially blunt piece of advice.
“I mean, this is me just classically, stupidly overthinking things,” Damon continued. “So, I said that out loud to Ridley, and without missing a beat, he goes, ‘Oh, no one gives a shit.’ And I was like, ‘All right, I’ll do it [laughs].’”
Damon described accepting the role as “one of the great decisions” of his life, praising both the part and his experience working with Scott. Released in 2015, “The Martian” ultimately grossed more than $630 million worldwide and earned Damon his third acting nomination at the Academy Awards (read our review).
Hathaway said she had experienced the opposite, turning down an unnamed filmmaker without taking the opportunity to meet him. While she does not regret passing on the role itself, she wishes she had sat down with the director and given him the chance to make his case.
“That’s the thing you learn getting older,” Damon added. “People care so much less about you than you think. It’s so liberating when you’re just like, ‘Nobody actually cares.’” “The Odyssey” is in theaters now. Watch the conversation below.
Edward Davis is a senior film journalist and longtime contributor to The Playlist. Davis covers the full breadth of cinema — from major studio releases to independent and international film.
