Marriage and fatherhood are making Matt Damon one very happy man.
Reuniting with George Clooney and Brad Pitt in Ocean’s Thirteen was a dream come true for Matt Damon. Not only was he paid millions to shoot in glamorous locations around the world, the film’s set, thanks to fellow dad Brad Pitt, was one big nursery.
That’s just how Matt Damon likes it these days. Not only is the actor the proud father of one-year-old daughter Isabella, he’s also become a stepfather to wife Luciana Barroso’s nine-year-old daughter, Alexia.
Now living in Miami, Florida, to allow Alexia to be near her birth father, the 36-year-old’s quiet existence is a far cry from the playboy lifestyle he and long-time best friend Ben Affleck led as they climbed the Hollywood ladder.
How is fatherhood treating you?
Great! It’s great. It’s been just amazing. It defies description, actually. I don’t really know how to talk about it, because I don’t really know how to explain the emotions. I feel like I’ve been made a member of a club that I didn’t know existed. It’s really just wonderful. I didn’t think that this would happen to me. Other people were always showing me baby pictures or trying to hand me the baby, and I was like, “Get that thing away from me. I don’t want to touch your kid. Give me a break.” … I was scared at first, because I was kind of expecting for my daughter to already be two years old. I was excited for her to start kind of talking and walking and toddling around hanging out, but I didn’t realise how much personality little people have right off the bat.
What’s your favourite thing about Isabella?
Well, she laughs. She has this laugh. You do this thing where you can either give her a strawberry, one of those kisses on the stomach, or if you sort of act like you’re going to munch her underarm, she just starts laughing, and it’s like I could do it for ever. She sounds like a little machine gun … She wants to play, but you know how babies can’t do that. All they have is their shoulder so far, and so they’re arms go flying around. So, when I come home, she shakes her arms all around and gets really excited. It’s a wonderful sight to see.
Ben Affleck said he wasn’t trusted to make food for his and Jennifer’s [Garner] baby in the first few months. Do you have similar restrictions?
She’s done solids already, but just mushing a banana wasn’t too hard.
Ben couldn’t even mush bananas!
Oh, really? It’s not like he was just going to give her like a fork-full of spaghetti or something? [Laughs]
You are based in Miami and take your family with you everywhere along with your nanny, Alexia’s tutor and your assistant. How do you manage?
We roll like J.Lo. When you have kids, you have 10 times the amount of luggage. Where you used to have one bag, you now have a bag for the baby’s clothes, the stroller, the car seat, the playpen. Just to get out the door, you have 10 bags. It’s nuts.
Do you understand how hard it must be for Brad with four kids?
[Sarcastically] Brad has had it tough with that wife of his. I mean, to go home to that ugly thing everyday … what do you do? But at least he has his work. He can take refuge there.
George Clooney claims you’re a little peeved at him because he’s been named the new sexiest man alive?
Yeah. I mean, well, this year I’m going to get a whole war chest and really save my money to win that title next time. [Laughs] The quote of George’s that I really liked was that I was close, but that I just ran out of money at the end of it. He’s dreaming. Plus, you have to realise that becoming the sexiest man alive is a little joke among the Ocean’s gang.
How so? While we were making Ocean’s Twelve, George was always joking with Brad losing the sexiest man alive cover to Jude Law. It was hilarious. I’m friends with Jude because we did The Talented Mr. Ripley together, so I phoned him up and told him to ask Brad about it whenever he saw him. And, we’re hoping to get George the 50-and-over sexiest man alive cover. It’ll be good for his ego. [Laughs]
Are you the butt of George’s practical jokes?
There are so many of them … but Brad likes to get me, too. My favourite is one that George pulled on Brad right before we finished the last Ocean’s movie. He put two bumper stickers on the back of Brad’s car. One was on his car for about three days, and it said, “I’m gay and I vote.” It was a political year. Then, the second read, “Small penis on board”, and that ran for a few days, too, right on his side door. So, as he drove home through LA rush-hour traffic, people were honking at him and waving. He thought it was because he’s Brad Pitt so, he was waving back.
Why did you want to do a third Ocean’s film after Ocean’s Twelve received such a lukewarm reception?
Probably for that very reason. We could do no wrong after the first one, but after the second one a lot of people, George included, felt like we missed the mark in some places. He was like, “I think we should go out on top, with everybody remembering the series as great.” And, we all agreed, plus we have such a great time together making these movies, it’s more like going to a big party for a couple of months instead of working.
For Ocean’s Thirteen, the crew is back in Las Vegas. Do you have a Vegas horror story?
I don’t, because I’ve always been pretty lucky. George Clooney, on the other hand, must hate Vegas! For both films, he had the worst losing streaks of anyone I know. He lost big-time. I counted. Once, I think George lost 25 blackjack hands in a row. There were professional gamblers in the place pulling back their chips until Clooney left. It was like he was jinxing the room.
Was working with George Clooney on Syriana much different than doing the Ocean’s movies with him?
Very much so, for one thing, since he put on weight for the role, he looked so different. It wasn’t like Gwyneth Paltrow putting on a fat suit — and no-one recognising him — he just looked like a really heavy, 50-year-old George [although he’s 46]. Actually, he was really serious. I don’t know, but maybe the weight he put on changed him. It made me think of that movie Super Size Me, when the guy gains weight, but he gets depressed. And George was like that, like I’ve never seen him. He’s normally so fun, vibrant and grabbing my butt. It was like he had all this energy locked up. So being forced not to move around, I think, was driving him crazy, so he was bummed out while he was doing Syriana.
So, did George grab your butt again in Ocean’s Thirteen?
Yeah, he used to grab my butt every day, at least once a day. It’s a reason to go to work in the morning.
Are you ever going to write another screenplay as you did with Good Will Hunting?
I don’t know if I’ll ever get back to writing. The acting roles have just been so good. All the people that I’ve been able to work with have been incredible. However, Ben [Affleck] and I have been talking about it. There is one project, in particular, that we’re really interested in directing together.
Many young stars have come and gone in Hollywood. How do you plan to stay around for years to come?
I’ve always been very, very cautious, because it doesn’t last. I’ve just never wanted to get swept up in it, because I think that then you get lazy or you start making safer bets. That’s kind of a recipe for a disaster. I think it’s healthy to look at it as something that is always sort of in transition. Actors are thought of as commodities. So, it’s not something that you should take for granted, because it’s not by any kind of right that it’s going to be there. You really have to keep proving to the financiers that people want to see you in movies or they just won’t bank-roll the movie.
Ocean’s Thirteen is screening in cinemas nationally.
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