Matt Damon Is Playing A Legendary Greek King Now — Here's Every Wild Twist That Got Him Here

He Co-Wrote An Oscar Winner Before He Was Even Famous

Long before he was a movie star, Damon was a broke Harvard dropout scribbling on a legal pad. He originally started the script as a class assignment, and it snowballed into an Academy Award: at the 70th Oscars, the film received nine nominations and won Best Supporting Actor for Robin Williams and Best Original Screenplay for Affleck and Damon. Damon was 27 years old and holding an Oscar before most people even knew his name.

Kevin Smith Basically Wrote Him A Free Pass Into Dogma

Kevin Smith originally had frequent collaborator Jason Lee lined up to play the fallen angel Loki in Dogma. But once Good Will Hunting came out and turned Affleck and Damon into instant movie stars, suddenly it was like Smith had gold, and both actors slid into the cast instead. Smith has joked for years since that he saved the pair's Good Will Hunting distribution deal without so much as a thank-you, and he's been able to hold that over both their heads for 25 years, which is why they keep showing up in his movies.

Robin Williams Is The Reason Spielberg Even Knew His Name

Steven Spielberg wanted a relatively unknown actor to play the title role in Saving Private Ryan — and he found him almost by accident. Spielberg visited the set of Good Will Hunting, and Robin Williams introduced him to Damon, unaware that Good Will Hunting's success would significantly raise Damon's profile before the film even came out. To make matters worse for the young actor, Damon was intentionally left out of the cast's grueling boot camp so the other soldiers would resent him on camera.

Jason Bourne Almost Had A Completely Different Face

Before Damon ever picked up a fake passport, director Doug Liman went shopping around Hollywood's biggest action names. He approached a wide range of actors for the role of Bourne, including Brad Pitt, who turned it down to star in Spy Game, as well as Russell Crowe, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Cruise and Sylvester Stallone, before eventually landing on Damon. It's wild to imagine Schwarzenegger sneaking around Zurich with amnesia instead.

His Loyalty To One Director Nearly Cost Him The Franchise

Damon's bond with director Paul Greengrass runs deep — the two made The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, and Green Zone together, essentially building a shared cinematic language around post-9/11 anxiety. When Universal moved to replace Greengrass on a future Bourne film, Damon publicly sided with his director, and reports made clear his loyalty was and is to Greengrass, even walking away from the franchise for years rather than make a movie without him.

He's Quietly Become One Of Ridley Scott's Favorite Leading Men

Long before The Odyssey, Damon was already deep in his own Homeric survival epic — Ridley Scott's The Martian, which saw Scott enter negotiations to direct the film with Damon cast as the film's stranded astronaut. The pair reunited a few years later for The Last Duel, a medieval drama Damon also co-wrote with Ben Affleck, proving the collaboration goes well beyond just acting.

So Why Did Nolan Cast Him As Odysseus?

The Odyssey marks Damon's third collaboration with Nolan, after Oppenheimer and Interstellar, so the trust was already there. Nolan explained the logic bluntly, comparing the character to a Star Wars icon: 'If you're looking at Star Wars, Odysseus is Han Solo, he's going to have the smart remark, he's going to have the trick up his sleeve, he's going to find the angle.' Damon also underwent significant physical training and adopted a strict diet for his role as Odysseus, reportedly getting back to his high school weight for the part.

And Yes, He Once Turned Down A $270 Million Franchise

Not every huge role stuck the landing on his schedule. In 2019, the actor told GQ that, before Sam Worthington, he had been offered the lead role in James Cameron's record-breaking blockbuster Avatar, but had to pass because he was locked into another Bourne film. James Cameron later told him bluntly to get over it, pointing out he's already one of the biggest movie stars in the world anyway.