Matt Damon revealed that he does couples therapy with his Argentinean wife and that he made her a promise he could not keep.
Before the premiere of Oppenheimer, the actor revealed an intimate relationship with Luciana Barroso.
Matt Damon recently assured that he had been considering leaving acting for years due to bad experiences REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier
During the promotion of the film Oppenheimer, Matt Damon has given several interviews where he has shared the great impact that this film has had on his life and work. The actor made it clear that he would not have missed the opportunity to collaborate in this film, because before joining the cast of Oppenheimer, Damon had seriously considered taking a break from acting for a few years.
He confessed this during an interview with Entertainment Weekly, where he also shared that he started going to couples therapy to improve his relationship with his wife Luciana Barroso. During therapy, he had agreed with her to take a break from work for a while as long as Christopher Nolan did not offer him a role. To Barroso’s misfortune, that’s exactly what happened.
Matt Damon promised his wife, Luciana Barroso, that he would take a vacation from acting, but Christopher Nolan’s call to be a part of Oppenheimer changed Damon’s plans REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
The last time Damon had worked with Nolan was on 2014’s Interestellar, so nearly 10 years later, he wasn’t expecting to be called back so abruptly.
“This is going to sound made up, but it’s actually true. I had negotiated extensively with my wife that I was going to take some time off. I had been on Interstellar, and then Chris froze me out for a couple of movies, so I wasn’t in the rotation, but I actually negotiated in couples therapy – this is a true story – the only caveat to me taking time off was if Chris Nolan called. And that’s without knowing if he was working on anything or not, because he never tells you. He calls you out of the blue.”
Cillian Murphy, who will play Robert Oppenheimer in the highly anticipated film, confirmed Damon’s statement about Nolan’s particular habit of inviting actors to new projects as unannounced as possible.
Matt Damon and Cillian Murphy complained about the “unexpected” way in which Christopher Nolan has sought them out to work with them REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier
“Chris’ way is that he calls you out of the blue. I had no idea. He told me he was making a movie about Oppenheimer and said, ‘I’d like you to play Oppenheimer.’ I had to sit down. It was kind of overwhelming.”
Damon’s work has already caused him family problems in the past. In a recent interview, he shared the details of one of “the worst films he’s ever worked on,” where he not only considered taking a break from filmmaking for a while, but even thought about quitting acting for good. However, it was precisely his wife who pushed him to continue in the Hollywood business.
“She (Lucia Barroso) just said, ‘We’re already here’ (…) I pride myself, largely because of her, on being a professional actor and what it means to be a professional actor is that you go and do the 15-hour day and give absolutely everything, even in what you know is going to be a losing effort. And if you can do it with the best attitude possible, then you’re a professional, and she really helped me with that.”
In Oppenheimer, Matt Damon plays Leslie Groves, an engineer and member of the military who was tasked with overseeing the Manhattan Project. In an interview for Spoilertime, the actor shared more details about his role in the film and how it influences Robert Oppenheimer’s character inside.
“From the first time I talked to Chris about the film he told me that this was based on the book, American Prometheus, but he wasn’t going to call it that. I told him that was a great title. After reading the script I saw that it was all written in the first person. It was about a subjective journey through the eyes of this guy. Then we exist to show different sides of him. And that’s really complicated, but brilliant.”