By Antony Teofilo
The Day-Man
A Brief Interview with Matt Damon
Frigid, sloppy rain has pelted the windows of downtown Philadelphia’s Accenture building since early this morning. The sky is as gray as the faces of the lunchtime commuters slogging their way through pothole puddles big enough to bathe in. Eyes cast downward, collars turned against the wet wind, these poor souls have no idea that in a boardroom just overhead, the mood is warm, and the fellowship is flowing.
Eight stories above street level, a timpani-sized spotlight shares its crane-mounted perch with an understandably dejected-looking production assistant. With wet, freezing hands the red of boiled lobster, the PA is attempting to focus the huge lamp on three cheery faces that, in direct contradiction to his own situation, appear to be having the time of their lives.
"How much longer are you going to let this go on?" laughs Matt Damon. Director Kevin Smith chuckles, and orders the camera to cut as partners in crime Ben Affleck and Jason Lee crack up
with the rest of room's crew. Damon and Lee flew in late last night for a single day's work: a cameo appearance opposite Affleck in a scene that's about a minute-and-a-half long.
Smith has been allowing the camera to roll almost double that time to catch frequent outbursts of improvised hilarity between Damon, Lee, and Affleck. The jokes and jests will likely never see the light of day due to their off-color tone, but with Smith's rep for colorful gag reels, one can never be too sure.
Watching them work, it’s obvious these guys like what they do, but they love to do it most when they’re in each other’s company.
Antony Teofilo: So you were supposed to be delivering diapers in JERSEY GIRL. Now you’re playing a different role. What happened there?
MattDamon: The diaper man was actually the role Kevin had initially offered me. I had to be overseas doing BOURNE IDENTITY promotions the day that Kevin had the location [for the diaper scene], so they ended up giving that role to somebody else.
AT: The four of you have a lot of fun both while the camera’s rolling, and after. Do you miss working with Kevin, Ben, and Jason?
MD: It’s just fun to get back and see a lot of people that you’ve worked with before. And I’ve obviously been getting reports from Kevin and Ben along the way about what’s happening here. It’s nice to come back and visit this crew and these guys after being away for a few years since DOGMA, except for the [single] day that I had on [JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK]. It’s nice to just come back and have a few laughs.
AT: Do you have to do any preparation for a small role like this?
MD: I know Kevin’s just going to come in and give me line readings anyway, so there’s no preparation necessary. [Laughs]
AT: What are you working on right now outside of JERSEY GIRL?
MD: Nothing. After this, I’m just going home to New York. I’ll maybe wait for a good script to come along, maybe do some writing.
AT: Is this next potential writing project going to be another collaborative atmosphere, or are you looking at striking out on your own?
MD: Hopefully Ben and I can come up with an idea soon. Otherwise, we’ll write separate from each other and fax back and forth. We’ve done that before. I’ll probably just wait for him to finish up with JERSEY GIRL. Then we’ll hook up in New York and try to bang something out with Ben’s brother Casey.
AT: Would the two of you look to produce that through LivePlanet, or might you go a different route?
MD: No, we’d want to work with [AMERICAN PIE producer and LivePlanet partner] Chris Moore.
AT: I heard you had a little surprise birthday party pulled on you last week…how did they get that by you?
MD: Well, they pulled it off because it was about two weeks before my birthday, so it wasn’t really on my radar. When I walked in and they yelled ‘Surprise!’ I had no idea what they were surprising me for. I was turning thirty-two and it wasn’t exactly a flagship birthday or anything, so I really hadn’t been thinking about it at all. The only way to pull a surprise is to do it really early or really late. This time, they definitely got me.
With that, cameras were once again ready to roll, and Damon hustled back to the set to finish his work as a day player.
