Matt Damon is reflecting on how he has juggled his work as an actor and as a father for the last two decades.
The Interstellar actor has been acting since he was 18 years old, making his screen debut in 1988 on Mystic Pizza, and winning his first Oscar just nine years later for Best Original Screenplay alongside his best friend Ben Affleck for Good Will Hunting.
He first became a dad in 2006 when he welcomed his first daughter, Isabella, with wife Luciana Barroso, who he married in 2003, and with whom he also shares daughters Gia, 17, Stella, 15, and Alexia, 26, Luciana's daughter from a previous relationship, who he adopted.
© AFP via Getty ImagesSpeaking with GQ about his role in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, in which he stars as Odysseus, Matt, who sees the feat of a film as possibly his last major blockbuster, reflected on it being such, and the time he spent away from his family leading up to it.
"I don't think people are going to be given the resources to shoot movies that way for much longer," he noted of the film, which has a reported $250 million budget. "To do it on film, in camera, a story that big, all on location, there are only a couple people who can mount a production like that at this point, and so those things just aren't available."
"And, specifically, probably not for me as I get older," the 55-year-old added.
© Getty ImagesIt made him all the more invested in the film and giving it his all, even if it meant time away from his family. "I think about it a lot, especially as my kids are getting older: really trying to be here now," he said, admitting: "And it's hard for me to do that. And I think maybe that has to do with my own nature."
"It also has to do with this career where you're always trying to figure out what's ahead because it's such an uncertain business and a pretty ruthless one. Those kinds of things have conspired to, I think, maybe take me out of where I am, more than I'd like," he continued.
Matt however added that filming The Odyssey was "an experience that I just was in it every day and loving it. And the funniest thing happened, which is just all of the things that might have been difficult for me at an earlier point in my life weren’t difficult. They became fun."
© Getty Images"Like being wet and cold was not a hardship. It was actually something I felt really lucky to be experiencing. It felt temporary and like a gift. So it was very strange. It's not something I've ever experienced. That's why I kind of sound like a born-again Christian. It's a feeling that I’ve wanted and finally had," he went on.
© FilmMagicFurther reflecting on the early years of his career, particularly those fresh off of his Good Will Hunting Oscars win, he said: "I don't think either of us stopped for years," of himself and Ben. "I mean, I think I worked five straight years, literally out of these two duffel bags that I had. And I traveled everywhere and just literally would go from set to set. And I loved it. It was great. I loved what I was doing. I didn't want to stop. There's that insecurity of actors of like, 'The phone's going to stop ringing.'"
"There's that list that you hear about and you never know," he shared. "I mean, you know if you're on it if your phone's ringing a lot, but you don't… There's no official list, but there is — sometimes you can get a movie greenlit at a studio, but not at another studio, and you're really aware of that. I've always been really aware of that."
