Matt Damon fought hard to be 'Bourne' again
LAS VEGAS — On the first day of shooting Jason Bourne, Matt Damon pulled off his shirt for a bare-knuckled fight scene to reveal an impressively sculpted body.
In his three past Bourne films spanning 14 years, there has never been a "beefcake shot," as Damon wryly refers to it. But director Paul Greengrass wanted to make a statement for Damon's return to the spy franchise after a nine-year break.
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"We avoided that shot in the other movies, even though I was in really good shape. We were like, 'We're not doing it,' " says Damon, reclining in a luxury suite. "For this one, Paul said that if the movie starts and it looks like I've been living well, we don’t have a movie. But if the first image looks like I’ve suffered, it’s a statement of intent to our audience — that we’re coming with everything we have."
The buff moment and the powerful left hook that felled the scene's much larger opponent was featured in the trailer and opens Jason Bourne (in theaters Friday). It makes abundantly clear that Damon, 45, still has the chops to play the once-amnesic CIA assassin.
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Though the character is synonymous with Damon, the actor was a surprise action choice when he was cast in director Doug Liman's The Bourne Identity (2002). Damon immediately silenced any doubters with a hit, bringing to life a relatable spy character from the pages of Robert Ludlum's novels.
"I didn't know I could do it. Nobody did," says Damon. "But the reason I've had the career I've had is because of this character."
Director Paul Greengrass revved Bourne into gold-standard franchise territory with 2004's The Bourne Supremacy and 2007's The Bourne Ultimatum. Both Greengrass and Damon declared mission accomplished; they were done with Bourne after just under $1 billion in worldwide box office.
Universal Studios continued the franchise with Jeremy Renner starring as a Bourne-like contemporary spy in 2012's The Bourne Legacy. Reviews were mixed for the movie, which made $113 million at the box office — half of what Ultimatum earned.
Damon regrets lashing out about Legacy in a 2011 interview, in which he called the script "unreadable." He apologized and explains now: "I just was hurt, unexpectedly hurt, by the idea of a Bourne movie getting made without me. I thought I was at peace with it."
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Unkillable onscreen, Bourne refused to die with Damon, who says he's been urged by fans "constantly, for years" to bring the spy back — far more than any character he's played. In 2014, Damon and screenwriter Christopher Rouse took a skeptical Greengrass to lunch to discuss another film.
Greengrass was persuaded enough to develop an updated story with Rouse, steeped in WikiLeaks-esque spy secrets and computer hacking. Damon was reactivated for assignment.
"Matt is a full-on action hero, but he's also a brilliant actor of the divided soul," Greengrass says. "Those two things are really compelling."
Damon easily re-found the conflicted Bourne. He believes Jason Bourne has breathed new life into the franchise and, depending how audiences receive it, doesn't rule out returning again.
"Who knows what’s going to happen? I feel like I'm at peace with it," says Damon, laughing. "But I'm not saying never again."
