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01
Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight 2008 is a role Matt Damon turned down.
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02
Matt Damon is the real-life best friend of Ben Affleck; each has starred together or had cameos in each other’s films.
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03
For The Talented Mr. Ripley 1999, he learned to play piano.
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04
He dropped out of Harvard just 12 credits short of graduating to pursue his acting career.
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05
When he and Ben Affleck were struggling actors, they shared a Boston bank account.
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06
Both he and Ben Affleck worked as extras on Field of Dreams 1989; Damon took blades of grass from the field as mementos for his father.
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07
He met his wife Luciana in Florida while filming Stuck on You 2003 and she worked as a bartender.
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08
While making The Bourne Supremacy 2004 in Berlin, he started a bowling league.
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09
He and Ben Affleck lived two blocks apart in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as children.
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10
To perfect his Southern accent for The Rainmaker 1997, he tended bar for free in Knoxville, Tennessee, and later hired a customer as his dialect coach.
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11
He dropped 47 pounds for his role as a Gulf War vet in Courage Under Fire 1996.
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12
His parents divorced when he was two, and he spent part of his childhood in a commune in Boston with his mother.
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13
He stated that his appearance on The Graham Norton Show 2007 with Hugh Bonneville and Bill Murray was ‘the best time he’d ever had on a chat show’.
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14
He quit smoking after visiting a hypnotist in Los Angeles.
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15
Jimmy Kimmel had a long-running gag of ending his late-night show with an apology to Damon for not interviewing him.
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16
While promoting The Bourne Supremacy 2004 on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, he revealed that his agent sent him and Affleck to audition for The New Mickey Mouse Club under the impression they were meeting Touchstone Pictures.
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17
Since The Bourne Identity, when rehearsing fight scenes, he buys each stunt man a bottle of champagne for every accidental strike.
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18
He was considered for the role of Matt Murdock/Daredevil in Daredevil 2003, which went to Ben Affleck.
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19
Forbes Magazine named him Hollywood’s best value in 2007, with his films making $29 for each dollar he was paid.
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20
He is close friends with Chris Hemsworth.
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21
He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on July 26, 2007.
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22
He became a father for the third time at age 40 when wife Luciana gave birth to Stella on October 20, 2010.
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23
He has an older brother named Kyle, a sculptor.
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24
He never made a sequel until Ocean’s Twelve 2004 and The Bourne Supremacy 2004 both in 2004; the third parts of those series opened in 2007.
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25
He grew up next to radical historian Howard Zinn, referenced in Good Will Hunting 1997.
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26
He co-founded H20 Africa, an organization bringing clean drinking water to three million people in developing countries.
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27
After notable weight gain for Stuck on You 2003, he lost 22 pounds training for The Bourne Supremacy 2004, achieving six-pack abs.
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28
In 1995, he was paid $20,000 for The Good Old Boys 1995, which funded the writing of Good Will Hunting with Affleck.
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29
He is friends with Casey Affleck, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix, and Wyclef Jean.
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30
His uncle George Brunstad swam the English Channel at age 70 in 2004, setting a world record.
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31
The character Skylar in Good Will Hunting 1997, played by Minnie Driver, was inspired by Skylar Satenstein, whom he dated in college.
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32
He visited Haiti with Wyclef Jean to deliver food to hurricane victims.
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33
He shaved his head for The Brothers Grimm 2005 to wear a wig; the shaved head appeared in EuroTrip 2004, filmed simultaneously in Prague.
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34
In 1998, he played in a $10,000 buy-in Texas Hold ‘Em tournament at the World Series of Poker and was knocked out on the first day by Doyle Brunson.
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35
As of 2024, he appeared in seven Best Picture Oscar nominees: Good Will Hunting, Saving Private Ryan, The Departed winner, True Grit, The Martian, Ford v Ferrari, and Oppenheimer winner, and produced nominee Manchester by the Sea.
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36
He has English and Scottish ancestry on his father’s side, and Finnish and Swedish on his mother’s side; his maternal grandfather changed his surname from Pajari to Paige.
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37
He is tenth cousin once removed of Ben Affleck; both descend from William Knowlton Jr., a bricklayer who came from England in the 1630s.
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38
To calm his crying nephew, he sings Afternoon Delight.
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39
Francis Ford Coppola cast him in The Rainmaker 1997 after seeing him in Courage Under Fire 1996.
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40
People magazine named him Sexiest Man Alive in 2007.
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41
He turned down the part of Bobby Mercer in Four Brothers 2005 due to the ultra-violent script; the role went to Mark Wahlberg.
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42
One of his first movie roles was a one-line part in Mystic Pizza 1988 starring Julia Roberts; later he starred with Roberts in Ocean’s Eleven 2001.
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43
He and Jake Gyllenhaal were the studio’s first choices for Jake Sully in Avatar 2009, but James Cameron chose Sam Worthington.
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44
In 1998, he formed Pearl Street Productions with Ben Affleck and Chris Moore.
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45
Despite using guns frequently in films, he strongly dislikes real guns.
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46
He turned down a role in The Quick and the Dead 1995, which went to Leonardo DiCaprio.
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47
He lost 30 pounds for his role in The Talented Mr. Ripley 1999.
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48
He played two stranded astronauts: the villainous Dr. Mann in Interstellar 2014 and the heroic Mark Watney in The Martian 2015.
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49
He became a father for the first time at age 35 when wife Luciana gave birth to Isabella on June 11, 2006.
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50
He gained over 30 pounds to play Mark Whitacre in The Informant! 2009 and dieted it off after shooting.
