Matt Damon Really Hated the ‘Bourne Ultimatum’ Script — ‘This Is a Career-Ender’

Matt Damon made millions of dollars starring in the iconic Bourne franchise. The series of spy thrillers helped the Stillwater star become an international sensation, grossing over $1.6 billion at the box office.

Even though the Bourne franchise catapulted Damon into superstardom, the movie-making process wasn’t always pleasant for him. In fact, when the time came for him to work on The Bourne Ultimatum, he was extremely disappointed by the quality of the script that the film’s initial writer turned in. 

Matt Damon called the 1st draft of the ‘Bourne Ultimatum’ script ‘embarrassing’

Damon slammed Tony Gilroy, the writer of the first three Bourne films, during a 2011 interview with GQ, claiming that he put no effort into writing The Bourne Ultimatum. 

“It’s really the studio’s fault for putting themselves in that position,” Damon told GQ, according to HuffPost. “I don’t blame Tony for taking a boatload of money and handing in what he handed in. It’s just that it was unreadable. This is a career-ender. I mean, I could put this thing up on eBay and it would be game over for that dude. It’s terrible. It’s really embarrassing. He was having a go, basically, and he took his money and left.”

The ‘Bourne Ultimatum’ script was re-written while the movie was filmed

Even though the initial draft of The Bourne Ultimatum was in poor condition, that didn’t stop the studio from moving forward with production. Producers began filming the movie and rewrote the script in between shoots.  

“We were lucky enough to have George Nolfi on set with us every day,” Damon said. “So George kept out ahead of us. He would literally be in his hotel room working on the pages for the next day while we were working on the pages he had given us for this day, and we were making our tweaks in the real location, going, ‘Okay, well let’s change this to that, because that thing’s over there.’”

Filming was every bit as stressful as it sounds, and Damon himself wasn’t a big fan of the process.

“You know, it’s not an advisable way to make a movie. Like you couldn’t teach that in film school and send people out there. But it works for Paul.”

Matt Damon walked back his remarks later on

Even though Damon initially had some pointed remarks about Gilroy, he eventually came around and apologized for his comments. Later on, he reached out to the GQ writer who initially interviewed him and told him that his previous accusations were out of line. 

“If I didn’t respect him and appreciate his talent, then I really wouldn’t have cared,” he said of Gilroy. “My feelings were hurt. That’s all. And that’s exactly why I shouldn’t have said anything. This is between me and him. So saying anything publicly is f****** stupid and unprofessional and just kind of douchey of me.”