Matt Damon’s ‘Bourne’ Series Could’ve Upset His Relationship With His Mom if It Wasn’t for This Condition
Matt Damon has been very candid about his appreciation for the Bourne trilogy. Damon was able to flex his range as an action star in the spy franchise. He was also allowed to do smaller projects thanks to the series’ success.
But the Bourne franchise might’ve caused a slight rift between him and his mother if it wasn’t for the movie’s unique story arc.
Why Matt Damon’s mother wouldn’t have been comfortable with her son doing the ‘Bourne’ movies
Damon’s mother has always had low tolerance when it comes to violence being depicted in the media. It was speculated that she was one of the reasons Damon turned down a Jason Bourne video game. Damon didn’t want the game Bourne Conspiracy to be a simple shooter, which it would become without his involvement.
“I lobbied hard to not make a first-person-shooter game but to make it more like Mist, which was a great, interesting puzzle you tried to solve — you know, to play with his amnesia or his memory,” he once told Boston Globe (via MTV News). “They weren’t interested. They made the [game] anyway, without my likeness.”
In the same article, Damon’s mother further explained her feelings towards video-game violence.
“I am very wary of violent video games,” she said. “Research shows they desensitize kids to violence, even more because they engage kids in committing violence.”
Damon’s mother has similar strong reservations towards film violence. But the Bourne movies were an exception, if only because of Jason Bourne’s redemption.
“The reason I’m allowed to do this movie and still have a relationship with my mother is because the character bears the responsibility for his actions in a way, and you see the price that he pays for the life that he’s chosen to lead,” Damon once told South Coast Today.
Matt Damon didn’t want his own children watching the ‘Bourne’ movies because of its violence
Taking after his mother, Damon also didn’t want his three children exposed to the Bourne trilogy’s intense violence. At least not until his children were old enough to see the films. This came from Damon’s awareness of how prevalent violence is in movies even targeted for teenagers.
“There are so many movies that drive my mom just totally crazy, because there are these thousands of acts of violence. The movies are rated PG-13, but the toys are marketed to ages 4 and up. So you get these kids who are just getting pounded by this imagery from a very young age. I don’t want to be a part of that,” Damon said.
Damon’s children have also managed to inform his film choices going forward, as he sometimes chooses roles with them in mind.
“Those are the kinds of things where I say, ‘Well, do I want my daughter exposed, knowing that her dad makes movies like this or that?'” Damon said.
Jason Bourne’s redemption arc was nothing Matt Damon had ever seen before.
The fact that Jason Bourne felt remorse for his actions was what truly impressed Damon about his action franchise. To the Oscar-winner, Bourne’s attempts at rectifying his past spoke of deeper issues that were going on during the movies’ run.
“I just love that he tries to atone for what he’s done at the end of the second movie. It was a really nice thing in a kind of mainstream action movie. To have that be your final beat is something I had never seen before, and I liked what that said particularly at that time,” Damon said. “All of these movies are very much of the time that they were made, and at a time when we had gone into this war. To have this character aware of what he had done and try to take responsibility for his actions I thought was a really good thing.”
