Matt Damon Was Once Turned Down for a Film He Knew Would’ve Been a Career Changer
Matt Damon starred in many films that changed his career, from Good Will Hunting to the Bourne trilogy. However, he was considered for another critically acclaimed project that would’ve only further bolstered his film resume.
Matt Damon felt this film would’ve been his breakout role
It took quite some time before Damon had his Hollywood breakthrough with Good Will Hunting. The Oppenheimer star began acting alongside Affleck when they were kids. In his 20s, he dropped out of Harvard University entirely for the 1993 film Geronimo: An American Legend. In a resurfaced interview Damon did with Jet Set, it was noted that he believed Geronimo would be the breakthrough he was looking for. It ended up being anything but.
That part of his career saw Damon featuring in other modest films like Courage Under Fire, which saw Damon lose an unhealthy amount of weight. Despite his dedication, however, Courage Under Fire still didn’t earn Damon the kind of recognition he might’ve been hoping for when he was younger.
The Oscar-winner felt the 1996 movie Primal Fear would’ve changed all that. When the opportunity to star in the flick came his way, Damon sensed its star-making potential. He shared that he “knew it was an instant career changer for whoever got it.” However, Norton would end up beating him for the coveted role.
Then, from the outside looking in, Damon saw the benefits Norton enjoyed doing the movie. It not only raised Norton’s profile significantly, but it earned the Fight Club actor his first Oscar nomination. Still, Damon harbored no personal grudges towards Norton for outshining him. He understood that competing with another actor was just a part of the game back then.
“You’d go in and fight each other, and if you got hold of a role, you’d have to make enough of an impression to get another job,” he remembered.
Losing ‘Primal Fear’ still led to Matt Damon’s career breakthrough
Although Damon didn’t hold any grudges towards Norton for losing Primal Fear, it did make him more upset with the film industry in general. Speaking on The Off Camera Show, Damon reflected on how challenging it was navigating Hollywood before his career launched.
“It wasn’t self-doubt, it was frustration at the system, because the system is not built for you to succeed. You have to break through it,” Damon said about his career rejections.
Missing out on Primal Fear was just another example of that. But later on, Damon’s loss eventually turned out to be his gain. The Odyssey star was motivated to write Good Will Hunting after realizing an opportunity like Primal Fear might not come his way again.
“That was really one of the things that was really the impetus behind Ben and I writing Good Will Hunting and focusing on it. When Edward Norton got Primal Fear, we [said], ‘There’s not going to be another one of those that is going to come around. We’ve got to do our own thing,’” Damon said.
“What are the odds that a movie with that good a role is going to make it all the way through the ranks of known actors, and then get thrown to the wolves, and all of us are going to fight for that scrap, and one of us will get it?”
Similarly to how losing Primal Fear led to Damon doing Good Will Hunting, Norton would also land an iconic film after losing out on a role. Damon would end up beating out his rival for a key role in The Rainmaker. But according to an interview Norton also did with The Off-Camera Show, losing Rainmaker freed him up to do American History X. Norton couldn’t help but notice the irony in how their careers turned out.
