Invictus  -  Interview with Matt Damon.

Matt Damon stars alongside Morgan Freeman in the new Clint Eastwood film, Inviticus. Here is an exclusive TOM Q&A with Matt. Enjoy.  

TOM: What was your first conversation like with Clint Eastwood?

Matt Damon: Alan Horn, the head of Warner Bros called me I’ve known him from having done the Ocean’s movies there and said, ‘I have found something for you with Clint,’ because he knew I was a big fan of Clint.

So, he sent me the script and I read it and thought it was just incredible. I called Clint‘s office and I had a phone call I remember because the woman who answered the phone said, "Yes, he wants to speak with you but he is on a vacation with his family and I don’t have any number to reach him.  So he might call in at some point during the day but he might not until the end of the week. I guarantee when he calls in, I will give him the message." I hang up the phone and told my wife: that’s the dream right there: completely living his life on his terms.  I told my wife, "I’ve figured out who/what I want to be later on in my career." [Laughs]  But eventually we spoke and had a great conversation.

TOM: What did you ask him?

MD: He said, "Well, this part needs to have a little more to it."  We talked of how great we both thought the script was. And it’s very rare to get a great script right away in Hollywood. It was a very emotional experience reading the scriptwonderful story, uplifting.  It really moved me.  We were kind of marveling. He said, "Well, I think your part should be a little bigger."  And I said, "I’d be careful with that.  I wouldn’t really change anything with this. I think it’s pretty perfect."  My role obviously is a supporting role because it is very much a story about Mandela, but at least on paper all the supporting roles are very fleshed out and supporting the narrative in the right way.  You understand who people are.  You don’t want to mess around too much with our parts to make anyone too big or too small so as to not ruin the ensemble and take away from Mandela, who really should be the focus.

TOM: What was the next step in your preparation to play Francois Pienaar?  

MD: I looked at him first online, and when I spoke to Clint, I said, "This guy is huge!  He is a big guy.  How are we going to do that?  I am 5’10" and Francois is 6’3" and his position on the rugby field is determined obviously by his size.  If I am going to play this positionthe equivalent of an American football linebackerwe have to be very careful.  

The way they talk in South Africa is very different, so I started reading books, and worked with my dialogue coach, Tim [Monik], whom I have worked with for many years.  We started six months earlier on the accent, which is very tricky.  I went to South Africa about a month before we started shooting.  And the first night there, Francois invited me for dinner. He opened the door and I looked up at him and we took a moment to look up at each other and I finally said, "I look much bigger on film!" [Laughs]  He was a very good sport and we had a great time getting to know each other.  He was so warm.  He invited us into his home with his wife and children, and cooked a lobster dinner for us. Then I just spent time with him, over the month, just getting to know him.  We were off doing rugby practice every day and I was in the gym every day lifting weights.

TOM: Was all of this physical training important for you?

MD: It is. Basically, my job boils down to being believable. If there is ever a moment in a film in one of my performances that the audience is taken out of the movie and doesn’t believe it, then I’ve failed at my job. So, with any character, I am always thinking of their physicalityhow you move, how you walk, how you hold a pen or hold a gun and a rugby ball. In the case of the ‘95 Rugby team, as I started to learn about it, it became clear that that team won because of their fitness. They were not the most talented team; they just had this extraordinary will to win and it pushed them physically to train harder than anybody.  And speaking to François, he says, "To this day our fitness was the most important factor without question."  Those guys were in the best shape of their lives, so I had to train just as hard as I could.

QUESTION: Francois is somewhat of a legend in South African rugby.  What did you want to avoid as you took on the character?  

MD: It’s funny because that game and that team evoke such emotion for any South Africans.  As I travelled, when I explained to people who asked me what I was doing there that I was playing Francois Pienaar, people’s eyes would tear up.  He’s got such integrity that just being with him was the best preparation.  I wasn’t looking for anything in particular. I got a sense of him and that’s what I try to put in a performance.

TOM: What do you remember of your first take on your first day directed by Clint?  

MD: The wonderful thing about Clint is that he’s using the same people for each film and you can feel that as an actor.  The crew is not only really experienced but experienced working together. You just feel that embrace, if that makes sense. You just know you are working in a stable environment; it is very relaxedpeople are telling jokes but people are quietly super efficient and professional.  You just know when you are working with the best, and that comes from him.  He’s very relaxed and doesn’t do many takes.  He will do as many as he needs to. He’s very comfortable.  He’s at that level that very few people reachthe level of master.  He’s so fluent in the language of film that he can shoot a scene thinking, "What is the best, most efficient way to tell the story at that moment."  He doesn’t need to plan ahead.  I have seen it with Spielberg and Soderbergh, to name only a few.  

They are just so fluent in the language of cinema.  There is never any panicking, any yelling.  On most movie sets, there is always an ongoing tension.  

TOM: Did you ask a lot of questions of Clint as you were shooting the film?  

MD: I had a lot of conversations with him about process because I am interested in directing and there were so many things I saw him doing.  It was a master class; and we had some funny conversations about writing too.

I had a little locker room speech and I told him a week prior, "I am going to change it a little bit." He said, "Okay."  And we got there to shoot it and I had all my scribbling and was laughing and he asked what was funny. I told him, "I wrote the scene 26 different ways."  I would stay up at night, think it over, wake up, and finally got it perfect, and it was the same way it was originally written. He started laughing and said, "I did that to an entire script once. I really liked it but maybe I could make it a little bit better and I work on it for years and finally I called the writer and said to him, ‘I am going to do it exactly the way you originally wrote it.’  And it was Unforgiven." He said, "I tinkered with it and I just messed it up!"

TOM: What was it like for you to work with Morgan Freeman?

MD: He’s much like Clinticonic, and a national treasure in America. To do a scene with Morgan is great. To do a scene with Morgan playing Mandela...Obviously, this is a huge role and huge responsibility for him, so it was really a privilege to work with him as he was playing Mandela.

TOM: Can you talk about what it was like to meet Nelson Mandela?

MD: My wife and I met him briefly when he was here in New York City, through Robert De Niro, who was hosting a dinner as Madiba was leaving and a few hundred people were celebrating.

TOM: What is the very first Clint Eastwood movie you ever saw?  

MD: The Good the Bad and the Ugly, probably on TV in black and white, when I was six or seven years old.

TOM: What are your most vivid memories from your South African experience making this movie?  

MD: There are a lot. To have worked on a Clint Eastwood movie about Mandela that is just beyond anything I could have hoped for. The other thing about working with Clint is that every morning I had breakfast with my children and I had dinner with my children. It is just unheard of. To be able to see Capetown with my kids and show them around and share that experience with them was really special.

Invictus is in cinemas now.

ENDS