07/24/98 The Seattle Times FINAL Page G1 (Copyright 1998)
SAN FRANCISCO - Just a year ago, Matt Damon was a little-known actor hired to play a supporting part in Steven Spielberg's $65 million D-Day drama, "Saving Private Ryan," which goes into national release today. Although it's the title role, Private Ryan doesn't turn up until the film is more than half over. Spielberg intended Damon to be a fresh face, a surprise. All that became impossible last fall when Damon's starring-role performances in Francis Coppola's "The Rainmaker" and Gus Van Sant's "Good Will Hunting" landed him on magazine covers and talk shows. He won an Oscar for co-writing the latter, as well as a nomination for best actor. He's also Winona Ryder's boyfriend. Damon still can't believe his luck, or the claim his new fame makes on his time. "It's the first time in my life when by sitting in a room all day and not answering a phone, I can offend, like, 20 people," he said. "You start to feel like your life isn't yours, in that regard. But I'm not complaining." Damon was in the Bay Area to promote Spielberg's movie, which is just one of several he's been working on. He plays the angel of death in Kevin Smith's "Dogma," which he just finished; he stars in the coming-of-age story "Rounders," which will be released in September; and he's off to Italy in a few weeks to star in Anthony Minghella's "The Talented Mr. Ripley." Next year, he's set to star in Billy Bob Thornton's "All the Pretty Horses." Damon is just 27, but he's hardly enjoying an overnight success. While he was at Harvard eight years ago, he got the starring role in a TNT movie, "Rising Son," playing the son of Piper Laurie and Brian Dennehy. The picture got good notices but it didn't lead to another important part. "It wasn't such a coveted role, because it was TNT, I guess," he said. "So I didn't have to go up against the usual suspects. Which is kind of what handicaps you as an actor in general. "As an unknown actor, it's virtually impossible to break into the system. The only way you can do it is by playing a smaller role in a higher-profile movie. I figured that out after years of trying, and I figured `Courage Under Fire' was the way in. They were looking for someone who would be uncompromising and do something drastic, like lose 40 pounds." He lost the weight to play a drug-addicted Gulf War veteran in "Courage," which was directed by Ed Zwick. Yet while the picture was well-received, most critics concentrated on his co-stars, Denzel Washington and Meg Ryan, in their reviews. "When the movie came out, in most of the reviews I didn't even get mentioned - not even that I was in the movie," he said. "I was devastated by that, because I was on medication and I was really sick and I'd given literally everything that I could to that movie. "It was like nobody remembered me from it - which is what I thought. And then a few months later Coppola put me in `Rainmaker,' and `Good Will Hunting' got green-lit the next day. Then after `Rainmaker,' Robin Williams took me over to meet Steven (Spielberg), and all this was because of `Courage' really." While critics had passed over his work in "Courage," directors and other actors noticed. "When Ed Zwick came to the premiere of `Good Will Hunting' in New York, I put my arms around him and thanked him," said Damon. "And then when we won the Oscar, coming off the stage, the first person who was there, getting ready to present the cinematography award, which was coming up next, was Denzel. He just wrapped me up in a bear hug. "He was the first person I saw coming off the stage, and that to me felt like some kind of, you know, some cycle that was coming complete, because he really was good to me when I was pretty much a schlep." Although Damon has been off medication for a year, he's losing weight again to star in "Ripley." "The biggest change in my life is that they hired a nutritionist," he said. "It's a total luxury. I weaned myself off the medication about a year ago." Based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith, "Ripley" is a remake of a 1959 French classic, "Purple Noon," that made a star of Alain Delon. Damon is preparing in other ways. "If I go to Italy for six months, it would be a real shame if I didn't take the opportunity to learn the language," he said. He's stayed away from "Purple Noon" because he doesn't want to be influenced by Delon's performance. "I don't want to see an actor in a play I know I'm going to be doing," he said. "It's kind of not the best idea. For me, anyway. "It's also a different movie, because they shied away from stuff in the book that we don't shy away from. The issues of sexuality weren't explored fully in `Purple Noon.' It's about love and infatuation and obsession and all those fun things." For "Saving Private Ryan," he wasn't allowed to prepare, at least not in the way most of the other actors did. Eight of them went to boot camp, but Spielberg kept Damon out of it because his character is not part of their squad. They're looking for Private Ryan because they've been given orders to save his life, and they don't approve of the mission. "I wanted to go to boot camp, because I always want to get every advantage I can before I do something," said Damon. "But I wasn't invited, and I thought that was kind of weird. But then I realized that was really a genius ploy on Steven's part because the movie is about these eight guys looking for this one guy, this tight military unit. "What the boot camp did was (a) it got them to look like soldiers, and (b) it started to kind of force these friendships and camaraderie, and finally it started to foster that resentment for the guy that they had to put their lives on the line for. "They're lying face down in mud puddles with full knowledge that I'm at home comfortably sleeping in my bed, so when I show up on the set and say kind of flippantly `Hey, how was boot camp?' that resentment is right there." The script doesn't include much background information about Ryan, who is being rescued because he's the sole surviving son in his family. His three brothers have all been killed in battle. "I think he's symbolic," said Damon. "The more specific you made him, the harder it would be to relate to him. I assume that's what the writer and Steven were planning. "He never told me why he cast me (as Private Ryan), other than he liked `Courage Under Fire.' He never said. And I never asked, for fear that he'd say `Oh wait, did I put you as Private Ryan? Oh, I've made a terrible mistake.' " Damon spent about six weeks on the set, filming the final battle scene, and "just watching Steven do this massive undertaking. You get this feeling of chaos because the frame is so packed with action." For an actor in this situation, he said, "it's most important to be technically proficient. The scope of it is incorporating your performance. It's not about your internal process. It's the exact opposite of `Good Will Hunting.' Stunt men are flying around and explosions are going off and it's an hourlong reset if you don't hit your marks. You feel that pressure as an actor." Damon believes that the finished film is "just a monumental achievement." The final scenes place a burden of guilt on Ryan, who is asked to examine his life and question whether his survival was worth such a price. It's a disturbing way to end the film, and Damon confirmed that it was intended that way. "I think to a certain extent, what Steven's point is, `Have I lived a good life?' He's also asking the audience. In our own way, are we making the best of what we have? "Granted, it's a total burden. But it's something to ask ourselves every day. If you're asking yourself when you're 80, then it's too late." PHOTO; Caption: 1) STEVE RINGMAN / THE SEATTLE TIMES: AN EARLIER WAR MOVIE, "COURAGE UNDER FIRE," LED TO BIGGER THINGS FOR MATT DAMON, WHO HAS THE TITLE ROLE IN "SAVING PRIVATE RYAN." 2) DAVID JAMES: CAPTAIN JOHN MILLER (TOM HANKS), LEFT, FINALLY MEETS UP WITH PRIVATE JAMES RYAN (MATT DAMON) IN "SAVING PRIVATE RYAN." Copyright © 1998 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
SCENE
BROTHERS IN ARMS FOR `SAVING PRIVATE RYAN,` MATT DAMON WALKED IN THE
FOOTSTEPS OF HEROES - AND WAS LEFT WONDERING IF HE COULD FILL THEIR
SHOES
Dixie Reid Bee Staff Writer
07/24/98
The Sacramento Bee
METRO FINAL
Page SC1
(Copyright 1998)
Matt Damon came to the door wearing black pants, a black silk sweater
over a white T-shirt and the best smile in modern cinema.
"Come on in," he said. He motioned toward a sideboard set with food and
drink. "Anything you want, help yourself. Mind if I smoke? Is that gonna
be a drag?"
He pulled a pack of Camel Lights filters toward him.
Damon is, at 27, Hollywood's darling and America's heartthrob.
Celebrity-watcher magazines report his every new girlfriend. He and best
pal Ben Affleck won Oscars this year for their "Good Will Hunting"
screenplay, based on a story he wrote at Harvard. Damon had the movie's
title role. He went from that to starring in Francis Ford Coppola's "The
Rainmaker," and then to Steven Spielberg's stunning World War II epic,
"Saving Private Ryan." He plays Ryan.
He was here the other day with Spielberg, co-star Tom Hanks and the
movie's historical consultant, writer Stephen Ambrose, talking with the
press about "Saving Private Ryan." The movie opens today.
Someone asked if fame changed his life. Damon grinned. "I just dropped
16 pounds for the next movie I'm doing, and I had a nutritionist this
time."
He had starved himself and smoked a lot to lose 40 pounds for "Courage
Under Fire" three years ago -- back when his name was lost in the
credits.
"I notice things have changed in little ways," he said. "The hotel
suites are a little bigger now. I've been on the road consistently since
`The Rainmaker,' so I don't live anywhere. My only gauge is how nice the
room-service guy is to me, and do I get a couple of extra pillows?"
For a half hour, Damon smoked and chatted, mostly about the education he
got during "Saving Private Ryan." Spielberg taught him how to make
movies, and Hanks showed him that stardom can be handled with grace and
compassion.
"They'd come around and offer coffee and stuff on the set. But Tom would
sit in a foxhole, take his helmet off and drink water out of his own
canteen," Damon said. "This is the biggest movie star in the world, and
he won't be deferred to. He's a regular guy. It gives me no excuse to
ever misbehave."
Damon's character appears late in the film, so he arrived in England two
months after the rest of the cast. One day, he and co-star Edward Burns
("The Brothers McMullen") watched Hanks walk from his foxhole to the
canteen. Damon asked Burns, "What's the deal with Hanks?"
"Honestly?" Burns said. "I met the guy, and he's all nice and
everything, and I think, `I'm gonna get to the bottom of this guy. Two
months into it, I figure it out: He really is that nice.' "
Damon laughed. "It's not an act. Tom Hanks is just that nice."
As for Spielberg, Damon hoped to learn from the veteran director ("The
Color Purple," "Schindler's List," the "Indiana Jones" movies, "Jurassic
Park.") He watched Spielberg set up shots off the top of his head --
chaotic, multilayered scenes -- with no storyboarding.
"I tried to follow him around the set one day, to see what it's like to
be Steven Spielberg, to see if I can direct like this guy. Literally, by
lunchtime I was sitting down. I was done for the day," Damon said.
He ran a hand through his floppy blond bangs. The World War II buzz cut
had grown out.
"It'd be like, `Matt, you're gonna run here. That explosion is gonna go
off. You're gonna fly through the air, but don't make it look too
"stunty." Put the camera down here and when it moves, it's gonna be a
little shaky, 'cause it's hand-held. You're gonna hit your mark here and
say your line, turn around and fire three shots. Boom! The clip's gonna
pop out, and you're gonna pop in another one, then you're gonna get
down. He's gonna say his line to you. We're gonna pan up to you, grab
that explosion. Two guys fly through the air. OK, let's shoot. What are
you waiting for?' "
Damon shrugged. "I learned that I couldn't be him, but I want to try."
Because Spielberg's shots were so complicated, and it took an hour to
reset explosions and put the military tanks into position, Damon tried
not to flub his lines. This wasn't like "Good Will Hunting," for
instance, when he was a troubled math genius in a therapist's office.
There he could be self-indulgent. Not so with men flying about on nearly
every take.
"You don't run in and say, `Wait a minute. What is my motivation?' Your
motivation is not having to deal with the stunt guy who's risking his
neck again because you messed up," he said.
"Saving Private Ryan" is a graphic re-creation of World War II battles,
starting with the D-Day invasion of Normandy at Omaha Beach. With limbs
torn away, flesh burning, wounded men screaming, a helpless GI holding
his dying buddy's bloody hand, Spielberg makes the point that hell is
war.
Thousands and thousands of soldiers who fought the real battles were
younger than Damon and Burns, who is 30. That fact was not lost on them.
"It got us in touch with this apathetic, our apathetic, generation,"
Damon said. "You start to think, `Are we holding up our end of the
bargain?' It's a pretty uncompromising movie. Steven is saying, `This is
where you would have been. This is what common, everyday people did, the
citizen soldiers. This is what they did for you.'
"So, at the very least, if we don't just look at Memorial Day as a beach
opportunity," he said. "For a generation you can catch on a talk show
any day of the week, lamenting the fact that they weren't breast-fed
long enough, this puts it in perspective: try taking a beach."
Once this press tour ends, Damon leaves for Italy to film "The Talented
Mr. Ripley," based on a Patricia Highsmith novel. He'll play a sociopath
who murders a rich friend (Jude Law) and assumes his identity. Gwyneth
Paltrow is the love interest.
But tonight, Damon and the others were off to another city and another
charge of reporters. He pounded a Camel on the tabletop, smiled and
offered a final thought about "Saving Private Ryan."
"I am so happy to be in this movie. Eddie (Burns) and I said that if
everything we said was cut and there was just one frame where you could
see our faces, it'd still be the movie we'd show our grandkids and say,
`See, I was there.' Just a chance to be in the presence of those guys
and watch them work -- to watch Tom approach a scene, to watch Steven
set up a shot. I can't tell you how much you can learn in their
presence. It's the greatest job you can ask for, really."
He flashed the matinee smile.
CAPTION:
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Copyright © 1998 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
07/25/98
The Dallas Morning News
HOME FINAL
Page 1C
(Copyright 1998)
After meeting appealing Matt Damon in person, it's easy to understand
why Robert Duvall took a liking to the young actor on the set of
Geronimo: An American Legend five years ago.
In those days, the Harvard dropout was still losing parts to Chris
O'Donnell, Matthew McConaughey, Joaquin Phoenix and Ed Norton. His
boyish good looks hadn't yet shown up in a bubble bath on the cover of
Vanity Fair.
He hadn't yet stressed out his body, shedding 40 pounds for a supporting
role in Courage Under Fire, or shared an Oscar with boyhood friend Ben
Affleck for their Good Will Hunting script.
But like the great Duvall, he was curious, brave, funny, intelligent and
passionately interested in everything to do with his trade.
On the World War II action film Saving Private Ryan, which opened
Friday, he landed the small but keytitle role, got a hard lesson in
history and went through what he calls "the best film school in the
world."
In Dallas last week, the ex-Ivy Leaguer walked in wearing a black suit
and white dress shirt open at the neck. A mature "old soul" who still
looks like a kid, he talked easily and without a single "you know" about
the hard-hitting film, how it affected him and what it's like to work
with Steven Spielberg.
"Watching the movie, I was thinking of my generation and to what extent
have we held up our end of the bargain," he says. "To what extent do we
really appreciate what was done for us? I'm certainly guilty of treating
Memorial Day like a day at the beach rather than taking a moment to
think about why I got the day off."
Granted, he says, it's not an easy film to watch. Even the actor who
watched it being filmed found himself turning away from the screen.
"We all have this requisite knowledge of history, but the film assaults
you so viscerally it's hard not to look at things a little differently
when you walk out."
Unlike the eight actors who make up the search mission for his fictional
character, Pvt. James Ryan, he didn't go through Capt. Dale Dye's
down-and-dirty boot camp.
For 10 days (five in the field), Tom Hanks, Edward Burns, Tom Size-more
and company learned how it feels to be a combat soldier. They hiked five
miles a day with a 40-pound pack, slept in tents, ate K--rations,
drilled with weapons and took verbal abuse from the crusty retired
Marine.
"At first I kind of balked at that," says Mr. Damon. "I realize now why
he did it. Since the movie's about eight guys, this tight- knit unit
looking for one, the boot camp served a number of purposes. It made them
look like soldiers. It started to forge that camaraderie and those
bonds."
But knowing Mr. Damon wasn't crawling on his belly in the mud fostered
hard feelings among the movie's eight rescuers. When he flippantly asked
how the eight liked boot camp, he says, their resentment surfaced. "It
translated right into the scene," he says.
For an actor eager to soak up everything he can about a character, the
tough-talking Dye was a brisk resource.
"He would sit or stand right next to the camera and watch us like a
hawk. If there was anything you were doing that didn't look like
soldiering, he was going to come down and get right in your face. He
really felt a responsibility to veterans. He was not going to let us
embarrass them."
Four actors in the cast - Mr. Hanks (That Thing You Do), Mr. Burns (The
Brothers McMullen), Adam Goldberg (Scotch and Milk) and Vin Diesel
(Strays) - had already written and directed their own films.
"At the time, I was just so happy to be working," says Mr. Damon. "I was
sitting in the foxhole trying to hand scripts to these guys to get them
to direct a movie. I was looking for another job."
With that many screenwriters around, there were bound to be suggestions
for Robert Rodat's gritty script. The director, he says, was open to
input.
"Steven was really good about dirtying up the dialogue, making it seem
natural, making it seem as if people were talking because they had a
reason, not just because they had a line. That's great. That's why the
film looks so natural. There were a lot of Hollywood moments that got
yanked on the day."
The best way to learn a trade such as acting, he says, is to apprentice
yourself to the best people around. The way he did with Mr. Spielberg.
"I tried to follow Steven around for a whole day. It was an absolute
joke. I made it almost to lunch and I had to quit. I could not keep up
with him, and I'm in shape. We figured out that he made an average of
six decisions per 10 seconds."
On the set, the director barks orders like a nose-mounted machine gun.
Warming to the role, Mr. Damon throws himself into an energetic
imitation of Mr. Spielberg in action.
"You know, put the camera here. No, 2 inches down. OK, that's good. I
want this man running across the back right here. At that point I want a
mortar to go off. I want him to fly, but, Todd, you're going to be
crossing right into frame right then. Take your line right at that
moment. Now Matt, after you see him do that, you're going to come right
around the corner. The camera's going to pick you up. You're going to
jump into this foxhole. You're going to come up. You're going to
discharge three rounds from your rifle. You're going to go down, you're
going to reload. You're going to take your line to Tom. You go back over
and right, then the camera's going to go up at that moment - here move
it up 2 feet - and I want you hunkering there in the foxhole. All right,
let's go."
And that, Mr. Damon says, catching his breath, is how the shot was made.
"He didn't use storyboards. It's so mind-boggling. Any one of those
decisions that he makes would cause me gray hair. It would take four
years for me to come up with those decisions."
Even movies about two people sitting in a room are storyboarded, he
says. "And this guy's doing D-Day without one. And to see what he got.
The fact that he didn't do many takes put pressure on the cast. That's
why we jelled as a team."
At the end of the take, he says, the cast crowded around the monitor to
see if anyone messed up. "If he said, "Print!' the whole place erupted.
It meant a couple hundred people had been perfect for a minute."
Working with Mr. Spielberg was much different from his experience with
Francis Coppola on The Rainmaker. "Literally, he's the polar opposite of
Coppola. Francis will shoot a scene all day, then not use it. Steven cut
out 31/2 minutes between his rough cut and his final print. Francis cut
out 31/2 hours from The Rainmaker from his rough cut to his final cut."
Another surprise about working with Mr. Spielberg was his accessibility,
he says. "It was like a film school. It was like class began in the
morning. Going back to those {actor} filmmakers, that's who he relates
to. That's why he cast 'em. They're all him in different ways."
When he asked Mr. Spielberg one of the many questions that popped into
his head, he says the director would stop, turn around, explain and then
march off to make another decision.
The highly disciplined actor is moving fast these days. Since Private
Ryan, he has completed John Dahl's Rounders and Kevin Smith's Dogma.
Coming up are starring roles in Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr.
Ripley and All the Pretty Horses ("It's a great book," he says.
"Hopefully, I won't mess it up."), to be directed by Billy Bob Thornton.
But he says, "I'm still grateful Walter Hill gave me that job in
Geronimo because I needed it. I needed the money. I needed the exposure.
I don't know what I'd be doing if he hadn't. I'd probably be doing
theater back in Boston."
It was also where he caught the eye of that other Oscar winner. "Every
young actor has seen all of Duvall's movies. I used to go to the set on
days I didn't work, and he'd invite me into his trailer for lunch. I was
just a scrub guy. He'd say, "C'mon, son, you get in here. You want some
pasta?' He just totally took me under his wing."
PHOTO(S): 1. (The Dallas Morning News: Joe Stefanchik) Actor Matt Damon
still looks like a kid, but he's maturing fast in the world of film. 2.
(David James) The star-studded cast of Saving Private Ryan includes
(from left) Tom Hanks, Matt Damon and Edward Burns. 3. (David James) In
Saving Private Ryan, Matt Damon performed with four writer-directors.
Copyright © 1998 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
