Matt Damon has opened up about one of the lowest points in his life while filming a movie.
The actor, who was recently seen in Paris promoting his new film Oppenheimer alongside Cillian Murphy and Emily Blunt, recalled the moment he realized there was something gravely wrong while on set.
In an interview with Jakes Takes, the 52-year-old said that the project made him fall into "a depression."
"Without naming any particular movies...sometimes you find yourself in a movie that you know, perhaps, might not be what you had hoped it would be, and you’re still making it," he said.
He continued: "And I remember halfway through production and you’ve still got months to go and you’ve taken your family somewhere, you know, and you’ve inconvenienced them, and I remember my wife pulling me up because I fell into a depression about like, what have I done?"
He then explained how his wife helped him navigate the situation.
"She just said, 'We’re here now,'" the Good Will Hunting star said. "You know, and it was like... I do pride myself, in a large part because of her, at being a professional actor and what being a professional actor means is you go and you do the 15-hour day and give it absolutely everything, even in what you know is going to be a losing effort.
"And if you can do that with the best possible attitude, then you’re a pro, and she really helped me with that," he added.
Though Damon might not have revealed the exact name of the movie, multiple other outlets including Variety and Men's Journal hinted that it could be The Great Wall, which was released in 2016.
Directed by Chinese creative Zhang Yimou, the movie told the story of "a mercenary warrior (portrayed by Damon) who is imprisoned within the Great Wall and discovers the mystery behind one of the greatest wonders of the world" as per IMDb.
Men's Journal described the visual effects in the movie as "embarrassingly shoddy" and even went as far as adding that the general storyline was "limp" also emphasizing that the entire thing was just playing on the "white savior" trope - a pretty exhausted narrative if we ever there was one.
Damon spoke of the trainwreck during a 2021 interview with Marc Maron on his 'WTF' podcast saying: "I was like, this is exactly how disasters happen. It doesn’t cohere. It doesn’t work as a movie."
And it seems as though his own daughter thought the same thing.
"... My daughter knows it," he continued. "Whenever she talks about the movie, she calls it 'The Wall.' And I’m like, come on, it’s called The Great Wall. And she’s like, 'Dad, there’s nothing great about that movie.' She’s one of the funniest people I know."
He also told the host that even during the production of the film, he didn't have a good feeling about it.
"I came to consider that the definition of a professional actor; knowing you’re in a turkey and going, 'OK, I’ve got four more months. It’s the up at dawn siege on Hamburger Hill. I am definitely going to die here, but I’m doing it,'" he said. "That’s as sh**** as you can feel creatively, I think.
"I hope to never have that feeling again," he added.
