Matt Damon has revealed how Ridley Scott convinced him to do his 2015 sci-fi The Martian when he tried to turn it down.
The Bourne Identity star met with the director to turn down the project because the character felt too similar to his brief role in Christopher Nolan's 2014 sci-fi Interstellar.
However, Scott's no-nonsense response convinced Damon to take on the lead role in the filmmaker's Oscar-nominated movie.
"I had just done that part in Interstellar," Damon told his Interstellar and The Odyssey co-star Anne Hathaway in a video for Harper's Bazaar UK. "I got so in my head, I said, 'Well, I just played a guy stranded on a planet, I can't then go play a guy stranded on a planet (again).' This is me classically, stupidly overthinking things."
"I said that out loud to Ridley and without missing a beat, he goes, 'Oh, no one gives a s**t,'" he recalled. "And I was like, 'Alright, I'll do it.'"
Damon is glad he ultimately accepted the "great" role because he "had a ball doing it" with Scott.
The Martian, starring Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels and Kristen Wiig, won rave reviews and was a huge box office success. It also received seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Damon, who reunited with Scott on 2021's The Last Duel.
During the conversation, Hathaway admitted that she regretted not meeting with one particular director in person to turn down a role.
"What I know now is that you always meet with the director," Hathaway said. "The director of that project is somebody that I have wanted to work with since and I don't know that I'm gonna get the opportunity because he really wanted me for that part and there's something about it that didn't resonate with me."
The Princess Diaries star added that she thought she was "being respectful" by sending the director notes about why she didn't want to do his film.
"In hindsight, I should've sat down with him, should've looked him eye to eye, explained what was going on for me and given him a chance to plead his case," she acknowledged, without sharing details of the project.
Damon and Hathaway currently star in Nolan's latest film, The Odyssey, which will be released in cinemas on Friday.
