Transcript of "Matt's Way Cooler Than My Dad" | Matt Damon & Tom Holland - The Odyssey

Name: "Matt's Way Cooler Than My Dad" | Matt Damon & Tom Holland - The Odyssey
Channel: The Hook
Description: Transcript of "Matt's Way Cooler Than My Dad" | Matt Damon & Tom Holland - The Odyssey

0:00I wish I could claim him as a son. Oh god. Yeah. Yeah. Way cooler than my dad. [laughter]

0:06Don't let him see that.

0:07Oh, please let him see that [laughter] clip. I could like this. All you had to go like that.

0:13He gave me permission to hurt him. And today I found out he ended up in the

0:20emergency [laughter] room. So, Matt, this is the second time in your career you're playing someone

0:27who's trying to get home from The Martian till the Odyssey. I was wondering, is is this something

0:31you're drawn to, or does Hollywood keep [music] stranding you places? Uh, I they can strand me as

0:36long as they want if if if those are the outcomes. Um, you know, Interstellar, I'm also stranded. So,

0:42so those are those are some good Saving Private Ryan, you're a little Saving Private Ryan. So,

0:46those are, you know, I'll take I'll take those jobs if I can get them. I mean, if they make

0:50as good films as those, keep them coming. Yeah, that's exactly. That's a good list there. That's a

0:54good list. That's a [laughter] great list. That's gonna be a great clip. And Tom, um I was wondering

1:00if there was lessons you took from doing Romeo and Juliet on stage bringing into this. And if if so,

1:05what what were they? I tell you what, the most valuable lesson I learned from doing a play was I

1:12found my focus improved greatly because you'll be doing these complicated lines and someone might be

1:18coughing or someone's phone might go off and you can't allow one person to disrupt the experience

1:24for a thousand people [music] and you know I used to find myself struggling on set if you know sets

1:30are busy places they're noisy there's lots of movement happening behind the camera I used

1:34to find it really difficult to stay focused And after doing that play and exercising that every

1:39single night, I definitely have found much more focus. That's a great observation actually because

1:47you're making me think that I there are film actors I've encountered who are are more fragile.

1:54You know, if if if a phone goes off or if a thing, you know, and and when you do a play,

1:59you have no choice but to like the lights are on and you make your entrance and you have to keep

2:05going and and uh and you're right, it does really improve your concentration. Well, there you go.

2:10Recommend it to every actor. Get it done. John, obviously you first tackled Shakespeare with Romeo

2:15and Juliet. Now to to Homer. I was uh I was wondering with the Odyssey, obviously they're

2:21worlds apart. Did that experience with one classic influence the other? I you know that's that's a

2:27great parallel you made because it did. I mean we had a study with Baz Lurman. We had a two-eek uh

2:33Shakespeare workshop with all the actors, Leo and everybody. And this and I when I looked at this

2:39script and the dialogue that I had, I definitely thought of that, you know, like how do I make this

2:44dialogue come to life and make it conversational? Cuz that's what Chris told me at lunch like,

2:49can you make this exposition conversational? I go, I I'll do my best. Himesh, I was wondering if

2:55there's a there was a film called The Odyssey about your life, what would the story be?

3:02Oh man. [laughter] Oh my gosh. Uh, a a young uh brown kid from a small village [laughter] uh

3:09tries to get to the city to find more brown people.

3:14[laughter] Amazing. All right, that's great. That's correct. That's basically my life. Amazing.

3:17I'm jumping in that movie. I want to be a part of it. I'll be your sidekick. Yeah. Yeah. And Lita,

3:22you've shown how powerful silence can be as an actor. I think like you can say a thousand words

3:28without saying anything just just just on your face. And I was wondering if you'd maybe ever

3:33asked a director if they can cut a line so you can replace it with a look. Most definitely. Oh yes,

3:40that happens often. Really? Yeah. I can't remember any specific line, but sometimes oftenimes that's

3:47the workshop of getting [music] something off the page is that there's when you consider behavior,

3:54you don't need the words as much and it can be so much more powerful. Definitely. Well, you do it

3:59so well. Thank you. I was wondering if at any point, Billy, that um if you tapped into that

4:05director side of you while while you were acting, like did it did it at certain moments just click?

4:10Uh no, not really. You know, because like um Chris has got it pretty pretty under control,

4:17so [laughter] it's like um didn't never feel the urge. No, but there there definitely is a

4:21part of me that's like looking around and it's like, okay, it's not Yeah, not not so bad. Or

4:27I can't I wish I had thousand people that I could throw in and do this. But um there's

4:32yeah part of it is like yeah you in this though it's it's it's a nice experience to kind of just

4:38give yourself up and [music] and take be a part of the process you know and yeah it's it was amazing.

4:46You recently said Matt that filming this was more like an expedition. Yeah. Um and I was wondering

4:51was there any situations during either being out in the ocean in the storms and stuff that

4:56you actually feared for your life? No. No. No. [laughter] Never. Chris is super safety conscious.

5:01Yeah. Yeah. He's obsessive about safety and and the the trick is to to and what what's hard is

5:07to make something look dangerous but not have it actually be dangerous. And so [music] there was

5:11a lot of that, but that takes a lot of of work and and uh and um but no, there was never any

5:18never any fear. Even when he was waterboarding me at the end at the at the Universal backlot,

5:23uh I I I knew I was still going to make it to lunch. What's the story behind that? Well,

5:27we had to get some close-ups on the raft and it was the last day of shooting. And

5:31so I'm lying on this raft because we'd done stuff in the open ocean, but but uh the we

5:37needed a controlled environment to [music] shoot these these very these these tight shots. And so

5:42I just water started getting poured on my head and and I just heard him giggling and [laughter]

5:47I'm like I haven't I haven't heard you laugh while we're working for a hundred days. And this is the

5:53one I'm like you're waterboarding me on the last day of work. I was wondering for the both of you,

5:58if you could steal one quality from each other as actors, what would it be? Oh my god,

6:02I love Where do I begin? Yeah. Yeah. I was I was going to say that moment where where you were

6:08deciding that you were going to turn against uh Matt Odysius. I mean, you could read everything in

6:13your face and the way you take your time to give us all those emotions that you were going through

6:18and so transparent. It was Thank you. was great. Um yeah, I I it's John Leguama. I don't know where

6:24do I start. if I could do uh any of the iconic roles. But we were just talking about Ice Age.

6:31So that was a pretty if I could play if I could play like this. All you had to

6:34do is go like that. There you go. Boom. Just just like that. You want to give it a go. 20

6:39years of iconic animated movie right there. Yeah. [laughter] Luigi as well. Oh yeah. That

6:45as well by the way that was I remember that when I was a kid. Yeah. And I was wondering

6:49for the both of you if you could steal one quality from each other as actors what it would be. um

6:58your ability to access that just like raw emotion and but like that definitely. Thank you. I have

7:08to build it up. I can't just like I would I would I would take his long-suffering nature

7:14because [laughter] when we were doing our scene uh he gave me permission to hurt him

7:21and um every time I checked in with him he said he was okay and today

7:28I found out he ended up in the emergency room. [laughter] Did you actually No, no, it was I was

7:35It was definitely It was de I was I was definitely not entirely truthful when I was saying it didn't

7:40hurt him. It paid off on screen. Obviously, you two play a father [music] and son in the film.

7:47Did that relationship naturally carry behind the scenes? I know you didn't get to have loads

7:51of scenes together. Um I I actually see him a lot more as a colleague than [music] as a son figure,

7:57you know? I I may be an older an older brother. Uh or maybe I'm just don't want to get old. But uh

8:03but uh but no, he's he's incredible [music] and and and reminds me a lot of me at that

8:10age, you know. Um he's accomplished more than I had by that time, I think. But like but just

8:17great choices, just unbelievably professional and kind to everybody. Um [music] and uh and just,

8:24you know, I I I wish I could claim him as a son. [laughter] Would you claim him back? Oh god. Yeah.

8:30Yeah. Way cooler than my dad. [laughter] Don't let him see that. Oh, please let him

8:36see that clip. No, I remember my dad. One of the most memorable moments I have with my dad

8:42is sitting down. We were on a family holiday in Portugal and he finally decided I was old enough

8:46to watch the Born Identity. That franchise is one of I've spoken to Matt about this nauseium. was

8:51one of my favorite franchises going and I remember sitting down with my dad in Portugal watching that

8:58movie for the first time. So working with Matt was very special for me and for my dad. Benny, would

9:03you have added the Odyssey to your massive stack of uh Criterion films from the Criterion Closet?

9:10Oh, would I? Of course I would have. Definitely. What would you tell the camera about why you've

9:14chosen it? Well, I would I I think I would I would say um this is the ultimate realization of a

9:22mythical story, you know, and it's it's as physical and as real as possible and also just um

9:31yeah, emotionally and physically and it's and [music] if you want to take a trip through time

9:37and place, this is what you should watch. John, I was wondering if you could revisit one character

9:43from your career for one more day, who would it be and why? Wow. Oh, that that Oh, damn. Uh

9:51uh. Oh, I mean to uh maybe um uh uh Bob Trevino cuz he's such a sweet character and I don't

9:59usually play like nice [music] sweet characters. So, I think Bob Tino I'd like to revisit that.

10:05Like a simple normal guy. you got your start on Ascenders and I was wondering if there's

10:10one lesson you learned there that you still carry with you today even a film as big as the Odyssey.

10:17There's um there's an element of pace when you shoot a soap like that. You've got

10:21scenes to get through. Um and [music] you don't necessarily even have time to to get into what

10:27the scene is and like chat about it. And that's often the case on a movie like this as well.

10:32you have time. Like Chris is all ears, but the day is the day and we've got to get the day. So

10:38eventually at some point you just got to do the scene and just just roll the camera and see what

10:41happens. And that like having that ability to just sort of dive into something and and get it done

10:49and trust that it's all going to be okay. That that I think that definitely got fostered. Lastly,

10:53I was wondering, did I review steal anything from set? Did you keep a prop? Oh [laughter] yeah. Um I

11:00I went back to uh ICE where we were shooting in Iceland. My family came. We all went around and

11:07I was like, "Oh, we got to go to the spot where we filmed the scene." And when we got there, it

11:12was everything was gone. And I was like, "This is where we were." And I was explaining it to my kids

11:16and and then there was a piece of the wood that was part of one of the fires. I was like, "No,

11:21I'll take that." And of course it was filled with all this black sand and got all over my

11:26clothes. [laughter] Mhm. Yeah. But that was it. And I took and there there was a hand warmer that

11:31I remember leaving [laughter] behind. I'll take that too. Clean up. Exactly. Exactly. How about

11:38yourself? I just think that, you know, [music] in like 90 100 years someone will make a compilation

11:43of all actors talking [music] about the things they stole and they think we're despicable people,

11:48don't you think? Yeah, [laughter] probably. But it's also Yeah. I mean, I didn't steal anything. I

11:55wish I did. Not not saying that I'm above it. I'm not saying I'm above it. No, for sure. But they

11:59were pretty tight over there. Okay. I wanted to steal my Helen wig. Okay. That I wanted to steal.

12:07And let let me just be clear. I didn't steal the the piece of wood because it was left. Yeah. So

12:14you were just tidying up there. Yeah. Exactly. I had criminal thought I didn't [laughter] carry.

12:18I would be the same. I'd definitely be stealing something. And that's all we have time for.

12:21But thank you so much, guys. Such an amazing film. Thank you. Thank you very much so much.

Transcript of "Matt's Way Cooler Than My Dad" | Matt Damon & Tom Holland - The Odyssey

Key takeaways

What this video covers

Stage Experience Boosts Focus

Safety Measures on Dangerous Sets

Conversational Exposition in the Script

Power of Silence and Looks

The Odyssey as an Expedition

Workshops and Training

Memorable Props and Set Souvenirs

Mentioned in this video

People

Organizations

Referenced works

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