Matt Damon’s Missed Oscar: The Role He Gave Away
Matt Damon once passed up a part he called the best he’d seen in 20 years. That decision led to an Oscar win for his mate Casey Affleck, but not without a few regrets along the way.
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck have long been a dynamic duo in Hollywood, but the balance of their Oscar wins could have looked very different. Damon, despite his impressive career, has never snagged an Academy Award for acting, though he’s been in the running three times for standout performances in Good Will Hunting, Invictus, and The Martian. Affleck, on the other hand, has managed to double his mate’s tally, thanks to a few well-timed projects.
There was one particular role that Damon had his heart set on, a part he described as the best he’d come across in two decades. The project was close to him from the start, with Damon and John Krasinski first floating the idea before bringing in Kenneth Lonergan. The plan was for Damon to direct and Krasinski to star, but after a few years of script tweaks and Krasinski moving on, Damon was set to take the lead as Lee Chandler, with Lonergan directing.
Production Clashes and a Tough Call
Just as things were lining up, Damon’s schedule became a nightmare. Commitments to The Martian, Jason Bourne, and The Great Wall meant he simply couldn’t make the timing work. Rather than hold up the film, he stepped aside from the lead role but stayed on as a producer. Thanks to some previous headaches Lonergan had with another film, Damon was given the final say on the finished product.
Handing over a role he’d been so invested in wasn’t easy. Damon later admitted,
“That was the best role that I’d seen in maybe 20 years. But I couldn’t do it because I had The Martian and a big spate of work lined up. I told Kenny, ‘The only person in the world that I will give this role to is Casey’, because he was the only person who could do it the way it deserved to be done.”
Passing the Torch to a Mate
With Damon out, he turned to someone he trusted completely—his long-time friend Casey Affleck. As a producer, Damon had the clout to make that call, and he wasn’t keen to see anyone else take the part.
“He’s one of the best actors in the world,”
Damon said of Affleck.
“And he has been for a very long time.”
Affleck’s performance in Manchester by the Sea was a hit with critics and punters alike, eventually earning him the Oscar for Best Actor. Meanwhile, The Martian did well at the box office and picked up its own share of praise, but Damon couldn’t help but wonder what might have been as he watched his mate collect the top acting prize. After all, it was a role he’d always pictured himself playing, and it’s hard to reckon there wasn’t at least a tiny pang of envy as Affleck took the stage.