Thursday, September 2, 2010

Actor Matt Damon packed on the pounds for his latest role in ‘The Informant’, but luckily his wife loved his new chubbier look, writes Shereen Low

The last time Matt Damon had to change the way he looked for a movie role, he lost 18kg in 100 days and ended up on medication.

This time the Bourne star says that gaining around 30 pounds to play whistle-blower Mark Whitacre in ‘The Informant’ was slightly more enjoyable. “I felt terrific, I really did love it,” he reveals, before adding: “The gaining weight was alarmingly easy - just drinking beer, a lot of beer, even dark beer, and eating pizza and burgers, all the stuff you would normally tell yourself not to eat - and it came right on.

Yet the Boston man now shows no sign of any weight.

In his new movie ‘The Informant’, Damon moves away from his traditional ‘Bourne Identity’ and joins the more sedentary figures behind the world of
American business.

Surprisingly, Matt’s wife of three years, Luciana, gave the thumbs up to his new chubbier look.

“There was just more of me to love,” he says, laughing.

“She was a good sport about it, and we had fun. I love parading around with my belly and my stepdaughter thought it was really funny too that I got all squishy.”

Not only did the father-of-three pile on the kilos for the Steven Soderbergh-directed movie, he also donned a dodgy barnet and moustache.

“The hair was spectacular, the wig,” he recalls.

“His face is also rounder than mine so I had little things stuck in my gums to push my cheeks out. And I wore a fake moustache.”

“Every day, people would come and watch us shoot, and invariably, somebody would say, ‘Wow, you are so much better-looking in person’.

I would say, ‘Thank you’ but would wonder if it was the wig, the moustache, the 30 pounds, the fake nose or the wardrobe. I don’t know what this says about the mid-west but the people are extraordinarily polite.”

The dark comedy, which is based on a true story, is set in Illinois, home to the original informant in the mid-Nineties.

“It’s weird to make a period piece about a time I remember well,” says Matt.

“I remember walking into the first wardrobe fitting, going, ‘What are they going to do with the clothes? I mean, the clothes are just like they are now’. I walked in and went, ‘Oh my God, I forgot’. So that was kind of an eye-opener for me.”

Matt, who won an Academy Award for his joint screenplay of ‘Good Will Hunting’ with best mate Ben Affleck, jokes that the reason behind him saying, ‘Yes’ to playing Mark is to nab himself further Oscar glory.

“That’s why we did this movie,” he says.

“I tallied up all the things that seemed to gain awards and we basically made an algorithm and then wrote the movie around that. That’s why I did it.”
The actor, who has branched out into producing, hasn’t always been on such a winning streak. When director Steven Soderbergh rang him almost ten years ago, regarding ‘Ocean’s Eleven’, Damon thought he was being offered a writing job.

“I had just done two movies, which really tanked,” he says. “I was thinking that I was going to have to go back to writing because nobody had offered me a job in about nine months.”

‘The Informant’ marks Damon’s fifth reunion with the renowned director, whom he credits for improving his acting.

“There was one scene we talked about with this regressive interior monologue. I thought a lot about how to play that and then when I got to the scene, it turned out weird. Steven stepped in and gave me a little direction, and saved me from myself.”

Matt, who became a household name after 1997’s ‘Good Will Hunting’, has taken on a wide range of roles, from charming murderer Tom Ripley in
‘The Talented Mr Ripley’ to amnesiac assassin Jason Bourne in the ‘Bourne’ series.

Next up is the Clint Eastwood-directed ‘Invictus’ with Morgan Freeman, which already has Oscar buzz around it, and thriller ‘Green Zone’. He’s also lined up to star in the Coen Brothers remake of Sixties western, ‘True Grit’.

Away from Hollywood blockbusters, Matt is known for his ongoing playful relationship with US comedians Jimmy Kimmel and Sarah Silverman, and is also featured on ‘Team America: World Police’ as a puppet voiced by South Park’s Trey Parker.

“I loved that. I was really happy to be in that, I really like that movie,” he says. “I still get people come up with pictures of the puppet and ask me to sign it, but they always say: ‘Please can you just write Maaaaatt Damon for me?’”

‘The Informant’ is out now.