Matt Damon “Fell Into a Depression” After Moving His Family to Film a Movie That Was Not What He “Hoped It Would Be”

Even if you’re Oscar winner Matt Damon, life has its ups and downs. The actor, who has enjoyed decades of success in Hollywood, admitted he once “fell into a depression” when disappointed by a project.

During a recent appearance on the YouTube series Jake’s Takes, Damon recalled the difficult time he had filming one particular movie, although he didn’t specify which one.

��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, per Indiewire.

“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,” he explained. “And I remember my wife pulling me up because I fell into a depression about like, what have I done?

“She just said, ‘We’re here now.’…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,” he continued. “And if you can do that with the best possible attitude, then you’re a pro, and she really helped me with that.”

Though he did not specify which movie fell short of his expectations, the actor previously spoke about his difficulties filming the 2016 sci-fi film The Great Wall, which shot in New Zealand.

In a 2021 interview on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast, Damon said, “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.’ That’s as shitty as you can feel creatively, I think. I hope to never have that feeling again.”

In The Great Wall, Damon plays a European mercenary who fights with a secret army to defend the Great Wall of China against aliens. The movie was a box office flop, raking in less than $50 million against its $150 million budget.

“I was like, this is exactly how disasters happen,” he said at the time. “It doesn’t cohere. It doesn’t work as a movie.”

In 2022, the actor started his own production company with his longtime collaborator and friend Ben Affleck. The company, titled Artists Equity, recently released the sports drama Air, which was co-produced by Damon and Affleck, who also directed the film.

Damon is set to do all of his future producing through the company, while Affleck will exclusively work on films with Artists Equity from now on.

Damon can be seen in Christopher Nolan’s upcoming epic, Oppenheimer, which lands in theaters July 21.