Everything You Need To Know About Matt Damon

As Matt Damon returns to the Bourne franchise, we decided to assemble this handy guide to the habits, quirks and inner life of an honest-to-god screen legend, as told by George Clooney, Martin Scorsese, Ben Affleck and the other titans who know him best

- GQ Editors

Matt Damon is, scientifically, the most liked man in Hollywood. He is serious, and he is funny. He is approachable-seeming and often jacked. He has been in six of your ten favourite movies in the past 20 years, and he’s met a bunch of people along the way who like him a whole lot. But for all his familiarity, he’s still elusive (which is how he likes it). So instead of asking Matt Damon dumb questions about the new Jason Bourne movie, we got Damon and those people who like him a lot – George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Tina Fey, Ben Affleck, Martin Scorsese and Co – to tell all the stories about him that you haven’t heard.

ACCENT, BOSTON

MATT DAMON: I was sitting at George Clooney’s pool in Lake Como, and Brad Pitt walked in, sat down next to me and said, “Do you want to do a Martin Scorsese movie in Boston?” [Brad] was a producer on The Departed, and he felt like he had gotten too old for those roles. It’s one of the most absurd things that’s ever happened in my life.

MARTIN SCORSESE (director, The Departed):

He comes from Boston; he’s familiar with that world. When we were cutting The Departed, my editor, Thelma Schoon maker, used a term to describe Matt’s presence onscreen that’s stayed with me: He’s seated as an actor. He enters a movie grounded and at ease in his character and in the world of the story.

SARAH SILVERMAN (co-star, I’m Fucking Matt Damon):

We are all Boston-area people. I don’t know how Matt talks so pretty.