Matt Damon’s failed attempt to sabotage his arch-nemesis
(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
It’s a dog-eat-dog world on the market for any younger, unknown, and unproven actor making an attempt to make a reputation for themselves, with Matt Damon even resorting to tried sabotage.
He hasn’t had something to fear about since 1997, with his Academy Award win for ‘Best Original Screenplay’ alongside Ben Affleck primarily setting the 2 of them up for all times, and it has been a very long time since Damon has had to battle, scratch, and claw his manner towards a job he desperately craved.
Then once more, his underhanded techniques weren’t a lot a couple of position he desperately craved, but a paycheque he really needed. In the early Nineteen Nineties, Damon was simply one in every of many aspiring thespians struggling to get their foot within the door, and most of his auditions round that point noticed him competing instantly in opposition to one in every of his School Ties co-stars.
In addition to Damon and Affleck, Brendan Fraser, Cole Hauser, and Anthony Rapp had been throughout the identical age, they usually had been all chasing comparable components. However, there was one other member of the ensemble who triggered him extra irritation than most: that pesky and more and more standard Chris O’Donnell.
It may sound ridiculous by means of a contemporary lens when Damon, Affleck, and Fraser are all Oscar-winning stars, however O’Donnell was seen as the following huge factor. The future Jason Bourne was outrageous that he was landing the best jobs and making the most moneyand in an attempt to halt their arch-nemesis of their tracks, I’ve provided to work for 75% much less to beat them to the punch.
“I was one of the final three to play Robin in the George Clooney/Joel Schumacher batman“he recalled. O’Donnell had already played the superhero sidekick in Batman Foreverwhich Damon had already unsuccessfully auditioned for, but money troubles had created a potential vacancy.
Sensing an opportunity and the chance to get one over on the guy he’d been enviously watching stealing so many opportunities away from him, he offered his services for a much lower fee. “They wanted him for a price,” he defined. “And I knew Chris, and I simply remembered calling him and being like, ‘I’ll work for 1 / 4 of what that dude’s asking for. I need the job!”
Damon got as far as auditioning in front of Schumacher as O’Donnell’s potential replacement, but he had the sneaking suspicion that it was a power play to bring the actor back to the negotiating table. He knew that, too, granting that “they always intended it for Chris,” but there was no harm in putting himself out there anyway.
It was another job lost to O’Donnell, but it’s fair to say that Damon got the last laugh, since he went on to become a much bigger and more successful star in the long run.
