Matt Damon‘s carved out a career as an A-list actor over the years, whether it’s playing the titular super spy in the Jason Bourne franchise or starring in projects with his longtime friend Ben Affleck. But, there’s another element of Damon’s career that’s flown under the radar, which needs to be discussed, and that’s the fact that he tends to make cameos when you least expect it.
What makes these cameos so great is that they cover a wide variety of films and genres; one minute, he could be playing a highly exaggerated version of himself in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back or a punk rocker who makes an entire song about sleeping with another guy’s girlfriend in EuroTrip. If you take a closer look at these cameos, there’s a major element that links them all together.
Matt Damon’s Cameos Are Usually Favors To Friends & Directors He Works With
An actor of Matt Damon’s caliber often gets to work with top-tier stars and filmmakers, and Damon often makes his cameos in these directors’ films as a way of thanks. A great example of this concerns Finding Forrester, the Gus Van Sant film featuring Sean Connery as a reclusive writer who befriends prodigy Jamal (Rob Brown). Damon previously worked with Van Sant on Good Will Hunting, which scored him Oscar gold and catapulted him to the A-List, so he agreed to help an old friend out.
A similar approach fuels his brief cameo in Drive-Away Dolls, as he previously worked with director Ethan Coen and his brother Joel. Damon freely admitted that he likes to do cameos so that he can spend time with friends, especially when it came to his brief cameo in Thor: Ragnarok. “Chris (Hemsworth) just called me up, and Taika (Waititi) called me up, and I’m friends with those guys,” he said when discussing the cameo.
That approach led to one of Damon’s most underrated cameos in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. He briefly appears in a “blink and you’ll miss it” appearance in the opening sequence, which recreates The Dating Game; if that wasn’t surprising enough, Brad Pitt also shows up! Damon and Pitt both worked with George Clooney on the crime caper Ocean’s 11, so it only makes sense that Clooney would want to work with some familiar faces for his directorial debut. They wouldn’t be the only major appearances from the cast of the Ocean’s films, as Julia Roberts turns up while Clooney also stars in the film as Jim Byrd, the CIA agent who recruits game show host Chuck Barris (Sam Rockwell) for a dangerous mission.
One of Matt Damon’s Cameos Has Led to A Working Relationship With An A-List Director
Matt Damon wearing a helmet and looking in profile as Odysseus in The Odyssey.
Image via Universal Pictures
Matt Damon’s biggest and most unexpected cameo came when he showed up in Interstellar. Damon plays brilliant scientist Dr. Mann, who’s been hibernating on an icy planet; upon waking up, he attempts to kill his rescuers and escape, having given up on the human race. What made Damon’s appearance such a shock is that it’s genuinely treated as a surprise. He didn’t show up in any of the marketing materials, and his role is brief but very significant. Another actor was even tapped to play Dr. Mann, before scheduling conflicts led to Damon taking the role.
Interstellar’s success led to Damon once again joining forces with Christopher Nolan, this time for the star-studded biopic Oppenheimer. The duo once again re-teamed for the upcoming Greek epic The Odyssey, starring Damon as Odysseus, but you never know when he might pop up in another movie.
Release Date
November 7, 2014
Runtime
169 Minutes