Matt Damon has played an astronaut, a spy and a master thief. But rapper? That’s a new one.
The Oscar winner recently stepped into the recording booth as “the Nomad” — that’s “Damon” spelled backward, in case you were wondering — for Water.org’s new Get Blue initiative, a campaign designed to raise awareness about the global water crisis through everyday purchases, exclusive products and brand partnerships.
“It’s a constant struggle, big big trouble, let’s fix it on the double,” he raps in the song. (Don’t believe me? Here you go.)
When I tell Damon I did not have “Matt Damon, hip-hop artist” on my 2026 bingo card, he laughs: “You can take it off your 2027 bingo card.”
The rap may be the attention-grabbing part, but the mission behind it has been part of Damon’s life for nearly two decades. An estimated 1 in 4 people worldwide lack access to safe water. Through the global nonprofit, cofounders Damon and engineer Gary White have helped more than 90 million people gain access to safe water or sanitation.
As for why he was willing to (somewhat) embarrass himself spitting bars?
“We’ll try anything, really,” Damon tells Yahoo. “It’s a constant conversation with us, like how do we cut through the noise? Is there a silly thing we can do?”
Below, Damon talks about his mission to be more than a movie star, his new blockbuster The Odyssey and why he thinks Brad Pitt would be more useful than George Clooney on a mythical voyage home.
One thing that changed everything
Twenty years ago, Damon went on what he describes as a “curated trip” to figure out where he wanted to devote his time and energy outside of acting. That’s when he first learned about the global water crisis.
“Water really undergirds all these issues of extreme poverty,” Damon says. “It’s just so huge and we don’t talk about it here [in the U.S.] because it doesn’t really affect our lives.”
The issue felt impossible to ignore. Damon learned that girls around the world were missing school because they were responsible for collecting water for their families. “I was trying to figure out how I could make an impact and how I could really maximize that.”
That search eventually led him to White — and to an approach that Damon says transformed what was possible.
Damon and Water.org cofounder Gary White, far right, with two women.
(Courtesy: water.org.)
“Innovation was a huge part of what attracted me to Gary and in how he looked at this problem,” Damon says.
While White had experience building wells and sustainable water systems, he was also looking for ways to scale those efforts dramatically. That thinking eventually led to Water.org’s microfinance model, which helps families access affordable loans for water and sanitation solutions.
The impact has been staggering.
“Had we stayed with just drilling wells, it would have taken us 600 years to reach the same number of people that we’ve reached today,” Damon notes.
More than 90 million people later, Damon says the lesson has been simple: People don’t need saving as much as they need opportunity.
“What we’ve seen, over 16 million of these loans, is one after another, these women, if we just nudge the market towards them and get out of their way, they are completely capable of solving this problem for themselves,” he says. “It’s really about empowerment and really looking at people as fellow citizens and capable human beings and not as a charity case. And that’s really been the difference.”
One Odyssey thing
Robert Pattinson was the only cast member bold enough to ask director Christopher Nolan for a script before signing on to The Odyssey.
So when Nolan called Damon, did he ask to see anything in writing?
“Everybody laughed about that,” the actor says of Pattinson’s confession. “Everybody was like, ‘You asked to see the script?'”
For Damon, the answer was simple: “No, it’s a pretty easy yes when he calls.”
That said, Damon believes Nolan doesn’t get enough credit for one of his greatest talents.
“He happens to be one of my favorite writers, and people don’t give him a lot of credit for how great a writer he is,” Damon explains. “I think because he’s such an exceptional director, it kind of overshadows that work.”
In fact, Damon, who has done Interstellar, Oppenheimer and now The Odyssey with Nolan, puts the Oscar-winner in rare company: “The three scripts [for] Interstellar, Oppenheimer and The Odyssey are just three of the best pieces of writing I’ve seen.”
One ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ thing
With Damon starring in The Odyssey, I couldn’t resist asking a crossover question: If he could bring one member of the Ocean’s Eleven crew along on Odysseus’s voyage, who would get him home the fastest — and who would be dead weight?
Damon’s first answer is technically a cheat.
“I guess Brad played Achilles [in the 2004 film Troy]. So he was there on the way to the war,” he replies, amused. “He was with us. So he would have been helpful to have.”
After that, however, his answer came quickly.
Damon with Don Cheadle, left, and George Clooney.
(Kevin Winter via Getty Images)
“I’d probably bring Don Cheadle, the Basher, the explosives expert. He’d be the most helpful.”
As for who wouldn’t make the cut?
“Clooney, pretty useless, I would have to say,” he says. “Casey Affleck, again, totally useless.”
One thing you can do
Damon spends much of our conversation talking about attention and how difficult it can be to get people to engage with an issue that feels distant from their daily lives.
That’s partly why he’s willing to rap, partner with major brands and try whatever it takes to get people to help, without going out of their way.
“It’s only $5 to get somebody clean water for life,” Damon says.
With Get Blue, consumers can support the organization through partnerships with brands such as Starbucks, Gap and Amazon. The hope, Damon explains, is that it “feels the opposite” of daunting.
“It feels like, ‘Wait a minute, just by going about my life I can actually have a real impact on this problem.'”