In an interview with GQ<\/a>, Damon \u2014 who stars as Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, in Christopher Nolan’s highly-anticipated film, “The Odyssey” \u2014 got candid about the constant uncertainty within the entertainment business and explained the sacrifices that came with it while being a dad to his four daughters.<\/p>\n “There\u2019s less of that kind of young person\u2019s engine of needing to prove something and more about, like, accepting work and doing it on your terms and doing it as precisely and as well as you can. I think about it a lot, especially as my kids are getting older: really trying to be here now,” said Damon, who is dad to Isabella, 19, Gia, 17, and Stella, 15, as well as Alexia, 26, from his wife Luciana\u2019s first marriage. “And it\u2019s hard for me to do that.”<\/p>\n Matt Damon is gearing up to star as Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, in Christopher Nolan’s highly-anticipated film, “The Odyssey.” (Cindy Ord\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n “I think maybe that has to do with my own nature,” he added. “It also has to do with this career where you\u2019re always trying to figure out what\u2019s ahead, because it\u2019s such an uncertain business and a pretty ruthless one. Those kinds of things have conspired to, I think, maybe take me out of where I am, more than I\u2019d like.”<\/p>\n ‘LIONESS’ STAR ADMITS HOLLYWOOD SUCCESS REQUIRES ‘PAINFUL’ SACRIFICES<\/a><\/p>\n Damon was 18 years old when he took on his first role in Hollywood, a one-line dialogue in the 1980s film, “Mystic Pizza.” His breakthrough role as Will Hunting in “Good Will Hunting” alongside Ben Affleck<\/a> came in 1997.<\/p>\n “I don\u2019t think either of us stopped for years,” Damon told GQ about himself and Affleck after<\/a> the release of “Good Will Hunting.” “I mean, I think I worked five straight years, literally out of these two duffel bags that I had. And I traveled everywhere and just literally would go from set to set. And I loved it. It was great. I loved what I was doing. I didn\u2019t want to stop. There\u2019s that insecurity of actors of like, the phone\u2019s going to stop ringing.”<\/p>\n “There\u2019s that list that you hear about, and you never know,” Damon said. “I mean, you know if you\u2019re on it if your phone\u2019s ringing a lot, but you don\u2019t\u2026. There\u2019s no official list, but there is\u2014sometimes you can get a movie greenlit at a studio, but not at another studio, and you\u2019re really aware of that. I\u2019ve always been really aware of that.”<\/p>\n Damon, with daughter, Isabella, wife Luciana, and daughters Gia and Stella, admits he’s really slowed down over the past decade.\u00a0 (Roy Rochlin\/Getty Images for Netflix)<\/p>\n BEN AFFLECK ADMITS HIS LATCH-KEY CHILDHOOD WOULDN\u2019T BE POSSIBLE TODAY<\/a><\/p>\n There are some parts of the job, however, that helped him adapt as a father.<\/p>\n “I feel like fatherhood has made my job a lot easier in a lot of ways,” Damon told Fatherly <\/a>in 2021. “All those emotions that I used to have to reach for are just readily accessible. I don\u2019t have to twist myself into knots to find something\u2014it\u2019s just sitting right there all the time.”<\/p>\n KEVIN COSTNER SHARES SECRET TO RAISING 7 VERY DIFFERENT CHILDREN IN HOLLYWOOD SPOTLIGHT<\/a><\/p>\n Damon once said fatherhood had made his job “easier in a lot of ways.” (Slaven Vlasic\/Getty Images for Netflix)<\/p>\n When it comes to chasing roles, Damon said he slowed down significantly over the past decade, as he focused more on being home with his family, as well as working within his production company he founded with Affleck, Artists Equity.<\/p>\n LIKE WHAT YOU\u2019RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS<\/a><\/p>\n “My youngest is a freshman, and I\u2019ve been through this a few times and I know how quickly these years go,” he told GQ.<\/p>\n Damon is dad to Isabella, 19, Gia, 17, and Stella, 15, as well as Alexia from his wife Luciana’s first marriage.\u00a0 (Monica Schipper\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n However, when the opportunity to take on his latest role in “The Odyssey” arose, he was fully in.<\/p>\n CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP<\/a><\/p>\n “It\u2019s a little bewildering,” he told GQ. “Because of where the movie business is going, it was a really weird movie for me personally, in the sense that I had almost a nostalgic feeling the entire time I was making it, because it felt like movies were when I started working. And I know that that\u2019s going away. I knew that this was the last chance I was ever going to have to do something like this.”<\/p>\n While Damon has had to navigate the pros and cons to work-life balance<\/a> as a father, he knows at the end of the day, life moves fast.\u00a0<\/p>\n “Your kids show up\u2014like that spirit that soul is there, and it’s going to do what it’s going to do,” he said during an appearance on Travis and Jason Kelce’s “New Heights<\/a>” podcast. “The nurture part is very important; you’re going to be helping with that, but they really are who they are right away.”<\/p>\n![\"Matt](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/matt-damon-netflix-premiere-fox-news-001.jpeg\")
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