Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist - Matt Damon on The Odyssey and Working with Christopher Nolan

Episode Date: July 12, 2026

Matt Damon says playing Odysseus in the new movie The Odyssey was like nothing he has ever done before.  Damon is working again with famed Director Christopher Nolan after the Oscar-winning blockbusters Interstellar and Oppenheimer. Damon got together with Willie Geist to discuss the challenges of shooting this movie fully in IMAX, traveling to several remote locations and enduring the elements to tell Homer’s epic saga.   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit Down podcast. My thanks, as always, for clicking and listening along. I am very excited to bring you my conversation this week with one of the biggest stars in all of Hollywood. And the star in particular of the movie that everyone is talking about right now, The Odyssey, directed by Christopher Nolan. Matt Damon plays Odysseus, the lead character in the story. Of course, the 3,000-year-old epic poem by Homer about a amazing. Man's journey home from the Trojan War.

It takes him 10 years to get back. He's the king of Ithaca. He goes, wins the Trojan War, the Trojan horse, all that stuff, you know, that's in the movie. And then it's this wild, perilous journey to get back over 10 years while his wife, Penelope, played by Anne Hathaway in the movie, waits for him. And he has a young son played by Tom Holland, who he doesn't really know because he was a baby when he left. So it's just an extraordinary film. I'll let Matt tell you about it to the extent he can before it comes out.

Christopher Nolan has a very specific way of doing things. You know all his movies. Matt Damon worked with him just a few years ago on Oppenheimer and before that on Interstellar. Just so you know, when Matt says Nolan films everything in camera, it means if you're seeing on the screen, it means they filmed it. It means no special effects, no green screen. They actually shot it.

And when you see this movie, you'll be astounded that none of it is a special effect, whether it's these fight scenes on the high seas or. these giants that appear and all the things that come in. It's just an extraordinary piece of filmmaking. And Matt talks about it being the most difficult, but also those gratifying film role of his career. He thinks it's the capstone, as he called it, the best thing he's done or ever will do.

And said he kind of felt nostalgic while filming it because it's the way movies used to be made, and he worries won't be made that way going forward. We also talk a little bit about his life and how he's managed this 30 years since he kind of came on the scene and courage under fire. And people said, who's that guy, he's good?

And then the next year, Goodwill Hunting comes out, wins the Academy Award with his buddy, Ben Affleck. Talk about water.org, his organization and artist equity, which is the kind of innovative production company, he and Ben established to share the wealth better

on the set with people behind the scenes as well. So you don't need any more introduction for Matt Damon. You know him. He truly is, and I will just say this on a personal note, the reputation he has is absolutely true. one of the kindest, most generous, friendly guys you'll ever meet of any stature, but certainly of a star of his stature.

Shakes everybody's hand in the room, sticks around and talk. We shot it at this beautiful Indian restaurant in New York City called Musifer. The family who owns the restaurant was there. He spent time with them. Just a great guy. It is a big, beautiful, ornate restaurant. So you might hear us comment on that at the top. All right, let me get out of the way.

Sit back, relax, and enjoy Matt Day. right now on the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Great to see you, Matt. Thanks for doing this. Thank you for having me. We have an understated setting. I love it, man. Right? It's very, uh, yeah, it's, uh, it actually feels like some of the restaurants we, we passed through on the Odyssey, you know, it actually feels kind of a rock in here. It does, right? It's got some Odyssey energy to it for sure. Um, I have to start with congratulations on this project, truly, because As someone who sat and watched it in IMAX, which is how everyone will see it,

I was just in awe, honestly, of not just the spectacle, but of the performances and the storytelling and the ability of Christopher Nolan to take this epic and capture the essence of it in two-and-a-half-hour movie. I have to imagine for you, despite everything you've done over these last 35 years or so, it had to be a unique standalone experience. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Definitely the hardest movie. I've ever done just because it was so ambitious, just because what he was trying to do. I mean, obviously, it's a 3,000-year-old story. It's a great story, which is why it's survived and why every generation retells it, why we all keep reading it. But Chris just, he does everything in camera.

There's no green screen. And so that to me, when I, you know, that's what makes it, it's, The story is an ambitious story to tell, but the way he wants to tell it is, you know, was incredibly ambitious. And he shot it all in IMAX, and that had never been done. And we didn't even know if we were going to be able to physically do it. So he didn't announce that.

It just, I heard about it in pre-production, and I knew we were going to make the attempt. And as we went, you know, and the weeks would go by, it started to become kind of clear that, like, oh man we might be able to do this and uh and so the so every shot you see in that movie you know if there are ships in the background there are really ships that are you know the amount of coordination that it took to to to do this um and how hard it was to get each one of those shots um it felt more like an expedition than a movie you know because it it really it really required everybody to be just working harder than they'd ever worked. Everybody was just pushed to kind of a limit of what they could do.

And to be a part of that was really cool. And you had some sense of what it meant to work with Christopher Nolan, obviously. He'd done a couple movies. He'd just come off Oppenheimer, which is this major hit. But he was pretty upfront, it sounds like, from the first meeting that this is going to be very hard. Oh, yeah, yeah. What did you take that to mean?

Well, he said it to me. He said this movie's going to be hard. It was the first time we sat down. You know, I'd read the script, and it was our very kind of first meeting where, you know, you just try to level set. You try to troubleshoot, okay, you know, I've been given this role, which is the greatest role I've ever been offered. And it's so we're in, we're six months out.

So you just start kind of trying to figure out what your approach is going to be and try to get all those conversations out of the way through through a series of conversations over those months before you go because you don't want to be surprised you know you're always surprised when you're making a movie but you want to you want to you want to kind of remove any and anything you can ahead of time and uh and at the end of this kind of initial meeting he just see looked at me and he goes this movie is going to be hard and i looked at him like i've made i don't know 80 movies and i'm like yeah i mean and he goes no he goes this movie's going to be really hard.

And it was that kind of, okay, all right, I got you. You know, like, and he, he, to his credit, was not lying. I mean, it was, it was, and it was really hard for everybody. And I'm not the only person who was a repeat Chris Nolan kind of customer, you know. That entire crew was comprised of people who worked with him many times. And, and that was the cool thing. The first AD said it to me, maybe halfway through the shoot, we were there watching the crew do something incredible.

I can't even remember what it was. And I was just, I guess he caught me just gawking. I was just, you know, watching the grips build some platform off the side of a mountain, you know. And Nilo, our first AD came up and sidled up next to me. And he said, you know, the thing is, it's funny when you think every single person here, could be working on an easier movie for more money. And the second he said it, I knew, you know, it was true. Like, everybody there was there, you know, for the love of the game.

Everybody there was there because they were getting pushed harder than they'd ever been pushed, because they wanted to be a part of that. Because these experiences don't come along, you know. It felt like making a David Lean movie. Because in a sense, it was. It was making a movie the way David Lean and one of his films, Cruz would have had to make it because Chris doesn't use any of the, you know, any green screen or any, except for the fact that we were shooting on a format that wasn't available to David

Lean. And we were the first ones to do a whole film that way. When you say, Matt, it's the most difficult movie you've ever made. Just as a practical question, what does that mean physically for you? I mean, the locations were all over the place that were difficult to get to. What was so difficult about it for you? Well, there's just the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the prep and all the stuff that I had to do just as a guy in his 50s, that was its own challenge. That was my own kind of cross the bear. Getting in shape. Away from everybody.

Yeah, that was just something I had to do. Goodbye, gluten, among other things. Yeah, exactly. But where we shot, the locations were really hard to reach. Each one kind of posed a different challenge. Like, you know, we were on a beach in Esauera. and Morocco and and and and with everything that entails we know with the giant horse but you know we were inside the you know we were in Iceland on a you know uh you know on the on the black sand just

trying to get to these places and these are places on I've never been to and they're spectacular as they kind of need to be for this movie to work um but the you know we're shooting on top of a mountain. We're shooting on boats. I don't know if, you know, in movies, it's a very known that you're not supposed to shoot on the water. It's very hard to do. It slows everything down. But, you know, a good chunk of this movie is on the water with everything that that means. The weather, whatever you encounter, you're kind of out in and you're all kind of stuck out there. And so, you know, there's a lot of physical discomfort. But the beauty of it is you look around and everybody is going through it with you.

And that feeling of the teamwork it took to kind of marshal everything and to coordinate all of that. Every single department, you know, you'd have, you know, 15 elements working in a shot. And if one of them was wrong, you had to try again. And so when you would get each shot and just watching the crew that he has is, it's just as somebody who's been doing this a long time, it's just an awesome experience, how good they are,

how serious they are, and how hard they push. And that's kind of what was required to make each shot, of which there are thousands strung together to make The Odyssey. I'm curious as an actor when you hear the idea first from Chris,

we want you to play Odysseus. And your mind goes back to high school literature or college literature, wherever you were reading Homer, and you think, wow, how do I capture in a film, the essence of this foundational piece of literature, and put this character up on screen, what is your process like pulling from that epic poem and making it a movie character?

I'll tell you, it really helped that he gave me the job, because that fact gave me a lot of confidence that I could do it. If I'd gone to him and said, hey, I have a great idea. I want to play Odysseus. I wouldn't have, my mindset would have been a lot different. And he, he, that really did mean a lot to me that he, that he gave me the, the role. And, and the other thing about Chris that I think he, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, I've done with him now. So I've read kind of, kind of closely read three of his screenplays. And I think he's such a spectacular director that that overshadows his writing.

But when you have a document that's that well written and that you can return to as an actor, that gives you a lot of confidence. And you don't play the whole movie in one scene. You know, you kind of analyze what each scene is about and then you go there and leave yourself open to what's going to happen, but knowing that he's directing. So you have a set of eyes on you that are very in touch with what the story is and what it needs to be,

and that gives you a freedom to kind of bring what you're going to bring and know that you're in good hands. Given the fact that you've done the three movies with Nolan, you have this unique window into what makes him great. And one of the things that jumps out to me is the attention to detail, to put it mildly, while shooting, but even after, when you see that behind the scenes footage of hand splicing the IMAX, film, 70 millimeter together, color correcting every frame of a movie that's almost three hours long. I mean, he goes to incredible lengths to get exactly the film he wants. Here's an example, a costume fitting. Usually you'll have one or two costume fittings for a film.

I can't think of how many I had eight or ten, but Chris was in every fitting. I mean, starting at the very beginning, just when Ellen was, you know, he and Ellen, Ellen Marajnik, who's one of the great costume designers who's ever lived, she's just phenomenal. I've worked with her a number of times. And, you know, Ellen, you know, if I'm running the Odysseus department, you know, my job is Odysseus and I mean, she's running, you know, the wardrobe and what and what he's going to look like and her attention to detail, married to his attention to detail, and that collaboration, you know, but he's sitting there. in each of these, you know, hour, two-hour, three-hour sessions where we're discussing every little bit of detail. And that's across this entire movie that is so much bigger than just my character. It's across every detail. You know, the number of decisions that you have to make in that job

is mind-boggling. I mean, directing is by far the hardest job on set, which, incidentally, when you're out there kind of in the middle of, you know, a storm and you're soaked and you're cold and you're like, man, this is, I'm in discomfort right now. You know, it is helpful to turn and see the person with the harder job and more pressure and more responsibility right next to you looking like a drowned rat just as cold, just as wet, and never complaining. I mean, the scene I think you're talking about without giving away too much, but people know the story is when you're lashed to the mask. That's just one of them. We were wet. There was a day we were shooting a scene where we had to be rowing in the rain.

And so Scott Fisher had this. He's our effects. Scott comes in with this boat that had fire hoses rigged off it. And you'd see this boat coming and you go, oh, Scott's coming with the boat. And everyone on the fire hose boat, you can tell they've got a bit of a smile on their face. but Scott's trying to get the rain, so they're fire hosing up in the air to try to get the rain, but there's a ton of wind out there.

Like, we're out on the ocean. And Chris finally just ran up next thing. He goes, hit me. And he's got on the walkie talking, hit me, Scott, hit me. And the whole crew looks at each other. And they go, all right, here we go. They roll the camera and these guys just open up

and this wall of water just comes on all of us. I mean, it's not just the actors. You know what I mean? The crew's right there. Right, right. It's just, and that, you know, that's what kind of, you know, and that was just a Tuesday, you know, on The Odyssey. But it was, it was very funny to see Chris calling an airstrike on himself.

And Chris doing what he has you doing, right? There's an expectation that he will do all the things and go to the places that you have to go. He'll never ask you to do something he wouldn't do. And he's never, he's never removed from the crew. He's right in the middle all the time. Hey, guys, thanks for listening to the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Stick around to hear more from Matt Damon right after. the break. Welcome back now more of my conversation with Matt Damon. Talking about IMAX,

watching some of the behind-the-scenes footage. First of all, the cameras look like something from 50 years ago. Right. I know they were very loud, so they had devised this box, even quiet so it wouldn't hear it in the dialogue. How does the fact of shooting in IMAX change the experience for you as an actor? It's more technically challenging for a few reasons. one, they did invent this blimp that went around the camera to deaden the sound. And that was really the leap forward. Because the other times I've worked with Chris, we shoot on IMAX, but an IMAX camera is really loud.

It sounds like a blender because the film is so big that the motor required to pull it through past the shutter is loud. And so you could do landscape shots and kind of bigger things. But if we were trying to shoot this scene, you know, of us just talking, you wouldn't have been able to do it with an IMAX camera. They'd swap it out for a Super 65, which behaves more like a regular film camera. So Chris told me that they'd invented this blimp. And I was worried about the eyelines because it pushes your face from the lens so much that it wouldn't look right if you were shooting a scene with two people talking to each other. But Chris said, no, they developed a mirror scene.

So you could look in this mirror, which went off that mirror, which brought your eye line closer to the lens. I'm like, this is, this is nuts. Like, it's amazing if we can do this. But again, we didn't know if we could do it. We didn't know technically how it would work. So that system ended up working out perfectly. The other technical challenges with IMAX are that a regular role of film, standard 35, takes about 11 minutes per magazine. So you load it, you've got 11 minutes to film.

IMAX, this goes through in two and a half minutes. And so if you're doing a scene that lasts more than two and a half minutes, you have to stop in the middle and freeze. And they have to reload the camera, which takes about five minutes. And then we'd go back a few lines and pick the scene up and go through. So there were scenes that we had in the movie, like, you know, they could be up to say seven minutes. And it would take three reloads just to get through the scene.

And so that process would end up taking about 30 minutes. just to do a take and then we go okay and we'd kind of do some notes we'd figure out what we liked and what we didn't like and then we'd go back and start again and so it was more more more painstaking of a process and more technically challenging because you're looking into these mirrors but but we knew that the that what we were getting like you know that that that format is so beautiful it's so incredible um and and it was so unique that we were we were doing it that that um but But all the actors were up for it. And it really felt like it reminded me of when I started making movies.

Like the first time I got on a film set and it was like, wow, these cameras are big. Like, oh, the concentration it takes to do scenes where there's, oh, there's a whole, there's 50 people right next to you. And there's this giant camera there. And there's a boom mic over your head. And it's just, it's a lot to take on. It's kind of like driving a car. Like the first time you drive a car and you realize how powerful it is

and oh my gosh, the brakes here. But after a while, you know, you don't really think about it. And so the technical side of film acting is kind of like that. So this was like, you know, I spoke to a lot of the other actors about it. This was like kind of returning to your first time behind the wheel. Yeah. I've heard you talk about the nostalgia of this movie, which is so cool to hear.

Not just because it was that way, but because it's unlikely unless Chris does something else, down the road that anyone else is going to do it this way going forward, right? Yeah. Yeah. And what are the chances there would be a role, you know, like this for someone like me? It was, it really was the greatest opportunity I've ever had in my career. It was, you know, I also think about, you know, Chris tends to work with people he's worked with before. And just in the kind of my category of, you know, actor, he could have gone. to Christian or Tom Hardy or Leo or McConaughey or John David or Rob Pattinson or Killian.

Like there is a Hugh Jackman. It's like a murderer's row of great actors, right? And all of them would have been great. And so the fact that it came my way, like that, you know, you get one of those in your career and I just count myself lucky. I got this one. You talk about the cast, which is incredible. Talk about a murderer's row with you and Anne Hath. and Tom Holland and Robert Pattinson and Lupita Nyongo and John Leguizamo, I can go on

forever. But one of the cool things that I've heard you say that comes across is like there was no star treatment in this movie just because there couldn't be. They're never with Chris. No, there never is. I mean, it's and look, I've worked with a lot of great directors and usually that is the case. I mean, all of the momentum is around the camera. you know it's that's why we're there we're not there's no it's not about ego and it like what a waste of time and and and and i i've always said that the one common thread between all of these great directors that i've worked with um because because everybody does it a little differently it's directing is almost a reflection of who you are um the the one common thread is that they're

collaborative and that they really listen and they're because they're a least allegiance is to the thing they're making and a good idea can come from anywhere and they're very, very open to where a good idea might, you know, the ideas are floating around and it might not be them that has it. It might be the prop guy, might have the good idea. And you really need to be aware of that. And so any of that ego stuff, ego is just the enemy of collaborative work. You know, creative work, it just gets in the way. And so anytime, I'm always kind of amazed and amused when I hear about his he fits or, you know, that kind of stuff that, the stories I would grow up hearing about actors misbehaving. I just, I, it's, it's such a waste of time and

such an enemy to the thing that you're trying to do. It's interesting to hear Chris talk about, it's, in some ways, the process is the opposite of what people think. He's not handing down a decree to you guys. Not at all. He's telling you, okay, here's, here's Odysseus, go learn everything about him and come back and play him and I'll learn from you. Yeah, in fact, he gets, he'll get grumpy if I, you know, the, there's a whole, that whole technical side of acting I was talking about, you know, sometimes you, you're privy to these conversations between a director and a cinematographer and you're like, oh, wait, no, no, I can, I can step over into this, you know, you need this light, I can step over it.

And he'll just, don't change anything you're doing, you know, don't, don't, he doesn't want you to think about the technical side, he goes, I will capture it. So he's really, he collects all the elements that he needs for a shot. And then he discovers the story as you would if you're making an independent film. It's really incredible the way he does it. And because I believe that's how he thinks, you know, that's how you get something that is as real as it can be, is if you don't, don't prescribe anything. People know what the scene is, but it's like you believe in who you've cast and you let them follow their instincts and the truth flew out. I'm curious what you thought the first time you saw it, hopefully in an IMAX theater.

Yeah. Having been in the middle of it for all those months to see it all put together, what was that feeling? It was jarring because I hadn't seen anything because the actors don't watch the dailies. You know what I mean? So it was like, I mean, it was jarring in a wonderful way. It was like completely overwhelming. And I don't think I've ever had higher hopes for something because I don't, because of what it took to make it. And I don't think I could talk after I saw it.

I really, I was just speechless. because again, like, it felt like an expedition. But I got to relive it. And it was by the end just like, my God, we did that. And I said to the crew at the end that I, and it's just still the truth. I've never been more proud to be a part of a team. That because every single person had to give everything they had, that just couldn't have worked any other way.

And they did, and they did. And it was like energizing to be pushed to that point and turn in any direction you looked, see somebody else, and like get more, you know, find these energy reserves because you're seeing what they're doing, you know? And every day on the movie was like that. We'd get to the Friday night, and you just know it was Friday.

I mean, people were just gassed. You know, it was, and the weekends were just, everybody just went home and went to sleep. I love hearing Robert Pattinson was talking about he first got there to the hotel. And he's like, oh, this is great. And this hotel all that. And then he'd see the crew and you guys coming on. And they'd just come back from a war or something. Yeah, it was, that's as hard as you can work making a movie.

Yeah. You know, across the board. Well, it pays off, man. It's amazing. I had the same feeling. I was totally in awe. And then you walk out into like the daylight of New York from the theater. Right.

And it's disorienting because you've been placed into this other time. And what a great thing. That's what movies are supposed to do. Totally. Totally. Yeah. When you talk about the nostalgia of this, I was thinking that 30 years ago right now, courage under fire was about to come out.

So almost to the week, July, summer of 96. And that's the first movie I think where a lot of people and critics were like, oh, who's that guy? He's very good in this. When you sit here now with the role of a lifetime, as you see, say and you think about that 30-year arc looking back can you believe where you've landed no but honestly i i i i felt so like the gratitude i felt like this this film felt like a like a capstone you know what i mean i'm like what else does a person deserve in their life you know what i mean i i i've been so lucky um i i've

I've been just an incredibly lucky man and worked with incredible people. I have not had a bad working experience. I hear stories of people who have them. And I just, even the movies that didn't work, I know why I made them. I know what I was thinking. And I learned a lot the entire time along the way. So no, and that's how I felt on the set every day of this movie. It was a really joyful experience to be with this group and do this.

Yeah. I think people look at the way you've also navigated your career, and I'm sure you'd say there were a couple of misses here and there, but they're few and far between. I mean, from Courage Under Fire next year, Goodwill Hunting comes out, and then you go on this incredible run of saving Private Ryan, and Rounders and Talented Mr. Ripley and then into Oceans 11.

Did I skip a couple? No, I'm just saying the directors that I'm just thinking every one of these movies that you're mentioning, I'm just thinking of the directors. It's, you know, it's a director's medium. And I've been very lucky to be partnered with these incredible directors. Has there been a philosophy for you, though? Is it working with great directors?

Yeah, it's absolutely been, you know, most people go script and then, And I think as a writer, I always, that would have been my bias. But pretty quickly I pivoted to, the script is very important. Don't get me wrong. But in the kind of the hierarchical, you know, in the pecking order, the director is the most important element to anything. You've also navigated this life over the last 30 years admirably. I mean, you've had a rock-solid family life and a marriage and kids.

I'm curious if that's been a conscious thing for you to sort of just let the work speak for itself. No, I just let my wife do all the work in the marriage and I just check out. Yeah, no. No, I just mean to not be in the tabloids and all the things that can come with this job. It's not, you know, I feel like, you know, talk about gratitude and luck. I mean, I think that I know people who are in the tabloids who would prefer not to be in the tabloids. You know what I mean? I don't think it's always your choice. Right. I think I was just boring enough that they ignored me and which is great and

I don't want to poke the bear so so I've been I think also very lucky in that regard But I have you know a number of friends who who've had that element You know been been a little more pronounced in their lives And it's it's not a choice. Yeah, yes granted. I don't court it, but I have friends who I don't feel courted either, and they're in the crosshairs, and it kind of is what it is. Yeah. And it allows me to, or if you were to see you as the character on screen and not this other character off the screen. Well, that's an interesting development. Yeah, as this is social media and the generation of actors behind me, and, and they're,

what they feel is their need professionally to have a profile. Right. You know, that just didn't exist when I started out. And so I, and so I never really engaged with that, but I understand when I talk to them, you know, they're like, and I, and I do know that at that studio level, those conversations happen. Well, how many followers does he or she have? And, you know, that is anathomest to the whole idea of, or, you know, it's, the way I was brought up, the generation I was brought up in was, the less you know about the actor, the better. Exactly. But, uh, it's, it's, it's, you know, it's, It's kind of done a 180 at this point. Yeah, aren't you glad we came up when we did,

and that wasn't even an option or a concern? Yeah, for a whole host of reasons. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, you see it in your kids, too, I'm sure. Yeah, for sure. Stick around for more of my conversation with Matt Damon right after a quick break. Welcome back now to the rest of my conversation with Matt Damon.

I want to talk about a couple other things. Artist Equity, your and Ben production company. The last time we got together three years ago for Oppenheimer, it was just getting up and running. Has it been over these last, I guess, almost four years now, what you'd hoped it would be? Yeah, it's been very hard. It's been really rewarding.

Like, we're poised now to do exactly what we set the company up for. You know, we kind of brute force that the first few years just Ben and I doing movies for the company. But what we really built it, so that, that we could, so that we could facilitate, like, great films for, you know, people in our community, like starting with people we know, to come and bring stuff and, uh, and have great experience. I mean, every director so far who's done a movie for us said it was the best experience they've had in their career. And, um, and so that's, that, you know, that feels great. We've also been able to,

um, you know, to, uh, change the economics and change them for our crew. Um, and so, um, and so, So we work out bonus structures. So if the film is successful, you know, it's not just the, the, what we call the above the line, you know, the, you know, people like me. But also below the line, kind of the more blue-collar side of our business that make sure that those people, you know, see a benefit to the film. You know, if the film does well, because their work is critical and integral to that. And so, and that's just something we've always believed. So that's been wonderful to codify that and see it come to fruition. And for people watching or listening who don't know about your production company,

the idea is you watched Hollywood for 30 years or so and said, okay, here's what's wrong about this or unfair about this maybe, and try to design a place where you could spread the wealth of success. Yeah, and yes, and that there's, and that we actually contend that you can, you know, we can make better movies that way. And that the people who make your movie successful are everybody who worked on it. So we did that movie The Rip, you know, and we actually just the bonuses. We hit the targets.

We had agreed upon targets with Netflix. The movie was a big hit for them. We hit these bonuses. And the money actually just went out last week, which is great to get, you know, to hear from, you know, crew members. And also, it's great to not say the check's in the mail. Exactly. It's great when the check actually hits the mailbox. Right, right. And it's meaningful for everybody. And then also, you know, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, it's not just somebody saying, hey, thanks for your work on the movie, you know, you really made a big contribution here. It's a, it's a way to, to, you know, have their, have their, have their bank account and know that to. And hopefully it's success becomes a model and other places to go, oh, that can work for everybody.

That would be the, that would, that would be the, that would, that would be the, that, that would be the, that, that would be the. So, you know, so we're still, you know, in our first few years of the company, but it's going really well. Couldn't really be going better. But I feel right now we're at this stage where it's like we've built the Formula One engine. You know what I mean? We've got it and it's been tested and now we're ready to go start the season. Could you make a film a big scale? Oh, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Same concept, bigger movie. Yeah, yeah. It's it's we're not we can make a movie at any scale just like anybody else. Yeah. You've making news lately as a rapper. Yes. A name Nomad.

Yeah. All for a good cause. I'll try anything to get attention for, for, for water.org. But yeah, but we, but we, we launched this get blue initiative. And so if you see anything that says get blue on it anywhere, just know that that part of the proceeds of that will go to water.org. So Starbucks is doing a get blue matcha. They're also doing their blue coconut refresher.

You know, some of the proceeds of those drinks. If you get them, go to water.org in the work that we do to provide access to clean water and sanitation. Clean water and sanitation, which, as you've pointed out many times, has been available to most of the world for generations. Sure. So incredibly frustrating that it's not in places that still need it. Yeah, it's beyond frustrating. I mean, it's still a million kids a year who are dying because of this. You know, kids under the age of five, totally unnecessarily for something we solved for ourselves 100 years ago.

And it doesn't have to be that way. There are solutions. You know, we've already reached 92 million people, but there are two billion people that we have to reach. So we have a lot of work cut out for us. But it's going really well. That work has started to scale. To put it in perspective, we reached our first million people in 2012. and now we're reaching a million people every six weeks.

Wow. So, yeah, so that part's really exciting. But again, there's a long way to go. Knowing a little bit about you, it seems to me that this is as gratifying in many ways as a successful movie, which is to say, using your fame and your platform in all these ways that help other people.

Yeah, of course, and this is actually life or death. So it's extremely important. And the problem is incredibly complex, but it's solvable. So it's been a very interesting thing to engage with. I've been doing it for 20 years. And the method that my partner, Gary, came up with. And to put it in perspective, we do it through microloaning, it would have taken 600 years to reach the number of people

that we've reached if we had stuck to just drilling wells. So there are these innovations we've made, and there are others out, there are ways to attack this problem that can really solve it in our lifetime, and that's what we're committed to doing. Well, good on you, man. You've made a huge difference,

and you've made an incredible once-in-a-lifetime movie in The Odyssey. Congrats. I didn't do it alone. Had a little help. Had a little help. Good to see you, man. Thanks.

Great to see you, really. Thanks. Thank you. After our sit-down conversation, Matt and I hopped up from the table and went for a little walk around the block to talk about some of the other highlights in his career. So before a big movie comes out, which is almost all of your movies, you feel like anxiety,

anticipation, can't wait for people to see it. What's that feeling? Well, normally you feel like a sense of peace. There's nothing you can do. Yeah, right, right, right. It's locked. It's locked. But with this one, I just know what it took to do it. And so I've really been excited about it coming out and excited. for everyone who worked on it to, you know, it felt like an achievement, you know? Yeah. Yeah. And so I'm really excited for people to see it. And also just to know with every shot that, you know, we did that.

Like, if you see it on screen, it happened. And that's a fun thing, I think, for an audience. It's how I used to feel when I'd go to the movies as a kid. Yeah. You know, that feeling of being transported to these other places. And with all the tricks that were kind of in our, you know, in our repertoire. So that, so I'm excited for people to finally see it. This is going to rank high in the pantheon of Matt Damon movies.

If a guy right now would go by to bicycle and yell a movie line at you, is there one or two that happens most frequently? Well, yeah. So there's definitely Team America World Police. Oh, yes. I get that. I love it. But a movie I wasn't even in. I did a cameo in a movie called Euro Trip, where I lip-sinked a song called Scotty Doesn't Know. And I get that. A lot of young people will scream out. Scotty doesn't know sometimes. That might be obscure for some of your viewers, but it's one I do get sometimes. Isn't that funny? It's not born or oceans? It's those more obscure. No, the real one I get the most is how do you? you like them apples, I still get, you know, which is great because, you know, Ben and I wrote that 30 years ago and it's still hanging around. So that's a, that's a nice feeling. And the way you slap the napkin on the window, punctuated it nicely. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, Louis C.K. did a really funny bit in a stand-up about it, just abusing me about that. There's been some talk of another Oceans movie. Yes. I think that's real talk. Yeah, it's always real talk. I mean, you know,

another Oceans, another Jason Bourne movie. I love those movies. I love making them. And I'd love to do it again. It's just you have to follow the kind of requisite steps and make sure you get the right director, the right script. There'd be no worse feeling than to do it and for people to kind of be disappointed. It's like the kind of thing you think you want it until it happens.

Right. So unless everybody feels we can. can really do something that sits with the other ones and deserves to kind of be with them, then it's the juice isn't worth the squeeze, you know? Yeah, yeah. One of the other cool things about your career, Matt, is the, like the steps into 30 Rock or Will & Grace or being such a good host of SNL. Is that fun for you to kind of play almost against character?

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I also just kind of made the decision, like, right when I became famous a long time ago, to not try to micromanage an image. Like, it would just be a waste of time and energy. And it's more fun to just kind of send it up and, you know, not take that side of it too seriously. And it's allowed me to do a lot of really fun things and not be too precious, you know. And nowhere are you less precious than all the Kimmel bits you've done over here, including recently. with the troche. Well, he is a horrible, horrible person,

I think, and I'm glad you brought him up because I like the chance to let the world know. That's probably him on the motorcycle, ruining the sound. Yeah. Heard me talking smack about him. Yeah, no, truly terrible, terrible guy, and not very funny.

So, I, you know, the fact that I've been trying to get on the show for 20 years and he won't. at me. I mean, he's just, he's just such an ass-h. But I'll get one of these days, I feel like the Trojan horse should count. I mean, I technically made it on the show. So, yeah, I still have some other moves up my sleeve. I really put that one on a tee for you. And I just, any chance I get. Thank you so much. Thanks, Willie. My huge thanks to Matt Damon for the time and such a thoughtful conversation, You can see The Odyssey in theaters in IMAX everywhere beginning on July 17th.

And my thanks to all of you for listening again this week. If you want to hear more of my conversations with our guests every week, be sure to click follow so you never miss an episode. And don't forget to tune in to Sunday today every weekend on NBC to see these interviews with your own two eyes. I'm Willie Geist. We'll see you right back here next week on the Sunday Sit Down podcast.