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9 Matt Damon Facts That Are Out Of This World

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 01:14 PST, Jan 29, 2016

Matt Damon is once again on the list of Oscar nominations for Best Actor, this time for his role in The Martian.

While Matt Damon might live on Earth, there are a number of facts about the famous actor that truly are out of this world.

1. Swide reports that the scariest scene Matt Damon ever shot (in his opinion) was the underwater scene from Bourne Supremacy.

“One of the scariest things I’ve ever had to do was the underwater scene in the second Bourne movie, where the car goes into the river and I’ve lost the love of my life. I didn’t want to do that at all. So I wouldn’t be constantly aware of how scared I am of drowning, I had to go to a pool with this great stunt guy and dive master a couple of times a week for a month or so to train me to relax underwater without an oxygen mask and with a blindfold and, later, to do simple tasks underwater like tying a shoe… After we shot for one day, that night I woke up probably four times gasping for breath, thinking I was drowning. It was terrible. When you make movies, you end up being trained to do really weird things you don’t do anywhere else.”

2. Matt Damon’s favorite role from any of his movies was that of Will in Good Will Hunting.

“Will Hunting is so close to my heart because my best friend [Ben Affleck] and I invented him, he’s from Boston, and it was what we knew. The stakes were pretty high with Good Will Hunting and it worked out as best as it can in this business – people saw the movie, it got good reviews, I was happy with the finished product, and they gave us an Oscar.”

3. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are lifelong friends. They grew up two blocks away from each other, and they have cameoed in each other’s movies. They also co-wrote the screenplay for Good Will Hunting. The pair even auditioned together for The New Mickey Mouse Club!

4. NASA helped with the filming of Matt Damon’s latest movie, The Martian. Real-life astronauts worked to help ensure the authenticity of the suits and equipment and traveling in space, plus the agency allowed them to use their name in the movie.

5. One of the primary ways Matt Damon is fighting for the environment is by teaming up with GreenDimes.com, an organization that promotes a world in which trees are not squandered to make junk mail.

“For an estimated dime a day they can stop 70 per cent of the junk mail that comes to your house. It’s very simple, easy to do, great gift to give, I’ve actually signed up my entire family. It was a gift given to me this past holiday season and I was so impressed that I’m now on the board of the company.”

6. Moviefone reports that Matt Damon lost 40 pounds for his role in Courage Under Fire, in which he played a war veteran and a heroin addict. The rapid weight loss had a negative impact on his metabolism and almost killed him. It took him years to fully recover.

7. Matt Damon’s parents refused to finance his pursuit of an acting career in New York City, so he used to break dance in Harvard Square to earn money.

8. Matt Damon trained to perfect his southern accent for the movie The Rainmaker by working in a bar and hiring a customer to be his voice coach.

9. Tom Hanks initially didn’t want Matt Damon to play Private James Ryan in Saving Private Ryan because he thought Damon was too skinny.

10. Matt Damon quit smoking with the help of a hypnotist.

[Photo by Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images]

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