Special Coverage The Photo IssueThe Must List2008 Fall TV2008 Fall Movies2008 Fall Music

The A-List

The best from Hollywood: the recent movies, DVDs, CDs, and books that earned raves from EW's critics

Page 2 of 4
bike_l
NOT RUNNING HIS MOUTH ''We've kind of found out that the character is a lot more effective when he doesn't talk. There were scenes that we shot and when we watched them we were like, 'Ugggh, he's talking way too much!'''
Jasin Boland

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: One thing I noticed about the new Bourne is you don't have a lot of dialogue in it.
MATT DAMON: We've kind of found out that the character is a lot more effective when he doesn't talk. There were scenes that we shot and when we watched them we were like, ''Ugggh, he's talking way too much!'' I had scenes with lines — we just cut most of them out [laughs].

Your character also seems to be fighting in tighter and tighter spaces.
If there's another one, we'll fight in an airplane toilet.

In The 40 Year-Old Virgin, Paul Rudd says of The Bourne Identity: ''You know, I always thought that Matt Damon was, like, a Streisand, but I think that he's rockin' the s--- in this one.'' Thoughts?
Well, it's a good line [laughs]. My brother called me when he saw the movie and he was like, ''Dude! Paul Rudd called you a Streisand!'' I don't mind being the butt of those kinds of jokes. And they do say I kick ass in the movie.

Generally, I get the feeling that people think you're a good guy like Tom Hanks.
I don't know why people say that, Hanks is a f---ing d--- [laughs]. I don't hold myself to some higher standard of behavior. You don't have to do a lot to be seen as nice. I guess some of these people must be such rampant pricks that people are amazed when you say hello. I don't know why people like me, and I don't know if I want to know. That might be the kiss of death. I'd rather people not know a lot about me and go see the movies.

Well, I don't think they know so much. I mean you're not exactly Paris Hilton. I don't go on the Internet and see grainy images of your crotch as you're getting out of a car.
Maybe you're not looking hard enough [laughs]. Some of it's intentional and some of it's lucky. I don't live in L.A.; I live in Miami. Plus, I don't think the pictures of me are worth that much. My wife isn't a celebrity, so there's not really a story to tell.

You said there were two reasons you look so tired in the movie.
The other reason I look so exhausted is because I had a new baby. Even if I tried to have a methodical sleep-deprivation look in the film, it wouldn't be as authentic as me being up all night with a crying baby at home.

I think that a lot of people see these movies as what Bond movies should be, and that's why the most recent Bond took a darker, more realistic turn.
But the characters are so fundamentally different.

Well, they're both action movies, they have exotic, globe-trotting locales, and they're espionage movies...
Well, yeah. But I mean, James Bond is an imperialist, misogynist guy who slurps martinis and f---ing laughs and kills people and cracks jokes. Whereas Bourne is this tortured serial monogamist whose girlfriend is dead and [he] won't look at another woman and carries tremendous guilt and shame about the things he's done.

But that's exactly how they made the latest James Bond.
I didn't see it. I bumped into Pierce Brosnan and he was like, ''You can't update the character because he's a character of the '60s.'' In fact, it's so crazy to try and update him that Mike Myers made a really good franchise out of showing what happens when you try to do it.

NEXT PAGE: ''The only way to judge a movie is 10 years down the line. I think they should do the Oscars that way. I wish this year we were voting on 1997''


Page 2 of 4