With an Oscar at just 27 years of age, Matt Damon was believed to be a wunderkind. Although the actor was relatively new, with just a decade of experience in the business, he was eager to learn. Damon throughout the span of his career has collaborated with some big names such as Gus Van Sant to Clint Eastwood, alas nothing could have really prepared him for when he got the opportunity to work with the great Steven Spielberg.

While working on the $482 million movie Saving Private Ryan with the director, Damon had some notes on the director’s process, only for them to be completely disregarded. Furthermore, Spielberg took steps to ensure that Damon was not comfortable and had a miserable time during the shoot only to enhance his performance in the film.

Matt Damon

Steven Spielberg refused to take notes from Matt Damon

Despite having a pretty successful career in his initial days, Matt Damon was outright cold-shouldered by Steven Spielberg while working on Saving Private Ryan. When the actor wanted to include some of his input regarding a scene, he was put in his place with some simple words that would stick with him forever.

After winning an Academy Award for the best screenplay for Good Will Hunting, Damon became very particular about how a scene should be delivered and often used several takes to achieve the perfect shot. Thus, while shooting, although he was pretty spot-on, he sometimes thought he lacked and failed to live up to his potential. Hence, when the actor asked Spielberg for a couple more shots, he got a fitting reply. He said,
“There was a scene with a couple of guys, and Spielberg moved on, and I said, ‘Don’t you think we should have done a couple more takes of that thing?’ because it hadn’t been great. And he said, ‘I can spend about an hour on that scene and make it ten per cent better, or I can do another great shot. I’m gonna do the shot.’”

Steven Spielberg and Matt Damon on the sets of Saving Private Ryan

Matt Damon became extremely nitpicky when it came to his acting process, which sometimes would hurt the production. Thus, he was grateful to the legendary director for guiding him well. Following that, the actor also shared another time Spielberg handled his tantrums the correct way. He recalled,
 “You can do whatever you want, but just do it over there because that’s where the movie’s going to be.” 

This dedication and harshness was all Damon needed at the time to eventually become a successful director himself.

Steven Spielberg made the shooting process hell for Matt Damon

When the audience watches a movie by Spielberg, they feel a sense of immersion that is unparalleled to that of any other director, which might be why he is the greatest of all time. Perhaps his command of the medium may be so intuitive and natural, his trademarks and cinematography go unacknowledged in a positive way.

But something people do not fail to notice in a Spielberg movie is the compelling performances put forth by the actors, and the director definitely has a big hand in that. In one such instance, Matt Damon spoke to GQ and went in depth about what his process was like while working with the aforementioned director and he revealed,
“He made me not go to boot camp so that the other guys would resent me. They all went through this experience, and they all bonded, but because I was the character they were looking for, they resented this guy that they were risking their lives to save.”

Matt Damon in Saving Private Ryan (1998)
In order to make the actor’s performance more powerful, Spielberg made things difficult for him, making him take a mile in his character’s shoes to bring out a more genuine performance. He pushed him to such an extreme that made his experience not as pleasant. But after finally watching the final product, Matt Damon realized what a genius guy Speilberg is.

Source: GQ