What’s that saying, first impression is the last impression. Maybe that’s why Denzel Washington seems to have a rather soiled relationship with Matt Damon because despite having seven years of experience over him, the latter still came off as daunting to The Equalizer star when they first met.

And well, they haven’t had the most picture-perfect equation after that.

Denzel Washington

When A 25 Year Old Rookie Actor Intimidated Denzel Washington

Back when Matt Damon and Denzel Washington joined forces for the first (and the last) time in Courage Under Fire, the former had neither the experience nor the exposure of a notable actor, something which his co-star happened to possess in surfeit.

Though Damon would eventually come to rise up to the ranks of one of Hollywood’s most bankable actors, he’d only just begun to navigate the competitive and ambition-infested waters of show business at the time of his 1996 movie.

In fact, even his breakout role came a year after that with 1997’s Good Will Hunting. And yet, he still managed to make someone as acclaimed as Washington self-conscious.

Matt Damon

Turns out, the Oppenheimer star, who was just 25 years old back then, left such a strong impression on the two-time Oscar winner that he was baffled, almost threatened, even.

Washington, according to director Edward Zick, admitted that Damon made him want to up his “game.”

“Denzel came to work and he hadn’t met [Matt]… They did this first scene together and after we finished Matt’s side of the close-up and turned the camera around to go to Denzel, he leaned over and whispered to me, ‘Man, I think I better raise my game – this kid is good!.”

And it looks like Washington’s apparent sense of incompetence left a stain dark enough that it could only become fainter over time, never completely vanish.

Matt Damon’s Bourne Franchise Made Him Envious 

Years later, when the Training Day star would sit down with Phase 9 to chat about his role in Tony Scott’s Man on Fire, Washington, 68, would confess about Damon’s blockbuster outing as Jason Bourne making him furious, a comment that seems to mirror the same sense of inadequacy that he felt in ’96.

Not to mention, he also went on to state how the 52-year-old’s flourishing action franchise made him want to pursue something similar.

“I saw The Bourne Supremacy the other day and it pissed me off, he has a nice little franchise going there, maybe I could do another one of these [John] Creasy stories.”

Matt Damon as Jason Bourne

Washington isn’t wrong about it being a “nice little franchise” though. The action-thriller film series led by Damon not only accrued immense profits but also became colossally popular in the action genre as a whole.

In fact, his biggest paychecks are thanks to the Bourne movies before Ben Affleck’s Air surpassed that payday, landing him a whopping $30 million, the most he’s ever made from a film, and that too a box-office bomb.