During the 2021 lockdown Matt Damon found himself stuck in an Irish village with his family.
His presence quickly went viral, with locals in Dalkey, County Dublin running into him in bakeries and the sort, and one even snapped him coming away from a swim at the beach, shopping bag full of trunks and all. Everyone loved it – except Bono. “I’ve lived in this village, or next to this village, for 30 years – this fucker is there for three months and they make him the king of Dalkey!” The U2 singer told GQ in a profile of Damon. “I mean, it’s unbelievable. He’s caught in some kind of local photoshoot with a SuperValu plastic bag, and the rumour that he’s carrying cans, and suddenly he’s got all this credibility that some of us just are incapable of ever achieving.”
Bono reckons there’ll be a statue of him next. “I don’t know what it was, and what he did. But I’m very annoyed about it. I’m not happy at all,” he says, obviously infuriated by the situation.
Tongue is planted firmly in cheek here, of course. Bono goes on to say that he wasn’t sure what he’d say about Damon during the interview, until he realised something that really sets the Jason Bourne star apart. “He has the thing that the whole world wants: he has freedom. It’s the most intoxicating thing of all,” Bono explains. “And that, very few very famous people have. He’s free from self-consciousness. For a man who looks in the mirror for a living, he’s not even a little bit self-conscious, I’ve found.”
One of the biggest actors in Hollywood, Damon consistently has a number of irons in the fire. Check the best Matt Damon movies.