Matt Damon might be more inclined toward doing the saving in action roles like Jason Bourne, but when it comes to behind the camera, it’s up to directors like Steven Soderbergh to come to the rescue.
Matt Damon and Soderbergh worked together on 2009’s The Informant. Considered by critics to be among Damon’s best movies, The Informant follows a young IRA agent (Damon) who becomes a whistleblower for his company’s illegal practices. Its seamless blend of comedy and drama makes it one of the best movies based on a true story, but in a talk with the Screen Actors’ Guild, Damon explained how even some of the best actors need a little help from time-to-time.
“I remember doing The Informant with Steven Soderbergh, and there was this scene […] where I had to apologize to the entire town for what I’ve done,” he recalled. “We had the transcript of what the guy said […] and I was in his actual chair, and I stood up, and I said to the town exactly what the man Mark Whitaker had said, and I got choked up, and as I imagined he had. It was the first take, and I thought it was really great.”
However, Soderbergh didn’t seem to share Damon’s enthusiasm. As he recalled, the director simply said, “No.” In response to this, Damon said he tried to appeal to Soderbergh. “I told him, ‘I really felt something, and you can say no all you want, but I felt I know what’s real. I know what I felt.’ And [Soderbergh] goes, ‘No, no, no, no, you’re missing the point. It’s just that you’re in the wrong movie.’ Wow. And I went, ‘OK.
Get me in the right movie.'”
In order to do this, Soderbergh encouraged Damon to treat the scene like an awards acceptance speech. “And I was like, ‘Of course, like, this is the guy’s moment,'” Damon added. “You know, this is it. The whole town is there. He has an audience. Like, this is the greatest thing that’s ever happened to him, you know? And so we did. We did the scene again, but that is literally a director saving my bacon, you know, because the scene wouldn’t have fit otherwise.”