LOS ANGELES-The wage Matt Damon earned from a movie job Tommy Lee Jones gave him allowed the actor to write his first hit film.
Matt's career came to prominence in 1997 when he penned and starred in Good Will Hunting alongside Ben Affleck, which won them the Academy Award for Best Screenplay. The actor and producer has since gone on to become one of Hollywood's most bankable stars, appearing in movies like Saving Private Ryan, The Departed and the title character in the Jason Bourne franchise.
Speaking about starring alongside Tommy Lee in the fifth instalment of the series, the upcoming Jason Bourne, Matt explained that things had come full circle for him as the veteran star had unknowingly helped kick-start his career in Hollywood.
"You know, Tommy Lee gave me a job, 20-something years ago, the first thing that he ever directed, it was this little cable TV movie he did," Matt said during an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday night (27Jul16). "And I was out of money, and Ben and Casey (Affleck, Ben's brother) and I were living together in L.A., and that paid me $20,000."
During the shoot, Matt was able to work alongside the Oscar-winner all summer long, and the wage he was paid allowed himself and Ben not to have to get additional jobs while they were writing the plot for Good Will Hunting.
"I'll never forget him for that. He doesn't even know that, I don't think," he smiled.
Matt also used the interview to discuss another celebrity he is grateful to have encountered - the late musician Prince. Recalling a concert he attended a couple of years ago, the 45-year-old star said Purple Rain singer Prince welcomed him backstage, and it was there that he said the "most Prince thing ever".
"I was just chatting with him and I said, 'You still live in Minnesota don't you?'... and he just turns and looks me in the eye and goes, 'I live inside my own heart, Matt Damon'," he recalled.