With a string of movies to his name and no signs of things slowing down, Matt Damon made a promise to his wife, Luciana Barroso, that he would take a break from acting.
There was one condition though — if Christopher Nolan called, the break would go on hold.
As fate would have it, the call came through in the form of Nolan offering Damon a role in "Oppenheimer." Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Damon opened up about his vow to his wife.
"This is going to sound made up, but it's actually true," Damon said. "I had — not to get too personal — negotiated extensively with my wife that I was taking time off. I had been in 'Interstellar' and then Chris put me on ice for a couple of movies, so I wasn't in the rotation, but I actually negotiated in couples therapy — this is a true story — the one caveat to my taking time off was if Chris Nolan called. This is without knowing whether or not he was working on anything, because he never tells you. He just calls you out of the blue. And so, it was a moment in my household."
Last week, Damon spoke candidly about how he "fell into depression" while shooting a film that he felt was going nowhere, saying that he found himself asking, "What have I done" halfway through shooting. He admitted it was his wife who helped him out of the depression.
"I think, without naming any particular movies, that sometimes you find yourself in a movie that you know perhaps might not be what you had hoped it would be, and you're still making it," the 52-year-old actor said during an interview on "Jake's Takes."
"And I remember halfway through production, and you've still got months to go, and you've taken your family somewhere, you know, and you've inconvenienced them, and I remember my wife pulling me up because I fell into a depression about like, what have I done?" he said.
"She just said, 'We're here now,'" he continued. "You know, and it was like … I do pride myself, in a large part because of her, at being a professional actor – and what being a professional actor means is you go, and you do the 15-hour day, and give it absolutely everything, even in what you know is going to be a losing effort."
Damon added: "And if you can do that with the best possible attitude, then you're a pro, and she really helped me with that."