Exclusive: Matt Damon on The Departed

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New York: Actor Matt Damon stars in filmmaker Martin Scorsese's multi-starrer police drama The Departed. CNN-IBN Entertainment Editor Rajeev Masand caught up with the actor in New York to talk about the film and his views on Bollywood.

Rajeev Masand: Matt, you of course have a special place in the hearts of Indians because you have shot in our country, haven’t you? You had shot in Goa for the The Bourne Supremacy.

Matt Damon: Yes, we were in Goa for three weeks.

Rajeev Masand: What was that like?

Matt Damon: That was great. We were in North and South Goa. I saw the most beautiful beaches that I have ever seen in my life. Everybody was very nice and the Indian crew was great. I really have fond memories of that.

Rajeev Masand: The Departed is of course inspired from an Asian film, the Hong Kong picture, Infernal Affairs. Are you familiar with Asian cinema?

Matt Damon: A little bit. I always loved John Woo movies including The Killer and Hard Boiled. I remember seeing the opening of Hard Boiled when they have a huge shoot out and Chow Yun-Fat ends up with a tooth pick and just spits it. I just thought that it was unbelievable and jaw-dropping.

Rajeev Masand: Are you familiar with Indian cinema at all?

Matt Damon: Yes, a little bit. Although I know that our movie stars are pale in comparison to your movie stars. In fact I was told that in India there are billboards with just the picture of the movie star on them.

I was also told about a shooting scene in Mumbai or maybe that was in Delhi, where there was a riot on the sets because there was a rumour that a certain actor was going to show up and they were not even working that day. Everybody went crazy. So there is such a love for cinema in India, which is really great.

Rajeev Masand: The Departed is perhaps your first film after Good Will Hunting. Did it really take you back to Boston, so to speak? The film was shot extensively in Boston. Did it help you for the preparation of the character, as you come from Boston?

Matt Damon: Yes, there are a lot of things in the character that are specific to Boston in the culture and the accent that I didn’t have to think about it and even Mark Wahlberg didn’t have to think about. We grew up in the Boston so those things were second nature to us. But I really got to explore the sub-culture of the state police and that was really interesting for me because that was a world I didn’t know.

To get access to these guys and ride along with them, to go out and make arrests, and see how they do everything. To see how they storm in and crack houses was really amazing and an eye-opening experience.

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Rajeev Masand: One of the things about the character that you play apart from being the rat in the police department is that he is really a sexually insecure man. That is sort of interesting to play at a time when all the Hollywood leads want to play studs.

Matt Damon: Well that was by design. I felt like that we were in a movie that was so full of macho and swaggers and where everyone was fighting, so I told Marty (Martin Scorsese) I want to make sure that I lose in every fight that I play and I want to have sexual hang ups. I want to go aggressively away from what everyone else is doing. If every one is over here I want to be over there. I think it is more interesting and it is something that rounds out the film a little better.

Once Jack (Nicholson) introduced the sexual predator kind of element in his character and I felt that it had to be addressed in my character because he is like a father figure to me. He is an over-bearing father figure. So that is how we addressed it.

I like to add flaws on to my characters as I think that is more interesting.

Rajeev Masand: Best of luck. We are obviously looking forward to see a lot more interesting films from you. Thank you so much for talking to us.

Matt Damon: Thank you.

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