These are photos of Matt Damon at the Oscar Nomination luncheon yesterday. I think he knows Best Actor is going to Leo DiCaprio and I think he’s ok with that. I also think that’s what’s behind some mild ribbing he gave DiCaprio at the Directors Guild Awards over the weekend. More on that in a moment.
On Saturday I saw The Revenant. I thought I was prepared for it. I thought it would be gruesome like Walking Dead, and that I could take it and that the violence would be necessary for the plot. The first half of the film was decent and watchable but the second half devolved into pure torture p0rn that made me cringe. Some of the scenes were just ridiculous and seemed to exist for no other reason than to shock the viewer. (I’m thinking of a certain horse scene which did not happen in any version of the historical account.)
Alejandro Inarritu took a lot of liberties with the history behind the film, and he also put the actors through so much in order to film his gory, bleak, seemingly impossible plot. He insisted on using natural light, refused to use CGI, even for scenes in which actors were plunged in freezing water, and dismissed criticism of his filming style by saying that if his actors were comfortable in front of a “greenscreen with coffee… the film would be a piece of sh*t.” And of course DiCaprio has said many, many times how tough it was to film.
All of this is preface for Damon’s barbed remarks at the Directors Guild Awards over the weekend. Damon was introducing his Martian director, Ridley Scott, for whom he campaigned for an Oscar to no avail. Damon made it clear that he was very comfortable on set and that Scott came in under budget too. He said “Every night at 6 o’clock, the horn blew and Ridley and I went to dinner. And that’s how you make a movie, and we finished the film really early and we saved 2 million bucks. And Leo – we weren’t cold at all. I’m just sayin’. There’s another way to do it.” So Damon isn’t going to get an Oscar this year but he made bank and he didn’t have to suffer at all, unlike DiCaprio.
Vanity Fair points out that The Martian was completed in 70 days for $72 million while The Revenant took over a year and cost $135 million. The Martian has made over $600 million worldwide with The Revenant, still in theaters, is at $326 million. I doubt Revenant is going to bring home best picture, but it may earn another director Oscar for Inarritu, he just got his second DGA in a row over the weekend as Kaiser reported. Unfortunately Ridley Scott wasn’t even nominated for a Best Director Academy Award.
As you know, the trailer for Jason Bourne, which is out July 29th, premiered during the SuperBowl. EW has an interview with Damon about his character’s story arc as it pertains to current events. He talks about new characters played by Alicia Vikander, who plays a computer expert, and Tommy Lee Jones, who is old school CIA. You can read that here.
In the photo below Damon and Scott are holding the feature film nomination medallion, not the winning medallion. That’s probably why they look bummed. That category went to Inarritu.
Photo credit: WENN.com
Loving Shade Damon. The second half of the movie was so ridiculous that I had to excuse myself from the theater during the horse scene because I got the church giggles.
Yes I was laughing so hard at that part I couldn’t help it!
I explained it to my sisters as like man verses wild, with lots of grunting and face scrunching.
With just his face poking out like a glow worm doll? I LOST it.
Okay, now I need to know about that mystery horse scene. I will watch the movie but I never care about spoilers.
Also, I LOVE Matt Damon for this. It’s like he’s trying to bring some common sense to the discussion. If a director is an a** and goes over budget, he’s a genius. If your boss does it, he’s going to have HR et al. on his butt. “And that’s how you make a movie” *stands up and applauds*
Oh thank goodness, I thought I was the only one! I laughed out loud at the horse scene, and chuckled through several others. Interestingly, so far I’ve only heard of women having this reaction……most men seem to accept the whole plot with high seriousness.
I did love the lighting and cinematography and thought the acting from the entire cast was truly stellar. But the plot? Ridiculous!
I love Shade Damon as much as Shade Aretha! It’s so true what Damon is saying, it’s possible to make a good film by working in a nice environment without the yelling, cold & still make it within the budget. Plus having watched both films, I’ll say that I prefer watching the Martian over & over than The Revenant.
That really made me laugh. I don’t like Damon much anymore, due to his mansplaining, but that is just rich.
I’m so glad everyone is calling Leo out on this. Art is not about how much suffering you can endure, it’s about what you create and how it affects the audience. I feel for the crew on that movie most of all – they went through hell so Leo could circle jerk his way to an Oscar.
More like so Alejandro could circle jerk his way to another Oscar since he was the one that made the whole crew suffer for his vision. Do you really think if Leo wasn’t in the film that things would’ve gone differently? The degradation of the crew and cast is all on the director not Leo.
You’re absolutely right it is Alejandro that’s responsible for making the shitty decisions at the expense of the cast and crew. I do think Leo is capitalizing on the torturous process to force the academy to reward him though.
I agree BUT a full length film shot in natural light is truly an amazing achievement no matter which way you look at it, maybe I’m too arty myself but I understand what Alejandro was trying to do
If I was going to make a film and the world would see it, I would make sure everything is perfect.
Also if you’re going to put your time, your creativity and your trust in a movie, you obviously would want it the best you can.
I loved Martian so much and Damon did so damn well in it but he did not eat bison liver or freeze his balls off for 6 hrs a day so no awards conversation. I love Leo as an actor and it is sad when an actor wins not for their best performance but because people think they should. That is an embarrassment for both the actor and the authority awarding it.
you mean he didn’t actually grow potatoes with freeze dried poo? I am SHOCKED
Such a mass-hole thing to say.
Everything he says now just comes out sounding smug and I just don’t want to hear it. All I can think of is the dismissive way he treated Ms. Brown and what he said about gay actors needing to stay in the closet.
My thoughts exactly. He doesn’t seem nice at all.
I remember some extra features on the dvd of one of the Bourne’s movies where he dishes on his difficult stunts, the jump from the bridge during a night shooting, the hard under water scenes etc… So, yeah when it comes to selling his stuff, he’s very capable of playing this ” I was so brave”angle too.
But that was extra features on the DVD. He didn’t try to sell the movie that way. Leo has been whining about how difficult filming was for him for the very start of The Revenant promotion.
The fun part of judgy little things like Damon is when they go after other judgy little things like Leo.
You have no idea how much I want Leo to NOT win the Oscar. #AnyoneButLeo. I did not like The Revenant, it was just not my kind of movie. The first half was ok, but my god…. If Leo was going to win the Oscar, it should have been for another one of his movies that were actually really good (like The Departed)
Totally.
I much preferred the revenent, it was a better movie. Of course they had a comfortable set with computer editing for the Martian, they couldn’t exactly blast Damon and other actors into space for real. No comparison.
YES
Is The Martian that good? And can you really be blasted into space anyway? I guess I don’t get it when he says “That’s how you make a movie.” How would he really know> It’s not like he’s a director so I thought that part of the statement was a bit…weird. I think this statement would make more sense coming from Affleck. I think Damon is joking….but after some of controversies following him lately, I’m not sure.
The statement did sound like more of a dis on Inarritu than Leo though, since Inarritu makes the final decisions.
His joke about “This is how you make a movie” was about the comfortable conditions and how he prefers them. It wasn’t a serious commentary on directorial choices.
Fair enough.
I doubt he’s ok with DiCaprio winning everything. He and Cranston both campaigned hard and had hopes of getting the Oscar.
@Bam …
Actually, Matt Damon didn’t campaign for a Best Actor Oscar (he has said on camera and in print that there are other performances this year better than his), he campaigned hard to get a Best Director Oscar for Ridley Scott.
I like how he trolls The Revenant’s Oscar campaign.
You also can find an interesting interview with The Revenant’s DP .He said that it was not an easy filming but it was far away to be the most difficult filming on what he worked.
Yeah Matt, I would not get on the budget high horse. Green Zone, remember that one.
I saw Revenant a couple of weeks ago. It was long and depressing which is what I expected but there was something else about it that didn’t set well.
I’m not sure what it was.
BTW, people have taken shelter in horse carcasses. IJS
I lived near Fairbanks for several years and went through Arctic Survival School and people whom have never lived in that climate, don’t really understand COLD and how desperate a person can get just to survive.
Anyway, I think Leo did a fine job of it. I still remember him from Gilbert Grape and it’s been interesting watching him grow up.
I’d recommend The Finest Hours. See it at the theater.
I liked the revenant. I also find Matt Damon to be completely insufferable lately. From his racist comments about jlo to his whitesplaining of diversity. It seems like he has a lot of assholish tendencies. I thought Leo did a fantastic job in the revenant but he should have been nominated for the departed. The academy is doing what it usually does. Rewarding actors for a performance for not doing it earlier
So basically my takeaway is that Matt’s film required more actual acting since he wasn’t forced to endure Mars-like conditions. Inarritu wanted his actors to actually experience the events in the film as authentically as possible. Which to me then seems like not as much acting was involved. OK.
YES!!!!!!!!!
I completely agree. I think it takes infinitely more talent to act like you’re freezing and have people believe it than to actually freeze in front of a camera. One involves talent, the other human biology.
It’s not like the acting in The Martian required Nickolson/De Niro skills either…
The cinematography of The Revenant is really impressive and I would give Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki an Oscar without any hesitations. There are shots in this film which seem almost impossible to make and therefore I truly praise the cinematographer.
As for the plot … I agree with CB, the second half was over the top nonsense with pure schock value. Not my thing.
… and me being a huge fan of Inarritu’s previous films. “21grams” is still one of my favourite films ever
^^ this – I’m still blown away by the cinematography and no doubt Chivo needs his Oscar, but according to Alejandro experts, he dictates a lot of the camera angles and work… So if that is true, it’s a collaborative effort and kudos also needs to go to Alejandro.
And as much as it pains me to agree, Leo shoulda won for The Departed hands down. I hope he wins this time, but y’all are right it’s for the wrong film…
” refused to use CGI”
And yet, it’s a vfx nominee.
A nice warm set in lovely Budapest is better than freezing US mountains? Shocker.
It was filmed in Canada. Try again.
Leo is talking about the experience but from what has been said is nothing but a professional on set and in promotion. Matt, just….shut….it.
It was a lighthearted comment by Matt at an industry event. And Matt has taken plenty of jabs at a too-serious Leo this Oscar season. We need more comments like this from Matt to liven up a boring race.
@Janet, who wrote: “It was a lighthearted comment by Matt at an industry event. And Matt has taken plenty of jabs at a too-serious Leo this Oscar season. We need more comments like this from Matt to liven up a boring race.”
+ 1 million!