Clint Eastwood Asked Matt Damon A Hard Question On Their First Day Together

Matt Damon has worked with Clint Eastwood twice in his career. In 2010’s “Hereafter,” Damon played an American factory worker with a direct line to the afterlife. In 2009’s “Invictus,” however, he played a South African and worked incredibly hard on perfecting the accent ahead of filming. After all, why wouldn’t you try to impress the great Clint Eastwood on your first project together? The thing is, Eastwood has never been one to dilly-dally on-set, and if the accent is good enough for him to maintain his famous one-take approach — well, then that’s exactly what he’s gonna do.

“Invictus” is based on John Carlin’s 2008 book “Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation,” and sees Damon portray rugby player and captain of the country’s national team Francois Pienaar. Clearly, the actor took his role seriously. During an appearance on “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend,” Damon spoke about having worked on the South African accent for six months with dialect coach Tim Monich. “He would come, and from 9 to 5, Monday through Friday, we would work on this accent,” Damon recalled. “Because South Africans speak English, it’s like their tongue does the exact opposite thing that ours does […] it was a lot of work.” After drilling the accent for six months, Damon was ready. But he’d soon learn that actors rarely get second chances on a Clint Eastwood set.

After Damon did his first-ever take on “Invictus,” he was ready to go again, and told his director, only for Eastwood to ask him why he wanted to waste everybody’s time.

Clint Eastwood always tries to use the first take as a director, mostly because he wants dialogue to feel as though it’s being said for the first time. It’s the exact opposite of the approach of famous taskmasters like Stanley Kubrick, who once turned an eight-minute scene in “The Shining” into a 60-take slog. As such, you might think Matt Damon would be pleased to have a comparatively easy time on the set of “Invictus.” But his first experience with Eastwood’s streamlined style left him unnerved.

After working for months on his South African accent, Damon was fully prepared to deliver the lines exactly as Eastwood wanted them. “I showed up, and I’m ready,” he told Conan O’Brien. “It’s like my chance to work with one of my heroes.” When cameras rolled, Damon was ready to give his hero options. “I have a number of different ways that I’m thinking of maybe doing the scene,” he continued. “So [Eastwood] goes, ‘Cut, print, move on.’ And I go, ‘Hang on, hang on, hang on. Uh, boss, you know, you want to do another one?'” Eastwood did not want to do another one. “He goes, ‘Why you want to waste everybody’s time?'” After that, Damon immediately got on Eastwood’s wavelength, telling the director “No, I guess we’re moving on.”

Damon is far from the first actor to relay his experience with Eastwood’s one-take approach. Speaking to Esquire, Jeff Daniels recalled his experience of working with the director on 2002’s “Blood Work.” “You have to be ready because it’s one take,” he said. “And you can’t believe it. You’re told, and you’re ready, and there it is. You get one take, and you move on.”

Elaborating on his “Invictus” experience, Matt Damon made sure to clarify that Clint Eastwood wasn’t being particularly aggressive when he asked him whether he wanted to waste everyone’s time. “There was a kindness in it, too,” he told Conan O’Brien, adding, “He’s a lovely guy.” Damon also recounted how Eastwood was more than willing to deviate from his one-take approach on “Hereafter” when a child actor needed multiple takes to nail a crucial scene.

Ultimately, Eastwood is less concerned with the number of takes than with ensuring he gets what he needs without wasting time or money. As he told Esquire, “I try to do whatever it takes. If one take, great. If ten takes, that’s what it has to be […] Is there a Clint way? I guess the Clint way is just to realize you’ve got it when you’ve got it. And if you don’t have it, realize you don’t have it. And go accordingly.”

Clearly, his approach has worked for him. Just look at “Invictus.” Not only did Eastwood’s underrated gem of a historical sports drama earn positive reviews, Damon and his co-star Morgan Freeman secured Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor and Best Actor, respectively. No doubt the months of dialogue work helped, but Eastwood’s snappy shooting style clearly didn’t hinder the performances and may even have been part of why Damon and Freeman earned Academy recognition. The film also grossed $122.2 million on a $60 million budget and is arguably one of Eastwood’s best movies. The man clearly knows what he’s doing, even if his actors aren’t always up to speed.