Matt Damon Credits Wife Luciana For Helping Him Through Depression

Matt Damon has disclosed his depressive experience during the filming of an unnamed Hollywood production.

The actor, who rarely makes public appearances unless necessary, spoke about his unpleasant experience halfway through the production of an awful film while promoting his upcoming project, "Oppenheimer." Luckily, he had a special person — his wife, Luciana Barroso — in his corner, rooting for and helping him through the dark stage.

Damon was all for a candid conversation when he, alongside his "Oppenheimer" co-stars Cillian Murphy and Emily Blunt, stopped at "Jake's Takes" to promote the upcoming Christopher Nolan-directed film. Towards the end of the chat, the "Good Will Hunting" star admitted to feeling depressed about a film that did not turn out the way he hoped.

"Without naming any particular movies, 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 "Saving Private Ryan" actor began.

He then recalled his wife "pulling him up" because he "fell into a depression" halfway through production when he still had "months to go" and had taken his "family somewhere and inconvenienced them." Despite the dark her man was in, Barroso was unphased as Damon told host Jake Hamilton:

"And she just said, 'We're here now.' You know, and it was like, I do pride myself, in 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. And if you can do that with the best possible attitude, then you're a pro, and she really helped me with that."

Even though the "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron" voice actor did not name-drop, fans have begun speculating that he was most likely referring to his critically panned 2016 film, "The Great Wall," which failed to recoup its production budget of $150 million, raking in just $50 million in the United States. During a 2021 podcast appearance, he disclosed:

"I was like, this is exactly how disasters happen. It doesn't cohere. It doesn't work as a movie. I came to consider that the definition of a professional actor; knowing you're in a turkey and going, 'OK, I've got four more months. It's the up-at-dawn siege on Hamburger Hill. I am definitely going to die here, but I'm doing it.' That's as shitty as you can feel creatively, I think. I hope to never have that feeling again."

Meanwhile, in "Oppenheimer" – a documentary centered around the atomic project, Damon takes on the role of Leslie Groves, the director of the Manhattan Project. The film delves into the profound impact of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer's brilliance, hubris, and unwavering determination, which forever altered warfare's nature, resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths, and sparked widespread panic.

The film will debut in cinemas worldwide on July 21 from Universal Pictures.

In May, The Blast reported that Damon expressed deep regret about rejecting a role in the 2009 epic science fiction, "Avatar." At the time, he had called the decision the "dumbest thing an actor ever did in the history of acting."

Most of his regret stemmed from the lump sum he missed following the film's billion-dollar success at the Box Office. As it turned out, the "Thor: Love and Thunder" star would have raked in an estimated $250 million if he had accepted the role of Jake Sully, which Sam Worthington eventually portrayed.

Although his fellow Hollywood colleague, Zoe Saldana, who played the character of Neytiri Sully, tried to comfort him by claiming that she did not think his career "suffered because of it," Damon queried, "Do you know what kind of movie that would've been if I had been in it?" 

Despite his pain, the Golden Globe Award winner did not hold back on his praise for Saldana's involvement in multiple films, which have crossed the $2 billion mark. The list includes the original "Avatar," its sequel, "Avatar: The Way of Water," and Marvel Cinematic Universe projects like "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Avengers: Endgame."