Matt Damon reveals iconic role he bitterly regrets passing up: ‘I overthought it’
Matt Damon passed on starring alongside Hollywood’s most foul-mouthed teddy bear in “Ted.”
Damon revealed in his GQ Men of the Year cover story, published Thursday, that he “talked [himself] out of it” when it came to playing John Bennett alongside Seth MacFarlane’s Ted — a role that ultimately went to Mark Wahlberg.
He told the outlet that he doesn’t “want to live with regret,” but still can’t quite wrap his head around the fact that he passed on the hit 2012 comedy that spawned an entire franchise.
“I’ve never had this experience where I laughed so hard reading a script,” Damon, 56, said, recalling how he even took the script to dinner and read parts of it aloud to his friends.
“And then I just got too clever by half. I don’t know what I was thinking,” he added. “I was like, ‘Well, maybe the teddy bear’s actually the best part.”
“So I overthought it, and I talked myself out of it,” he went on to admit.
The “Odyssey” actor explained that part of his regret stemmed from the fact that the movie filmed in his hometown of Boston, which would have given him the chance to spend more time with his father — who died in 2017 at age 74.
“I look back and I go, ‘Man, that would’ve been six months back [home],” Damon said.
Still, Damon said he believes “the right actor got the part,” adding that “Mark [Wahlberg’s] great, and the movie’s great, and I wouldn’t have made it any better.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Damon revealed that his wife, Luciana Barroso, suffered a brain aneurysm two years ago, shortly before the 2024 Oscars — where his film “Oppenheimer” took home seven awards, including Best Picture.
Although the couple missed the ceremony itself, Barroso, 50, pushed herself to attend the after-party because “she remembered” that he’d missed the 2007 Oscars.
“She was like, ‘This time, we’re going out,'” Damon recalled. “And it was pretty f–king heroic of her to do that and really meaningful.”
Meanwhile, Wahlberg, 55, previously admitted in 2015 that even he wasn’t immediately sold on “Ted.”
“I was reluctant to even read the script because it’s about a teddy bear coming to life. How do you pitch that?” he told Men’s Fitness at the time. “So I tried to pitch it to my wife [to] see if she liked it.”
Wahlberg recalled telling his wife, Rhea Durham, about the “talking teddy bear” while they were on their way to the Oscars, to which she replied, “You are a f–king idiot.”
“Ted” went on to gross more than $549 million worldwide and spawned a 2015 sequel, “Ted 2”; a prequel television series on Peacock; and a forthcoming animated series set to premiere on the same streamer later this year.
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