Random Fascinating Things Most People Don't Know About Matt Damon (16 items)

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  (#3) He Had To Take Medication For A Year And A Half After His Dramatic Weight Loss For Courage Under Fire

  Damon lost 40 pounds with extreme diet and exercise for the role of Specialist Ilario in Courage Under Fire (1996). His character, a solder experiencing the devastating after effects of war, becomes addicted to heroin. Damon's health suffered from the weight loss; he had to take medication for a year and a half to correct the stress he put on his adrenal gland. Despite the trauma, it was worth it in the end. Matt's commitment and method style of acting caught the eye of Francis Ford Coppola, who cast the actor in the lead role of his 1997 legal drama The Rainmaker.
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  (#8) He Married His Wife At City Hall

  Despite being a millionaire and celebrity, Damon and wife Lucianna married in a low-key ceremony at City Hall in 2005. According to E! News, the couple agreed to have a big celebration down the road. It took eight years, but in April 2013, they renewed their vows during a $600,000 ceremony in Saint Lucia, surrounded by family and friends. 
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  (#13) Manchester By The Sea Was Written For Him To Direct, And At One Point He Was Attached To Star

  Oscar-winning drama Manchester by the Sea took several twists and turns before landing on the big screen. Originally, Damon and John Krasinki approached Kenneth Lonergan to write the script for Damon to direct and Krasinki to star. Lonergan labored over the script for three yeas, during which time Krasinki's schedule changed and Damon had to drop out because of previous commitments.

  Yet it all seemed to work out in the end. Lonergan took over behind the camera and won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Damon stayed on as producer and cast childhood friend Casey Affleck in the lead. Affleck won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 2017 for his performance.
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  (#5) In His Own Words, He "Fake Graduated" From Harvard

  During Damon's 2016 commencement speech at MIT, Damon admitted he attended Harvard but didn't graduate, because his movie career started to take off.

  “I don’t even have a college degree. As you might have heard, I went to Harvard. I just didn’t graduate from Harvard. I got pretty close, but I started to get movie roles and didn’t finish all my courses. I put on a cap and gown and walked with my class; my mom and dad were there and everything; I just never got an actual degree.You could say I kind of fake graduated."

  Damon was only 12 credits short of graduating from the Ivy; he took the time away from class to audition for, then appear in, Geronimo: An American Legend (1993). It wasn't for naught, however. Damon began the screenplay for Good Will Hunting in a playwriting class at Harvard.
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  (#10) He's Never Taken An Acting Job For The Money

  Damon has had a very balanced career. For almost every big studio movie he's been in, like Ocean's Eleven, he's done a low-budget picture like The Informant! (interestingly, both for director Steven Soderbergh). He contends that, with the possible exception of when he first started in the business, he's never taken a job just for the pay.

  "I've passed on a lot of huge-money jobs. Money doesn't enter into the decision-making," he said during an interview with The Guardian in 2013. "If I do a big blockbuster, it's about how big an audience you'll get, and where you can take them."
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  (#6) He Spent Part Of His Childhood In A Commune

  Damon's parents divorced when he was two years old. The actor and his brother, Kyle, were raised by their mother, Nancy Carlsson-Paige, a professor of early childhood education at Lesley College. When Matt was 10, he and his family moved into a commune in Central Square, Boston, which was shared with five other families. The experience influenced his political tendencies, which he describes as "democratically leaning from the left.”

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