(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there for any young, unknown, and unproven actor trying to make a name for themselves, with Matt Damon even resorting to attempted sabotage.
He hasn’t had anything to worry about since 1997, with his Academy Award win for ‘Best Original Screenplay’ alongside Ben Affleck essentially setting the two of them up for life, and it’s been a long time since Damon has had to fight, scratch, and claw his way toward a role he desperately craved.
Then again, his underhanded tactics weren’t so much about a role he desperately craved, but a paycheque he really needed. In the early 1990s, Damon was just one of many aspiring thespians struggling to get their foot in the door, and most of his auditions around that time saw him competing directly against one of his School Ties co-stars.
In addition to Damon and Affleck, Brendan Fraser, Cole Hauser, and Anthony Rapp were all around the same age, and they were all chasing similar parts. However, there was another member of the ensemble who caused him more irritation than most: that pesky and increasingly popular Chris O’Donnell.
It might sound ridiculous through a modern lens when Damon, Affleck, and Fraser are all Oscar-winning stars, but O’Donnell was seen as the next big thing. The future Jason Bourne was indignant that he was landing the best jobs and making the most money, and in an attempt to halt his arch-nemesis in their tracks, he offered to work for 75% less to beat them to the punch.
“I was one of the final three to play Robin in the George Clooney/Joel Schumacher Batman,” he recalled. O’Donnell had already played the superhero sidekick in Batman Forever, which Damon had already unsuccessfully auditioned for, but money troubles had created a potential vacancy.
Sensing an opportunity and the chance to get one over on the guy he’d been enviously watching stealing so many opportunities away from him, he offered his services for a much lower fee. “They wanted him for a price,” he explained. “And I knew Chris, and I just remembered calling him and being like, ‘I’ll work for a quarter of what that dude’s asking for. I want the job!”
Damon got as far as auditioning in front of Schumacher as O’Donnell’s potential replacement, but he had the sneaking suspicion that it was a power play to bring the actor back to the negotiating table. He knew that, too, conceding that “they always intended it for Chris,” but there was no harm in putting himself out there anyway.
It was another job lost to O’Donnell, but it’s fair to say that Damon got the last laugh, since he went on to become a much bigger and more successful star in the long run.
