No matter the vast amount of chicken heads and bull rectums we sacrifice to Cthulhu there’s no getting around a singular, harsh truth: Matt Damon will not be with us forever…as Jason Bourne. I know…I’ll give you a second to gather yourself.
You alright? Me either. But the show must go on. This is something we must all come to terms with. In fact it’s something Damon himself has accepted long ago, and is actually “totally fine” with it. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Damon dished on the inevitable likelihood of a new actor taking on the role of the amnesia-stricken spy.
[I am] definitely going to be replaced some day by some new young Jason Bourne. That happens to everybody and they reboot these things, and that's totally fine.
The honesty train continues as Damon discusses why he will have to be replaced by a “younger” star not only from a creative standpoint, but a personal one as well.
The only control I can exercise is over the ones that I’m part of. I'm the curator of them as long as I'm involved and that's why I battled so hard to make sure that we got the same creative people [including director Paul Greengrass] to get involved in this one.
It's difficult when you're 45 compared to when you're 29, but you still have to run as fast as you can. That part was a challenge but to get to revisit the people was wonderful. But I said, let's smell the roses as we say and appreciate that we get to be here together, and make sure we have fun [especially because it was so tense on the set for the other films].
How’s all that for a slice of humble pie? With JASON BOURNE marking his fourth round as the character I can see why Damon would start thinking of a permanent retirement. Bourne could definitely go the route of a James Bond-type character, with a new actor coming in every so often. I don’t know if I’m on board with that, though. I don’t know how many more BOURNE movies I can take of government agents staring at computer screens asking, “Oh my God, is that…Jason Bourne?” Yes, it’s Jason Bourne. It’s always Jason Bourne. In MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE movies it’s still Jason Bourne.
What I admire most, though, is how direct Damon is being. His answers are honest, if not bittersweet, and don’t range wildly between a Spielberg-esque “I will die before any one else gets to do it!” and a “meh, I don’t know what will happen” you get from other franchise actors who ask if they're coming back for the sixth time. Damn you, Damon. Why do you have to be so good at everything?
JASON BOURNE comes out on July 29 of this year