As he started talking about Tony Gilroy, the co-writer of the BOURNE trilogy and director of LEGACY, Damon had some harsh words. At issue was Gilroy’s draft of THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM. Apparently Gilroy struck a deal with Universal where he’d get paid “an exorbitant amount of money” (according to Damon) for one draft with no studio notes and no rewrites, a script Damon calls “unreadable.” Oh, do tell, Matt Damon.
“This [was] a career-ender. I mean, I could put this [script] up on eBay and it would be game over for that dude. It’s terrible. It’s really embarrassing. He was having a go, basically, and he took his money and left.”
During shooting, Damon, director Paul Greengrass, and writers Scott Z. Burns and George Nolfi worked tirelessly to get the script into shape on a daily basis and what really pisses the actor off is that despite all that, Gilroy filed a claim with the WGA to receive sole writing credit on the film. (GQ describes Damon as “disgusted” while he discusses it.)
If you think it was a dick move for Damon to call out Gilroy publicly, you’re not alone. Damon thinks so too. Just as the magazine was set to go to print, Damon called the author and explained his outburst saying, “My feelings were hurt. That’s all… This is between me and him. So saying anything publicly is fucking stupid and unprofessional and just kind of douchey of me.”
I didn’t think it was that douchey (if anything, Gilroy sounds like a douche) but I appreciate Damon’s ability to check himself and realize when he’s acting a little douchey. Too few actors have that self-awareness.
All this said, Damon says he’s excited to see what Renner does with LEGACY and he’s hoping for the film to succeed because he would like to return to the franchise one day. Just probably not with Tony Gilroy writing the script.